Puppies

We’re here today with Shake it Up Litter and this is their week seven update and we are going to be talking today about allocations. We’re going to give you an update on each of the puppy and a little bit more in depth and from Taylor’s perspective today. So you’ll hear all about what Taylor’s thoughts are on each puppy. And then we are going to do a little bit of a grooming demonstration on the last puppy that we have that we’re going to talk about.

So, let’s get started with the puppies. The puppy that I have here right now is miss pink collar girl. And usually I don’t use notes for these videos about because this is Taylor’s presentation, Taylor’s take on the dogs, I have all of her notes here and those are what I’m going to be referring to. So when we do our allocations, we take comments from all of the people who interact with the puppies here at Van Isle Labradoodles every day. So we have Taylor, Pat, myself, and Reynold. And then I take a look at all of their notes, go through them, and we compile a little dossier on each of the puppies. Of course, we’ve been taking notes right from day one on these little guys. And then we also have each of our families complete a homework assignment and we take what their comments are and the answers to those questions, put everything together and come up with the perfect match between family and puppy.

So let’s get on with Taylor’s assessment for little pink collar girl. So what Taylor has to say about Pink is that she’s a very sweet little girl and I would agree with that. She’s outgoing, sassy, very affectionate, playful. She totally loves children. And her whole goal in life is to be a people pleaser. And as Taylor says, she’s always one of the first ones to run out and say hi to everybody. So that’s Taylor’s comment on pink collar girl. Now I’ll just give Pink over to Reynolds and we will have dark blue collar girl come in. Hello sweetheart. Now, can you come and sit with me? That’s a good girl. Hi sweetie. Hi.

Now, dark blue collar, what Taylor has to say about this little girl is she calls this one a social butterfly and says that she too is a very sweet puppy. She listens well and is also a strong people pleaser. Dark blue collar is a leader in the group of puppies and she’s very comfortable if she’s away from the other ones. She doesn’t get at all concerned if she is separated from the other puppies. Very affectionate, great with children and a very mellow, calm temperament. And I would agree with that assessment wholeheartedly. So that’s dark blue collar girl.

So now we’ll take a look at light blue collar. Hello sweetheart. Hi. Light blue collar is one of the boys in the litter. We don’t have very many boys, do we buddy? No. Now, light blue collar, so Taylor’s assessment of this puppy and orange are the same because as she says, she always thinks that they’re just one puppy. Light blue collar and orange are constantly together all of the time, and they are very similar in their temperaments. She says they are both very quiet puppies and you can see how calm and relaxed light blue collar is, and they have great big hearts. They are always together. He had light blue collar and orange as I said previously, they love the outdoors, they love to play with one another and both of them are crazy about Peyton. Peyton is Taylor’s niece and she is our puppy socializer in terms of young children. So that is light blue collar. You’ll hear very similar comments from me again when we do orange since Taylor considers them to be virtually twins. There you go sweetheart.

Now we have yellow collar I believe this is, yes. We have yellow collar girl. This is our big girl out of the litter with her beautiful little eyebrows. Now, Taylor’s comments on yellow collar girl is that she is an extremely sensitive dog. Normally, when we refer to dogs as being sensitive, that also means that they tend to be very intuitive and aware of people’s feelings and what is going on in the environment around them and they react to that and respond to that quite strongly. She says she’s very affectionate, loyal and a playful girl. And also, one of the quieter puppies as you can see again by how she’s sitting with me. And she prefers to be closer to the pack. So this puppy when she goes to a family is one who’s going to want to be with her people all of the time. So that’s yellow collar girl.

Now we have orange collar, light blue collar’s twin, except for orange is a girl. Hello sweetie, hi, how you doing? So, once again, just to recap Taylor’s thoughts on these two puppies is that they are best friends. They are together all the time. They love to be outside playing and rolling around in the dirt outside. That is for sure true. They like to take their toys outside from inside and then they chase each other around like mad. It’s really cute to watch.

And also, orange is one of the puppies that go straight to Peyton and enjoys spending time with her and always seeking her attention. Both orange and light blue collar are affectionate and thoughtful puppies and they just love it when people have the time to stop, pick them up and give them a good snuggle. And I can tell you that orange collar waits very patiently at the gate for me. He’s always making I, or she rather is always making I contact and what she wants from that eye contact is to have this kind of a snuggle. She likes to be right into your neck and she really enjoys being held and being the object of your affection. So that’s orange collar girl.

Now, next we have purple collar girl. Hello baby. Now, purple, I’m sure Taylor will have some interesting comments about, first line is such an incredible personality and I would agree. This girl has personality in spades. She is very much of a leader. She is a very confident puppy. She’s very bonded to her siblings and she prefers to play with her siblings as opposed to toys or being on her own. And she too loves to cuddle, she likes to go out and explore and she is also one of Peyton’s biggest fans. Purple collar is a great communicator. She is always the one who will talk to us and tell us when she thinks it is time for her to have her snuggle, which is pretty much regularly. She loves to snuggle and cuddle. She’s just a great girl with a really dynamic personality. So that’s purple collar girl.

Now here, this little black beauty is gray collar girl. Hi baby girl. Hi. Now, Taylor’s comments on gray collar girl. Says she’s small. She is one of the smaller puppies, but feisty. She’s quiet and she likes to do her own thing and that’s very true. She is a very independent puppy. She will often separate herself from the rest of the litter when it’s time to sleep or if she has a bone. I’ve noticed that as well. She enjoys running around outside and she does like to explore and go and find all sorts of new spots to look at when she’s outdoors. She has a great personality, she gets excited and enthusiastic about things and she too is a very affectionate puppy. Gray collar is not like orange in that she doesn’t come and seek out the attention, but she is always really happy when you pick her up and snuggle her. That’s a good girl.

Next we have our bruiser here. This is black collar boy who used to be green collar boy. This puppy and brown and yellow are the three biggest. We are going to the vet tomorrow and we will see if black or brown rules in terms of weight.

Now, for this puppy, Taylor’s comments are that he is a huge cuddle bug and he is very sensitive and can be quiet. He’s vocal when he wants something or if he feels that you are ignoring him and that’s very true. He and purple and you can see his affection there, he and purple are the talkers of the group in terms of letting us know that, hey, I want some attention. He’s very playful. He is one of the first also to come out and greet people whenever they come into the puppy’s vision, and he’s a bit more of a follower in that he watches and waits to see what his litter mates are doing. But I’ve noticed in the past while that he is coming out of his shell so to speak, gaining confidence and starting to take a lead role much more than he was previously. So this boy is our big gentle giant. There we go black.

And now we have miss peach collar. Peach is at the opposite end of the spectrum from black in that she and gray are the two smaller puppies in the litter. Hey peach, how are you pretty girl? Taylor’s comments on peach are similar to gray, small, but fearless. Doesn’t care who she’s with. She loves everybody, and I would agree with that, she is very adaptable in that regard. Very outgoing and adventurous but at the same time extraordinarily gentle and quiet. She is that also a big cuddle bug and very fond of children. Very affectionate. She likes playing with the other puppies but she is also quite happy to be playing on her own or playing with a toy, not a problem with her.

She is also one of the ones that loves the outdoors and actually all of them love the outdoors. Every single one of these puppies can’t wait to be outside and playing. Taylor says that she’s a very observant puppy, very receptive and a loyal personality. So, she sounds like a pretty awesome little girl. Yeah, that’s you. Yeah. So that’s a peach collar girl.

Now we have red collar. Hello red, hello sweetheart. How are you? How’s my puppy boo. Now, comments for red collar girl are over here. Taylor says this puppy is very adventurous. Loves to be outside, cuddly and really enjoys being around people. She is fine being off on her own and doing her own explorations out and about. She is quiet most of the times but she can also be very mischievous, but she’ll always come back and check in with her people. So even when red is out playing on her own or doing an exploration on her own, she’s the type of dog who will never go completely out of sight of her people. She’ll always be looking back to make sure that they’re there where she anticipates that they should be. And that’s a really nice quality, especially when you’re trying to teach recall.

And now we have the last puppy in the litter and the other ginormous puppy in the litter. This is Mr. Brown collar boy, our other gentle giant. For brown collar, Taylor has starred that he is a highly sensitive boy, and I would agree with that 100%. He is very aware of and reactive to his surroundings. He takes everything in and he responds to what the atmosphere in the room is. So if you’re upset, he’s going to understand that right away. If you’re happy, he’s going to recognize that right away. If there’s any tension in a room, he’s going to know that something’s not right. He is a remarkably intuitive young man. He too is very affectionate, he is a snuggle bug as well. Although, it’s getting hard to pick him up because he is so big, a loyal dog and he is one that also loves to be held and to be cuddled. He is really a snugly kind of fellow. So, he also enjoys children and he has gotten on remarkably well with the people we come to meet the puppies who are older. He is a soft, very devoted little fellow.

So that’s the updates for all of the puppies and that’s Taylor’s comments on all of them. And it’s really great to have a different perspective on the puppies because mostly all you hear is me talking and me saying what I think. So, I think it’s great when we’re able to share with you what Taylor’s comments are. So, she’s done her written assessment of the puppies. I have everybody’s homework now. So the next step in the process will be for us to put everything together, compile all of our notes and start doing a few rough drafts of our allocation process.

So now, let’s talk a bit about grooming the puppies. We’ve done other videos on grooming that you can of course always go back and refer to. So this one’s going to be more specific to when your puppy comes home and the first few months of having your puppy. So the first thing I want to talk about is the fact that puppies have really sensitive skin. It’s easy to dry your puppy’s skin out. So try not to be constantly bathing them. It’s good to bath them if you need to, if they’re really filthy or smelly, but we want to avoid giving them any unnecessary baths. If they’re out and it’s muddy because it is going to be spring, early summer, it’s fine to put them into a small sink and clean off their paws. That’s no trouble. That’s not going to cause a big problem. But let’s try to avoid getting their entire selves wet.

But when you do bath your puppy, the shampoo that we have available from Van Isle Labradoodles and what we recommend is from Soos. I think I’m saying that right. And it is specifically formulated for puppies and kittens. So it’s very gentle. It’s an all natural product and it uses essential oils and it’s also tear free. So, when you’re watching your puppy’s face, then you’re not going to irritate their eyes or cause any stinging or make the process something that they’re not enjoying. And you do want to make sure that when you are bathing them at all, that it’s a happy experience as much as possible. They’re never going to embrace the idea of being bathed, that’s for sure. But many of them really enjoy the extra attention and almost like having a spa day.

The other thing you’re going to want to do is take your puppy to your groomer. You’re not going to leave your puppy there necessarily for an appointment, but you’re going to want to take your puppy there and just sit out in the reception area or ask your groomer if it would be all right if you come in with your puppy to the main area so your puppy gets accustomed to the sounds and the smells of a grooming place. That so when you do take your puppy to be groomed is not a frightening experience. Many groomers will let you come and leave your puppy there for 20 minutes and just go into a crate, one of the crates they have available. So they also become comfortable with the idea that you come, you leave them, and then you come back and pick them up.

When we had a pet resort, we used to have people come, bring their dog and then come back about half an hour later to pick them up so that the dogs always learned that their humans were coming back to get them and that they weren’t being left there. So that’s an important thing you want to do at the groomer as well.

Now, for tools, you’re going to want to be brushing and combing your puppy. So we do offer a Labradoodle appropriate brush and a Labradoodle appropriate calm for use. Now you’ll see in the comb that there’s hair. This is where you’re going to see hair come out from your puppy. When you groom your puppy, there’s going to be dead hair and that’s going to come out. So if anybody in your family has sensitivities to dog fur, then you don’t want them to be the person who does the grooming. But otherwise, what we want to do is this is called a buttercomb and it has two different, I’m just going to move brown over here so he doesn’t knock himself off the table. It has two different widths of the tines, the broad one and the thin one. The broad one is for the body and the thin is more for finishing and around the face area.

So the main thing you want to remember about the comb is you don’t use it like this on your dog’s body because when you do this on your skin, ouch. You want to go like this. You want to be sure that the tines are down and that you’re getting the whole coat but you don’t want to be raking along their skin. And what you want to do is make this so it’s something that your puppy enjoys, where it’s an experience that the two of you are relaxed and having a good time and it’s comforting to your puppy.

So what I like to do with a puppy is just what I’m doing right now. Just run the comb ever so gently down their body while following with your hand like they’re being petted. So, it’s a great thing to do while you’re watching television or if it’s your quiet time with your kids. Everybody should take a turn grooming the puppy other than if somebody has a problem with the dead hair coming out. Now you’ll see there’s one hair on this puppy because brown collar boy is still a baby so he does not have a lot of dead hair yet. Then when you use the smaller area, this is the tricky area and the part that the puppy and even adult dogs don’t really enjoy and that’s having their face done. So you have to be very gentle and understand, it’s a bit like having hair on your face or a sensitive spot of your body done.

So for now, all you want to do is just get the puppy used to seeing the comb on their face, feel it on their head. See what a good boy. Yeah. Yeah. That’s a good puppy. And you’ll see how he responded right away to that tone. There is scientific evidence that dogs respond, and this is adult dogs as well, when you talk in that sing song baby voice. So, don’t let people tell you that you’re being a goofball when you talk baby talk to your puppy because that’s what hey want to hear, yes it is. That makes them feel so happy, doesn’t it? And you’ll notice too, as I was saying, Brown collar’s very sensitive, he responds immediately to me being happy.

So on the ears it’s the same thing, just do very gently on the side. And that’s about as long as you want to spend with a grooming session for a young puppy like this. And then every week you can maybe add about a minute or two.

With the brush, it’s a similar thing. You want to just go like this, not so much like this. So usually, what you’re going to do is brush your puppy first. That will take out any major knots or any major concerns, then you follow up with the comb, and then I like to do one more brush just to make their coat look all beautiful and smooth and like they’ve just been spending the day at the spa. And you’ll see he’s responding very nicely to this. Yeah, he’s just going to have a little yawn, he’s relaxed, he’s leaning right into me and totally at ease having me do this with him. And this is the very first time that brown has ever had a comb or brush on his body. So that tells you a lot about his temperament, about Labradoodles in total and also how easy it is to make your dog really love being groomed.

Many people will tell you their dogs hate being brushed, it’s a big fight to brush them. But if you follow these steps, you’ll have a puppy and then an adult dog who always enjoys being groomed.

Now, I was saying that it’s good not to bath your dog when they’re young very frequently but they do get into icky things and sometimes they are dirty or sometimes they may even get smelly. And if you just bath them, what are you going to do? So what we recommend is to use this product, and this is another Soos product and it also is all natural, it has essential oils in it. And this is a dry shampoo. But rather than the icky sticky ones, this is more like a mousse. So you shake it, you just put a dab on your hand, rub it on your hand and then you just rub it onto your dog’s body. And you just keep rubbing it. It has a gentle scent, it’s nothing overpowering. Just do that.

And you probably are going to be able, oh no, I guess Brown’s not very dirty dog because you can’t really see any dirt on my hand. Usually when we do one of the puppies if they haven’t been bath and we do that, a whole lot of dirt comes off because when they’re outside they’re low to the ground and they’re in the dust a lot. And then you can just follow it up with a little brush if you want. But you don’t want to have a whole lot because you don’t want to have wet spots on there. But that is a great handy tool to have really useful and something that we use quite often.

Now, the last thing I want to talk about or actually that’s not true, two things. One is if your puppy has any glop in their eye. Sometimes they get little builds up. Just use a warm cloth or your nail and just take it out and that’s it. That’s all you need to do. It’s totally common, it’s not unusual. And you do want to have your puppy trimmed in terms of the hair around their eyes so that it’s not going into their eyes and impeding their vision or causing any irritation in their eyes. Lots of dogs, especially Labradoodles will be groomed so their hair isn’t hanging over their eyes. It’s cute in terms of the look, but dogs with hair and their eyes can’t see properly. It’s just like if you had your hair in front of your eyes. And that can cause dogs to become extremely fearful and very uncomfortable. It’s also not good for their vision development.

So I recommend that you have your dog’s eyes trimmed at least once every four to six weeks. You don’t need to have the full grooming done, but just have their eyes done. And that’s a great way to get your puppy used to going to the groomer. It’s a short trip, nothing too much.

And the other thing you might want to do at the same time as having the eyes done is the feet. Many people do not like to clip their dog’s claws. If you make a mistake, it makes a horrible mess, the bloods splurts everywhere, the dog screams and everybody gets very upset. It’s not expensive to have your groomer or your vet do the claws so many people just offer that option. But if you think you’re going to do your puppy’s claws, when they’re a puppy, all you need is one of these human nail clippers. They’re not big enough for a grownup dog nail clippers yet.

But whether you do it or not, what you do need to do every day is handle your puppies’ feet. Just like this. You want to have your fingers in the foot in between each of the pads. When somebody asked me recently if Labradoodles have webbed feet and yes indeed they do, which helps them be the great swimmers they are. So you just want to go through each of the four feet, make sure they’re used to having their feet handled and they get used to that ticklish sensation and if you have a treat, give them a treat and say what a good boy. That was such a good dog. Yeah. Very good. What a puppy you are.

If you are going to do the trimming, what you want to do is hold the paw, have the clippers and just like with a human fingernail, the pink part is alive and has blood. The white part is dead. It’s only the white part that you want to be removing. And you don’t want to get too close to the pink apart because then you can run into trouble. So you hope that they don’t lick you to death, you just find the little end of it. Sometimes you need to distract them and just clip it off and that’s all you need to do. And you’ll notice how Brown didn’t say a word. All the puppies are accustomed to having their feet handled and they’re all used to having their nails clipped as we’ve done it multiple times, multiple, multiple times, right? Yes, that’s a good boy.

One thing to keep in mind is you do want to keep those nails trimmed up fairly short. It helps to shorten the live portion of the nail which is much healthier for the dog’s foot over all, much more comfortable and it makes it easier to do their nails.

So that’s your little grooming tips and about all that you need to know to keep your Labradoodle puppy looking absolutely stunning at all times. So I hope you enjoyed the updates from Taylor’s perspective and the little grooming tips that we had to offer you today. When you come to pick your puppy up, we will give you a full handout of how to groom a Labradoodle so you can take that to your groomer. If you haven’t already done so, I would start interviewing groomers going to their salons, looking to see if it’s a place you think is comfortable for the dogs, make sure that they do have experienced grooming a Labradoodle.

And I would strongly urge you to only go to a professional groomer, not to a big box store that offers some massive grooming. That’s usually when we get phone calls with people crying is because their puppy has gone there and has come back looking like a schnauzer or a poodle or is entirely naked. So you do want to choose your groomer with great care. Most of them should have a book with pictures and can show you what a Labradoodle looks like.

So that’s our video for today. Give us a thumbs up if you enjoyed it. We sure hope you did and we hope that you are subscribed to our channel and enjoying all of our updates for all our litters. Thanks so much for watching.