Redwing Australian Terriers

Work continues behind the scenes as we prepare for the departure of our first babies.  Yesterday they had their first vaccinations, and they were very brave.  Today we started leash training and they all happily followed me (and the cheese) away from their litter  mates and across the driveway.  Tomorrow they will get their microchip -I don’t expect that they’ll be brave for that, the needle is huge.   Then Friday two will go home with their new owners.  It seems like such a short time that they’ve been with us, and already time to say  farewell.

If you’ve been wondering how Rocky is doing and haven’t seen a post dedicated to him in a while, here he is.  He’s doing great, has started eating moistened puppy food but still enjoys his bottles.  He has an appointment in 2 weeks with a surgeon to determine whether and when he might be a surgical candidate.  He weighs almost 3 pounds.  He’s bright, feisty and fearless.  He’s developmentally on par with his siblings, and may be advanced in his social skills.

I cannot over stress the importance of crate training.  If you ever plan to travel with your dog to vacation, visit friends, or in an emergency having your dog be crate trained is a huge benefit for you and provides a safe “home” for your pet.  So today we started training the wee ones.  Crates are set up in their familiar pen, and they’ve been sleeping in the bottoms for some time now.  Today I added tops and doors, and the doors have been closed for a short nap.  I will let them out in a bit, and will repeat this afternoon.  It’s much easier to crate train during the day, when crying doesn’t disturb sleeping humans.  So far it’s going well, with a minimum of fussing and now quiet.

Well it looks like this girl has won the race to have her ears stand.  Rocky is second place, with one ear up.  The rest are in various stages of erectness, with some partly up and some still dropped.  It is early for them to be standing up, and the smaller the ear the more quickly it tends to stand up.

The puppies got to spend some supervised time in the yard this morning.  They were eager to explore and enjoyed meeting Meri.  She was thrilled with them, and is looking forward to roughhousing with them as they get older.

I had some exciting news yesterday, Fin. CH Reimin Flexaa won Best of Opposite Sex at the World Dog Show in Amsterdam.  This lovely dog was bred by my friend Krista Riihela, and is owned by Marie Fast and Saija Reiman-Wallden.  He is sired by my Fin CH Redwing Kiss and Tell, who is a Chipper son (BISS CH Redwing Court Jester) and his dam is a daughter of Fin CH Redwing Rhinestone Cowboy.  Congratulations to Krista, Marie and Saija; it takes a lot of hard work to win at such a prestigious show.  I am proud to have contributed some genetics to his success.

Part of my job as puppy rearer is wrangling.  To the garage pen, to the porch, to the kitchen and back.  All to expose the little furries (or maybe furies?) to a variety of sights and sounds.

This is the age for puppies to experience lots of new things.  Safe visitors of course, introduction to the resident canine adults, and today, the first bath.  So today they each had a bath in the kitchen sink, followed by sunbathing to dry.  They all did very well.

So, after a rough week (trip to the vet on Thursday last, followed by a trip to Ohio State University veterinary medical center) with little Rocky I think we have turned the corner.  He was having a lot of difficulty eating from the bottle and appeared to have a sinus infection from the milk that was getting into his nose from the cleft so I took him in.  Neither vet wanted to give him antibiotics, so I’ve been trying to find alternative ways to feed him that would help. I think I finally have the solution with Royal Canin Mini Baby Puppy food.  I soaked it in puppy milk and he was able to eat it.  I have an appointment on September 6 with a soft tissue surgeon at OSUVMC to see whether they think he could be a surgical candidate.  So rock on, little Rocky.

The rest of the guys are doing well.  They are sleeping in crate bottoms now and have grown accustomed to their new digs.  The were on the porch for a short time today while I cleaned their pen and enjoyed the experience.  They are stinkin’ cute right now.

The webcam is down since they moved to the garage.  I will see if it is possible to move the webcam and get it running again.

So after their second visitor this morning puppies moved to their new digs.  They have lots more room to run and play, and 2 potty boxes for relief.  As an added bonus human staff will enjoy uninterrupted sleep in the morning without the music of puppies in the background.  They’re still a bit unsure of the space, so have chosen to sleep on a familiar potty box for their nap.  They will adjust quickly, and soon will be tearing around.