Puppies are Growing in their Dog Beds

The pups are now just over a week old and they are growing very, very fast.  They are German Wirehaired Pointers and look like spaniel puppies being white with brown spots. Every single person, who sees them in their whelping box with nice dog beds, ask why they have that colour as the mum is brown with scarce white ticks. But the answer is, that Gaia was also pure white with brown spots when she was born. They are already changing to off-white with brown spots. You can see that they will develop in to whiter and browner versions and there are also signs of a difference in coat length, but that is maybe jumping the gun a little bit.

Gaia feeding all nine pups one week old.

While I am busy working in the office, looking after our business making the best dog beds, I am also dotting from one building, the office, to the other, the house, where the litter is. Gaia has a variety of large dog beds at her disposal  and normally chooses to lie on one of the comfortable dog beds  with a warm tweed cover, which I have placed in front of the whelping box. She is a devoted mum and makes sure all nine pups are fed and cleaned, but she is not a mum that will stay in the whelping box all the time no matter how comfortable the dog beds are. When my Vizsla, Alice, had pups she never left the whelping box for the first four months. I kind of prefer Gaia’s approach where she is delighted to come for long walks and little run on my bike rides to give herself a break from the pups. I am pretty sure she spends most of the night IN the box, but she is more free during the day.

She also spent some time on a spare piece of cover lying next to the box one night, where she had moved most of the pups to.

Gaia having moved her pups out next to the box.

The other dogs are NOT welcome near the pups, but I have been surprised how Gollum, who is normally her best buddy is shoved out of the room if he arrives. She literally nudges him out of the room. He is keen to look in the whelping box, but she just herds him the other way. You can almost hear her say that there are lots of comfortable dog beds through the house and that he needs to go and lie on one of those, NOT in her maternity ward. He reluctant obeys and sulks on one of the raised dog beds that he normally adores.

Strangely Tippex, with whom Gaia has a strained relationship with, is, however, allowed to be quite close to the pups. She finds her way in next to the whelping box, slinking along the walls, lying under my computer table. She can’t see them from there, but she is close and has patience. She doesn’t mind that there are no dog beds under my desk, she lies on the bare floor as this is the ideal place for her to be near while not being imposing. If she gets the chance, she will sit on her bum and stretch her neck as far as she can to get a little glimpse of the pups over the edge of the box. Last night she managed, supervised by Gaia, to come round and look inside the box. She was utterly mesmerised. The problem is leaving. When she turns to leave, Gaia gets aggressive. Last night I just walked out and they followed without any problems, except from a bit of growling. Tippex went to the dog beds in the other room and all was good.

Watching the wolf pack is so fascinating.