FIRSTS Litter - Day 4

Well, today Mars has decided that she can leave the nest on her own, as in no coercion from the humans to take a potty break. It is now a mad dash to pick up puppies and set them in their box when she stands instead of being able to put them in the box and THEN have her stand. Twice this morning she got up, once to take a potty break and once to tell me she was hungry and wanted breakfast. Such a good Momma!

Mars provides so much comic relief to this thing called motherhood. She's starting to get up and move around more while the puppies are sleeping. This time she went to lay back down in the middle of the whelping area and bumped Green Boy, waking him up. No problem, he just scoots up to the milk bar to fill up some more and drift back off into a milk coma. Blue Girl was asleep about 6 inches away from Mars' nose. Mars wasn't content with this and reached out her paw and laid it across Blue Girl, none too gently. Blue Girl, of course, wakes up and starts to try to motor to the milk bar. Nothing phases her. But as she comes by Mars' face, Mars flips her over with her nose, rolling her away. Blue Girl lets out a squeak and starts to motor right back to the milk bar. She tries to crawl under Mars' front leg, Mars presses her leg a little tighter to the ground so Blue Girl can't get through. I'm looking down watching all this happen while Blue Girl amps up her squeaking. Mars realizes I'm watching and looks up at me with the eyes of "uh oh. guess I better let her through." I can't stop laughing!

This is her deciding she needs to take a nap with them. Before Blue Girl moved to her position in this photo, she was up near Mars' nose. It was like Mars was burying her face in the puppies, like I love to do to Mars when I bury my face in her fur.

Another game Mars seems to like to play is the "Time's Up" game. When the puppies are nursing, sometimes she decides they've had long enough and she will nose them off and then close up the milk bar by laying with her legs in the way, held tightly into place. Or she will decide they've napped long enough and she will go nose them and wake them up so they start looking for the milk bar.

We started ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation) on the puppies yesterday. This concept comes from Dr. Carmen Battaglia and can be found in his book Breeding Better Dogs and on his website https://breedingbetterdogs.com. These stimulations cover the following areas:

1. Tactical stimulation (between toes)
2. Head held erect
3. Head pointed down
4. Supine position
5. Thermal stimulation

By doing these, the following benefits are gained in the puppy's development:

1. Improved cardio vascular performance (heart rate)
2. Stronger heart beats
3. Stronger adrenal glands
4. More tolerance to stress
5. Greater resistance to disease

These will be done daily through their 16th day of life, which is a very critical time for their growth.

Here are a couple of videos of feeding time. One of the descriptions from the Puppy Culture video says at this age they are "fuzzy milk rockets". 😁 The first video Mars had laid down and the puppies had JUST started to get to the milk bar and then she decided she didn't like that position so she stood up, dropped the puppies off her nipples, and moved about 90 degrees off her previous position, let them come back, and then covered them up with her legs so they couldn't be seen. Not sure why she was hiding them unless it was because I had the video camera out.

The growth stats for today:

Green Boy: 600 grams (21.16 ounces)
Blue Girl: 572 grams (20.18 ounces)