These photos are from last night when Biff had a snuggle time with each of the puppies. Their ears are changing and we’re seeing the beginnings of eyes opening.  What a miracle!

From left to right, that’s number 1, 2 and 3.

The puppies are 11 days old and Biff noticed that #3 was beginning to open her eyes this morning! Although they still sleep and nurse most of the time, all three of them have been increasingly mobile, trying out their legs, wobbling around for a few steps and sometimes tipping sideways into a roll.  They also lift their heads and sniff around frequently. Finley continues to be a dedicated mom, now taking some breaks for herself. I captured her early this morning, when she’d helped herself to the camp-out sleep spot that we use through the night, next to the whelping box. She slept there for a good hour and I didn’t have the heart to ask her to move.

Chev is the dad in our household, a most amazing Griff.  He was a wild little puppy, in fact, when Biff went to pick him up in Montana at 8 weeks, he phoned me and said, “We’ve got our hands full.”  We wrangled his puppy energy, provided him lots of exercise and attention and he developed into a most mellow boy (except when there’s a breed-able female nearby.)  To date, Chev has fathered over 100 puppies and continues to get calls for “dates.”

Finley and the puppies have had much of our attention since the puppies arrived, but Chev and Xupe have patiently waited for us to spend time with them, indoors and out.

Here’s #3 at 10 days old, the female we’re calling “Ooly,” short for “Oo-la-la.”  (Simon von Herrenhausen is her dad.)

We love seeing the darkening of the puppies’ coats. At just one week week old, they’re taking on more of the look of Wirehaired Pointing Griffons.  They’ve all had toenail trims, too. Using a regular nail clipper, I snipped off just the little hooks on the very end of their front and back nails.  It’s easy to do when they’re sleeping.

Those are the boys below. #1 is on the left and #2 is on the right.

These photos are from early, early this morning (otherwise known as the middle of the night.)  A good deal of sleeping goes on during the night, but there’s a lot of action in between.  Finley gets a small meal, water and some snacks, she attends to her puppies’ back ends whenever needed and the puppies move around a lot, often scooting themselves around the perimeter of the whelping pen like they’re doing laps.

I’ve been watching carefully when I put a dish of food or broth down for Finley as the puppies have begun to sniff out and move toward the bowl.  Last thing I want is for one of them to do a nosedive into the bowl.  But it’s great to see them lift their heads, pick up scent and move toward it.

Morning routines include weigh-in’s and moving the puppies briefly so we can change out the washable “carpet” bottom of the whelping pen.  The photos below were taken in the middle of the night.  Look at those legs, below to the left, starting to hold himself up to nurse.  Their eyes are not open but they already are responding to snuggling with humans.

Wishing Happy Birthday to our 2015 “B” litter.  They were whelped two years ago today. Below is a message and photos from Forest’s people. Forest was #10 of 12 puppies.

Well, today marks the milestone of two years! Forest turns two today! We will be having ice cream this evening!

I cannot say thank you enough for allowing us the pleasure of owning such a wonderful dog. He has truly become one of the family… and I must say, one of my favorites as well.

Forest has grown into such a “man” over the last two years. He loves to cuddle and be with me all day long. He is still a big baby in so many ways… the way he loves his belly rubbed, the way he loves to lay with you, right next to you knowing that he is touching you. But he has also become the hunting dog I have always wanted. He has earned his NAVHDA Natural Ability Award as well as his AKC Junior Title. He works hard, loves the hunt and being the hunter.

I could not ask for more and once again, thank you for privileging us with such a fine family member.

We track the puppies’ weights in grams and are impressed with the gains that they’re making. It’s no surprise, given how often they nurse, but weighing confirms for us that they’re on-track. It’s hard to believe that they are only 4 and 1/2 days old.  They’re moving around quicker, although still dragging themselves and we’ve heard an occasional little spontaneous bark. Their coats are already showing signs of darkening and I pulled out the nail clipper today, as they’re also almost ready to have their teeny-tiny nails trimmed for the first time.

In the photo below, from top to bottom: #2 (male) top, #1 (male) in the middle and #3 (female) below.

Mama Finley stays with the puppies around the clock, leaving them only occasionally (and briefly.)  As I’ve described before, she and the puppies are awake and asleep throughout the day and night.  They nurse, sleep, scootch around (not walking yet) AND they eliminate… But we have seen only two miniscule traces of poop and no pee because Finley licks their back ends, triggering their systems to eliminate.  With such a small litter, she’s able to keep track of all of them.  She sniffs them often to examine who needs to be serviced and vigorously licks their back ends, keeping them and the whelping area clean. It’s pretty amazing and we are grateful.

Some severe storms rolled through this morning and we had a little disruption in the sleep/eat routine. I watched the intense red on the weather radar move upon our area and decided to put the puppies in a transfer box (with a hot water bottle and polar fleece blankets) and take them and our big dogs downstairs for safety.  I had to wake Biff up (he had been on duty overnight and had only been asleep about an hour) to keep the puppies warm while I came up to monitor the storm.  We weren’t hit too hard compared to some of the reports I’m seeing on T.V. from nearby areas.  We’re back to our morning routines now and everyone’s doing well.  We have two boys and one girl, all weighing in a little heavier each time we put them on the scale.

Here’s the puppy set-up for these first 3 and 1/2 weeks…  There’s a warming lamp next to the whelping box that we can move around and adjust as needed.  Those two white things on the rug are the temperature sensor and read-out so we can keep the temp in the low 80’s. Finley’s body provides the best warmth for the puppies, but they scooch around constantly and we want that whole space to be warm enough for them. This area is near the kitchen, so we don’t have to go far for everything else we need.