Puppies

We’re here with a Razzle Dazzle litter of mini multi generation Australian Labradoodle puppies. These puppies from Van Isle Labradoodles are seven weeks old, and this is their update. We’re gonna talk to you this week a little bit about each of the puppies, a bit about Ripple. And then we’re going to talk about taking your puppy home from Van Isle and also traveling with your puppy. Some tips and tricks to let you know how to best accomplish that in a smooth way.

So, the puppies, as I said, are seven weeks old. We aren’t weighing them any longer because our scale isn’t big enough to weigh them. In this past week, these four have really discovered that they’re dogs. They’ve also discovered that they have teeth, and it’s all about putting everything in their teeth, playing, playing, playing, and being outside. So, they are outside as much as they possibly can now. They’re always asking us to be able to go outdoors and they just run around and have the best time outside. You’ll see, we have a pee pad in here today. All of the puppies are using it. It already has been used a couple of times since we came in here with the babies.

We also have these two crate beds. These are two different types of crate beds. This one is a flat one that goes into the crate, and this one has raised sides on it and goes into the crate. Either one is perfectly acceptable. They’re really nice, well constructed crate beds. These are available from Vagabond Pet Supply in Alberta. If you watch our Shake It Up Litter video on crates and beds, then you’ll learn a whole bunch about Vagabond and the various beds and other great items that they have available.

So, let’s get to the update on the puppies and tell you a bit about each of them for this week. As you can see, as I said, they’re all really lively and running around and just being puppies. Let’s start here with pink collar girl. Pink collar girl, as we’ve said throughout these videos, is a tri-color puppy, as they all are. Pink is probably the quietest out of the group, but that doesn’t mean she’s particularly quiet. She’s very energetic, lots of fun, really outgoing. All these puppies are very, very similar. Pink’s just a go-getter, but she also really enjoys her snuggles.

Then in front of pink is Mr. blue collar boy, who’s trying to bite my fingers off. We’ll take a look at him first and distract him from my fingers. Mr. blue collar boy is really in his element now. He has so much confidence. He roars out the door in the morning. He’s eating really well and he loves to chase the ball and rip all of his toys to shreds whenever he has the opportunity. So, that’s Mr. blue collar boy.

The other girl in the litter is red collar girl. We’ll take a look at her. She’s what I call the little monkey of the litter. She is always into everything. She is the most curious. She is the first one in the litter to always try new things and explore and check things out. She is absolutely fearless and she has the most lovely temperament as well. At first, we thought she was a Parti, but it turns out she is also a tri too. Her sable color, or her phantom markings rather, have shown up on her ears and along the side of her face now. So, we’ll let her go back and play.

Then we’ll get purple collar. Come here, purpy purp purp. Come here, puppy puppy. There we go. Oh, so I get everybody. And the other boy of the litter is Mr. purple collar. Mr. purple collar used to be one of the quiet puppies, but not anymore. Mr. purple collar is really brave and has a great time outside. The first time he went outside, he was a little bit scared to do anything and just sort of stood and went right up next to the fence and that was it, but it only took two times and now he’s out there and just having a blast.

So, that’s a little update on each of the puppies. While I have purple collar here, I just wanted to give you a little bit of information on their eyes. Labradoodles have lots of hair around their eyes, so they sometimes get yuck in their eyes. People are often asking me what to do with that. So, I’m just gonna put him in my lap here. Really all you need to do is take your nail and just pull it out. The other thing you can do is if it’s hardened on there, is just use a warm washcloth, and that’s all you have to do. You may have to do that once a day. You may have to do that once every other day. But Labradoodles do collect things in their eyes just because they have lots of hair. So, it’s important you keep their eye area trimmed regularly. You don’t have to take them to the groomer for a full grooming, but I would suggest every four or five weeks you do go to the groomer and just have their eyes trimmed out.

Next, we have some news about Ripple. Ripple actually was in emergency last Sunday. She had to stay for a couple of days because they were not able to determine what was wrong. We noticed that she was definitely not feeling well. She was in some pain. We took her temperature. It was quite high, so I drove her off to the emergency clinic. They did several different tests, and had several different diagnoses, but at the end of the day, it turned out she had a mild infection. But the infection did cause her some fairly serious discomfort at first. So, she’s back home now and she’s doing well. She’s perfectly fine. No lingering after effects or anything, but it was a little bit frightening at the time. As a result, the puppies got weaned, poof just like that. They were already pretty much weaned and on their solid food, but rather than letting Ripple decide when she was going to wean them and letting her give the puppies a little drink here and there as they got older, we did have to wean them entirely right away, as it’s not safe for the puppies to nurse when she’s on antibiotics.

So, they’ve all went through that without a blink. They weren’t in the least bit concerned. Ripple was concerned that she couldn’t nurse her puppies, but we have a special surgical suit that she wears, so she’s still able to go and play with them and be their mom. But these guys are well on their way now to being totally independent and all grown up. This week, they’re off to the vet for their wellness exams and then next week our video will be the allocation video where everybody finds out which puppy is theirs. A very exciting time.

So, after the allocation, of course, comes pick up day. We get lots of questions on pick up day about what’s the best way to deal with taking the puppy home. Because we live on Vancouver Island and we have people that come to us from Calgary and Edmonton, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, the United States, Washington state, Seattle, Oregon, and the lower mainland, and also the Okanagan, people are traveling to us by airplane, car, and ferry. So there’s lots of questions about the best way to take your puppy home.

The first thing we recommend is when you come on pick up day, if you’re a couple, just come the two of you and don’t bring your children. Although it’s a really exciting time for the kids, it’s really important that the puppies go home in a very calm and stress-free environment. This is your chance to give your puppy a first impression, and it’s an impression your puppy is never going to forget. So, what you want is to make your puppy feel safe and secure and think, okay this new home is just as good as my old home and I’m safe here. That’s a really important thing when you first take your baby home, is that they trust you right from the get-go and they’re not distracted and worried about kids who are all wanting to play with them and touch them. So, that’s our first recommendation.

If you’re single, then we ask that you find a friend who’s willing to come with you and do the driving. If you’re a couple, make sure you figure out long before pick up day who’s doing the driving and who gets to be with the puppy on the way home. We don’t want you to have an argument about that when you’ve just picked your puppy up. But we do suggest that there always is two of you so that there’s one person driving and that there’s one person with the puppy.

Now most people think they should bring their crate or their booster seat or their harness that goes on the seat belt. Really, although technically that is definitely what I should be telling you to do because safety first, but it’s not what we actually recommend. We recommend what you do is first of all, wear slacks that you’re not too worries about. Bring a couple of towels, some pee pads, and definitely some paper towels to put on your lap and take your puppy home in your arms. Your puppy will feel much more secure being held and being loved by you, and you’ll feel much better as well, rather than trying to twist yourself like a pretzel to turn around and see what your puppy’s up to while you’re driving home.

Puppies, because it’s very stressful when they go home, they often get sick in the car. This is totally normal and nothing to be worried about. So that’s why I say a couple of towels, some pee pads, and some paper towels to clean up if you do have a puppy that throws up on the way home. I’d say about two-thirds of them do throw up and the other third are fine. Now, if your puppy continues to throw up for the next 24 hours, then you need to get in touch with us right away. It’s not normal for your puppy to continue throwing up after you’ve gotten home, so we do need to hear from you if that’s happening, and then take the appropriate action.

Now, if you’re going on the ferry, what you are going to want to do is make sure you have a reservation. Even if you’re not picking your puppy up at a popular time, if you have the reservation, that generally means that you are going to be on one of the upper decks in the ferry. You are not allowed to stay in your vehicle if you’re on the bottom deck. The bottom deck is reserved for commercial traffic, big transport trucks, or if you have a camper on your truck or if you have an oversized vehicle. The cars only go down there in extreme situations when the rest of the ferry is totally full. So, if you have a reservation, you can request the upper level decks. Generally, when you arrive at the gate and you show them you have your puppy, first of all they’re gonna go, “Ooh, ah. How cute.” They are very accommodating at BC Ferries, and they will be sure to get you up on a higher level deck.

This way, somebody can stay with the puppy in the car. And again, this is a good reason to have two of you. One of you can go use the washroom or go and find something to eat, and the other one can stay in the car with the puppy. You can leave the puppy in the car alone in a crate, but it’s not something I would recommend. Again, we want to start the puppy out with a really good impression of you, feeling safe and secure and happy. And that’s going to happen by you being with your puppy. Now if you have an SUV, it’s great. Put the seats down. Climb in the back while you’re on the ferry and play with your puppy. You can have lots of chew toys, some water. We suggest that you use bottled water because changing water can be hard on their system. So a bowl to put the water in, a couple of chew toys. You may want to give them a snack. I would recommend waiting until you get home, unless your trip is over six hours in length. Then you may want to give them a small snack.

You can always take them out on the ferry on the deck, collar and leash of course. I don’t recommend though that you go into the actual designated pet area. There is a lot of different dogs that go in there. It is cleaned, but not particularly well. Oftentimes when you go in there, there may be a bigger dog or a dog that’s aggressive. And again, not a really good beginning for your puppy. So that’s it for the ferry. When you get to the ferry, you’re always gonna be there head of time. Take your puppy out of the car on the leash again. Go for a little stroll in the grassy areas. Again, avoid the pet area. If they go to the bathroom, it’s not big enough that anyone’s going to have a fit about. So, just let them stretch their legs. They may not want to go for a walk. They may just feel like, no thanks, I’d prefer if you just held onto me. Let the puppy dictate what happens. Let the puppy decide what the best thing is to do here.

Labradoodles and all types of dogs need their human for their comfort and their support when they’re young. So, we like to let them tell us where they’re comfort level is, and each puppy is going to be different for that.

Then, if you’re flying on the airplane, so from our home, you can reach us via normal commercial airlines or on a sea plane. You can actually come on the helicopter too. The helicopter does not take dogs, so that’s not an option, but Harbor Air does take dogs. You have to book ahead and you have to make sure you’re telling them that you will be traveling with a dog, and they will make the appropriate allowances. The Harbor Air terminal is only 10 minutes from our home, and the Nanaimo Airport is about a 45 minute drive from our home, 40, 45 minutes. Either one of those you can take your puppy with you. You’ll want to book on West Jet though, not Air Canada. Air Canada does not allow you to fly with your puppy until they’re 12 weeks old. On West Jest, you’re safe to fly with your puppy as soon as you pick them up.

If you’re traveling to the United States, you will generally want to be flying on Alaska Airlines. Again, Alaska allows you to fly with your puppy in the cabin as soon as your puppy is eight weeks old. You need to telephone to make any of your airplane reservations, rather than doing it online, because you have to make sure that you are able to take your puppy in the cabin for the flight that you’re booking. They only allow so many dogs in the cabin per flight. Then they will have all of that organized when you check in, and they will of course charge you for your puppy, but it’s not expensive. It’s about $75 with Alaska and West Jet. With Harbor Air, it varies depending on how big your crate is. You can speak to them about that. And also if you have any other luggage, because they charge by weight, because it is a sea plane, so they have very limited capacity for weight.

The sea plane will take you either directly to Coal Harbour in Vancouver, Salt Spring, or you can go right to the tarmac at YVR. So, if you happen to be catching a plane from Vancouver and flying from there, it’s really handy to go on Harbor Air or West Jet, either one. But you do want to make sure you call and you book ahead and say you’re traveling with a puppy. I can tell you, Taylor has told us, and I know too from personal experience, when you’re on an airplane with a puppy, you are treated like royalty and you have to be prepared for everyone to come and want to meet you and your puppy. It’s a great experience. It’s lots of fun. And again, you have your puppy in your carry-on carrier. When you’re flying on the plane on a commercial airline, it’s a soft-sided carrier. It’s a bit like a big purse. All of the regulations are on each airline, as to size. If you need some recommendations for brands for carriers, just let me know, and I can give those to you.

Oh my goodness. No fighting. No fighting. That’s not very nice. The dog goes in the cabin and goes directly under the seat in front of you. Your puppy’s not allowed to come out during the flight, but all of these carriers have a zipper and their little heads can show, and many times you’ll find that the flight attendants will say, “That’s okay. You can put the puppy on your lap.” Sometimes not at all, but quite often they’re pretty generous about it. It depends on who’s sitting besides you as well. You have to be there a little bit early, and that’s it.

If you are not able to come and pick your puppy up, then we are happy to arrange for Taylor to hand deliver your puppy to you wherever it is you may be located. You can contact us for information with respect to that and fees involved with that. We don’t ship our puppies in cargo ever. We never put our dogs in the hold in an airplane. So, that’s the airplane and the ferry.

Now if you’re traveling in the car, we talked about having the puppy on your lap. I would suggest every couple hours, you can stop. If your puppy’s fidgeting and awake like these ones are right now, you might want to stop a little earlier. Just let them out and have a little bit of a run around. It’s good just to get them a little tired out. Usually they will not be energetic like this. Usually they’ll be quite quiet. They retreat into themselves trying to take in the whole experience of what’s going on. So quite often you don’t have to let them out at all, but just be prepared that you may have to let them out. Have your leash handy, your poop bags handy, and like I said, some water and maybe a couple of little snacks. That’s really all there is to it, to traveling with them.

If you’re traveling with them when they’re older, then if you have a mini, quite likely they will still be able to fly in the cabin and fit under the seat. There’s a maximum weight restriction in each airline that you’d have to check. Or if you choose, you can put them in cargo in an airline approved crate. Most dogs fly really well. Most dogs don’t have any problems flying. And if you’re flying with your dog, then you know that the dog is going to get on the right plane and go to the right destination. We don’t ship our dogs in cargo, I was saying, but that’s only if they’re not accompanied. We have many of our puppies who go to breeders in Europe and many different locations around the world, and those puppies do fly in their crates in cargo, using a service, to make sure that they’re on the right flight and they get off at the right place.

So, that’s it for all of your travel tips and your update on the puppies today. Next week, as I said, is gonna be the big reveal and the big allocation news as to which puppy goes to which family, and which puppy is going to be retained by Van Isle as our breeding prospect. So, we’re really excited to let you know all about that. We hope you enjoyed the video. Give us a thumbs up if you found it helpful. We hope you subscribe to our channel and watch all of our videos for all of our different litters. Thanks for joining us today. Owie, owie. Don’t bite my toe. What’s that? What’s that? Oh, what’s that. Oh, what’s that? It’s the wild, crazy dogs. It’s the wild, crazy dogs