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Well the first major milestone for the Pawsitively Perfect litter has arrived!  All five of these beautiful labradoodle puppies have their eyes open now.  It’s funny, but it always seems to me that the little ones start to really show me their individual personalities a lot more once their eyes are open and you can establish direct eye contact with them.  Their ears are still closed but they should all be hearing things for the first time within the next week to 10 days.

As you will see from this week’s statistics, these labradoodle pups are growing by leaps and bounds.  Pippa is doing a great job keeping up with their seemingly endless demands for milk and more milk.  I have just made her a nice big pot of macaroni and cheese to help fuel her body for the heavy nursing demands this and the following week will bring.  Next week we will start to introduce the puppies to some “solid” food.  We will blend together softened kibble along with canned food, goat’s milk and some honey.  Usually most of this ends up all over the puppies rather than in their tummies but it is a start and gives Pippa a bit of a break from their demands.

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Puppy Statistics

[table td1=”Puppy ID” td2=”Weight” td3=”Change” td4=”Notes/Comments”]
[td1] Red Collar Boy [/td1] [td2] 548 g [/td2] [td3] 210 g [/td3] [td4] Eyes wide open and moving around on all 4 legs well [/td4]
[td1] Orange Collar Boy [/td1] [td2] 660 g [/td2] [td3] 226 g [/td3] [td4] Eyes open and walking about easily [/td4]
[td1] Purple Collar Boy [/td1] [td2] 815 g [/td2] [td3] 271 g [/td3] [td4] First to start walking on all 4 legs at the beginning of the week.  Eyes open [/td4]
[td1] Pink Collar Girl [/td1] [td2] 735 g [/td2] [td3] 231 g [/td3] [td4] First eyes to open, walking on all 4 legs [/td4]
[td1] Black Collar Girl [/td1] [td2] 560 g [/td2] [td3] 156 g [/td3] [td4] Big eyes and moving about a lot. [/td4]
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The other major milestone for this past week is that all the puppies are now able to totter about on all 4 legs.  Sometimes there is more falling than walking but all of them are making great progress and are much more able to negotiate movement than even just a few days ago.

We anticipate that we may be able to move the puppies into the nursery (aka The Doodle Cave) at the end of next week and also introduce them to their litter box.  Paws crossed it all goes well and the little ones take to the idea of using the litter box.  I know Pippa is hoping they will be able to make these transitions so she can get back to a bit more of her regular routine.  We are now allowing Pippa free run of the house as opposed to leaving her closed into the maternity room.  Pippa is able to come and go as she wishes and she can access her own bed in our bedroom for naps if she wishes a break from the kids.  We are really pleased with how well she has done with this freedom, choosing to still stay quite close to her little family of labradoodle puppies most of the time.  The other dogs are all out in the doodle cave so we have no worries or concerns about them being too nosey and taking liberties with access to the puppies when Pippa is not there to ward them off with her rather ferocious growls.  She is a very protective Mama labradoodle.  There certainly is no chance of anyone coming in the door or anywhere near her puppies without a very distinctive and shrill alarm bark being heard for miles.  It hurts our ears but it does our hearts good to know Pippa is on patrol.

Pictures!

[table td1=”Puppy ID” td2=”Pictures-Click for larger view”]

[td1] Red Collar Boy [/td1] [td2] [envira-gallery id="3768"] [/td2]
[td1] Orange Collar Boy [/td1] [td2] [envira-gallery id="3772"] [/td2]
[td1] Purple Collar Boy [/td1] [td2] [envira-gallery id="3776"] [/td2]
[td1] Pink Collar Girl [/td1] [td2] [envira-gallery id="3780"] [/td2]
[td1] Black Collar Girl [/td1] [td2] [envira-gallery id="3784"] [/td2]
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