Worming Day

We do a worming treatment three times every litter. And we also treat our own hounds at the same time, just in case. Worms aren't really a big problem, especially if you stay on top of things.

This morning was treatment one, the first thing they've tasted that wasn't from Mom. They will get their first puppy chow soon so worming now means better digestion once real food shows up. We're watching for them finding the water dish. Once they find it we can begin suuplimenting Mom feeding with something a bit more solid.

Awareness

This morning the Candies all became very aware of things, as things. They have been playing gently and wandering around a bit. But for the most part everyone is sort of poking around and wondering what things are. This morning it seem they have figured out what is going on. Lilly has been able to walk in and out of the pen so far, but now that they understand what's happening this will become much more dificult.

The puppies are also understanding that Mom isn't just a source of food so this morning they were all bundled together in a tight pile of fur. Not for breakfast, but for comfort alone. It isn't cold in the morning so comfort and companionship are more likely their motivation fro balling themselve up with Lilly. This is quite a big step in their development and  Lilly is very happy about it.

In a week we expect the pups will get vaccines and be allowed outside for the first time. We can also let people handle the pups with washed hands. So exciting.

Bubba (top left) was visited by his new Mom this weekend.
He weighed just over three pounds and is quite a chunk of Baby Basset.
Everyone else is doing very well, but not nearly as big.

Sorted Themselves

The Candies have themselves sorted out by color. This happens every litter at some point early on. 

The Beginning of Knowing

Another milestone has been met. Bubba (Toblerone), first puppy in many respects, has escaped the Whelping Pool for the first time. All Hell is about to break loose at Creekside Farm. Everyone is moving around on their feet, all are standing tall, but one puppy saw over the wall and decided to go see what there was over there and could not be stopped by common sense or that fact that shortness ought to keep them contained. This is a big deal in the life of a Basset.

Lilly is now able to spend time among
the tangle of hounds to hunt and sing.
 Being in the pen will become much more exciting.

We will remove the pool since it will no longer hold anything other than water. We will carpet the pen with blankets and towels and laundry will become our prinicple occupation for the next five to eight weeks. There will be toys and the babies will come close to the other dogs, only seperated by a thin screen of open steel. 

Aunt Pixie is in love with Toblerone (Bubba).
She completely agrees with having puppies
to talk to and kiss on the nose.

Watch out for Scammers

Whether you get a puppy or not, watch out for Scammers and Con-men.  The Internet has been around for long enough that people ought to be able to recognize a scam, but we get at least one attempt a day so. . .

Visit your breeder, check references, and read the contract. . . If you can't visit, even when you want to, walk away. If the references are wrong, or too recent, move on. And if the contract seems stupid, poorly worded or ineffective, don't get into one. We hear about people getting ripped off all the time. It's only money, but if you need to give it away we'll find a place for it that doesn't purptuate the problem. Protect yourself.

At Two Weeks We Have Three Boys Available

 Once upon a time we forced people to wait for six long weeks before choosing a new baby. The idea was to make people happier, but it didn't work. Now we have people picking Babies at just a few day old, despite our trying to hold things off a bit. This generates more happiness generally even though it makes some people a bit nervous (including us).  We had Seven available and four of these are already taken by good families, leaving us with three wonderful Baby Boy Bassets still available, no girls.

Milka, the Beach Boy Beauty.

Reisen, a lovely mahogany hunter. 

Pocki, a wonderful little tri-colored boy 

with the Ninja Nut-sack (black as pitch in a sea of white fur).

 

Get in touch if you needs Basset. Call Ann at 503-351-0212 and arrange a visit before deciding. 

Reisen at Two Weeks

 Reisen is a lovely little boy and is
the best at standing in this litter so far,

He weighs 33.1 ounces
without a trace of tail tip white. 

He has his eyes wide open, one of the few, and he's looking to explore everything he sees. And although he's not especially cuddly, he will probably make for a great family dog because he's built tough.  . Reisen has an asymmetrical nose fur which gives him quirky good looks.  If I would keep one, Reisen would be in the running. from what we see here he will be a great Basset.

Milka at Two Weeks

Milka is my choice for prettiest puppy at two weeks.

Calm and snuggly. An easy puppy to love

From the "God's Thumbprint" on top of his head, to those tiny symmetrical nose spots, he is sweet and lovely looking little boy.  Milka is a Toddler and weighs  a healthy 35.8 ounces. 

Hapi at Two Weeks (Taken)

Hapi as our Peppermint Patty award winner.
Sort of a tough little girl vibe happening here. 

Pretty and perfect.  
She wants what she wants.
And looks to get it. 

Hapi is going to California with her sister Kinder Bueno. We really appreciate it when we send two of our babies out to one family. It is far easier on the babies to have a cuddle buddy built into their new family and it is half the work for the new family (just not the picking up part). They play more and better (Bassets play very hard), are less likely to be bored (about the same for destructivness),  and they are happier by far when Mom and Dad are away doing Mom and Dad Stuff. We give a two hundred dollar discount on each puppy when taking two just to make this happen more because it is better for everyone. Two Bassets is half the work of one.

Hapi has her eyes open wide and her feet firmly on the ground. And this is not an easy little girl to hold onto. She weighs a very healthy 36.6 ounces and I expect bathtimes will be a challenge. We cut everyone's nails today and it took the both of us to get her done. 

Kinder Bueno at Two Weeks (pending deposit)

Kinder Bueno is going to live in California with her sister Hapi.  We really love it when we send two of our babies out to one family. It is far better the babies to have a cuddle buddy built in to their new family and it is half the work for the new family (not the picking up after part). They play better (Bassets play very hard), aren't as bored (about the same for destructivness),  and they are far happier if Mom and Dad are away. We give a two hundred dollar discount on each puppy when taking two (same sex babies) just to make this happen. Two Bassets is half the work of one. One is good, two is gooder. Three is a lot of Bassets and not for the first time Basset parent.

A headstrong go-go girl with eyes open 
with a mouth ready to taste everything. 

Kinder Bueno has a wonderful coat with good sumetrical markings
She will become a tri-colored beauty. 

A whole bunch of fun, but don't expect an easy puppy experience.

Kinder Bueno is a very head strong toddler and uncooperative in taking pictures and trimming nails. but she is also 38.1 ounces of squeaky toy joy. This one is going to be very playful and we are seeing a lot of brown emerging in her coat already. 

Pocki at Two Weeks

Pocki has the mystery gene which makes
a Basset fall over when petted. 
He loves tummy rubs.

His eyes are opening a he is a Toddler.
He gets on his feet but hasn't mastered walking yet.

He seems to defy taking good pictures.
It took nine attempts to get this one picture.

Pocki is a healthy little boy with an asymmetrical coat. He weighs a good 33.65 ounces and looks to be a smaller form Basset. He's patient with people holding him, but uncooperative at times. Pocki is probably going to be a properly stubborn little boy, he is already wirey and strong. Likely a good pick for a family with children. He's a tough little guy and a bit funny.

Cadbury at Two Weeks

34.05 ounces of Bear Walking Explorer.

Cadbury is gentle and patient.

Cadbury is a lovely little cuddler. Strong, but easy to hold and patient when trimming his nails. He looks around through his new eyes and sees things to do when he gets a chance.

Toblerone (Bubba) at Two Weeks

Toblerone's new mom say he's going to be a Bubba, and she's right.  Bubba has his eyes open and is still a Scooter and a Toddler. He's a bit large at 45.3 ounces so we'll begin training him to walk on his feet.

Bubba is a carnivorous beast.

Bubba is a scooter and sometimes toddler.

Eyes are open but not looking to explore just yet.

Nice and fat

The babies are getting so big. We'll get pictures and weights later today and post them. Today may be the last for the kiddie pool.

Two weeks already. Two babies already picked out with a few more being thought about. Eyes open and nails needing cut. Lots going on.

Lilly is a good mom.

Happy Peepers Day!!!!

 Every litter has special days. These are milestones we look for every time and there are quite a few. Two days ago we had scooters when they started moving in one direction. This morning we had toddlers and they were getting up on all four feet just to stand there for a minute. When this happens we no longer have to worry that someone might get squished because their little bones set themselves in the right places and the puppies get less squishy.

Tonight it  is officially "Peepers".  Imagine the first time you opened your eyes. Amazing. Their eyes are opening for the first time tonight and when we see their eyes for the first time we call out "Peepers", say hello, and make a fuss over it. They can see us. It's so cool. It's a big deal for them and they start seeing places they want to go check out and start moving toward things they want.

Peepers is also sort of a big deal for us because it signals our returning to a normal sleep routine. (I am posting this at 12:30 A.M.  because my night shift is until two when Ann takes her turn.) We watch them 24/7 until Peepers when we can go to bed at a reasonable time and return to a normal morning too. 

I'll get some pictures today when the sun is shining and they are all awake and looking around. Flash photgraphy is a pretty bad idea for new eyes.

Next up, ears will open and they will begin exploring their world as we release the hounds and remove their whelping pool. 

Bear Walking

 This morning we have puppies walking like baby bears. The legs get under them and they move forward two steps before returning to swimming around on their bellies. The Internations Candies move very quickly at this stage of the game, compare to the first few days when they don't move well at all. But with their eyes and ears closed they tend to bump into things. Walking at one week is more about getting to Mom quicker than the next guy than it is getting somewhere in particular.

Lilly spends less and less time in the Whelping pool as days go by. They are good eaters and she empties out pretty quickly now, but as they begin moving faster the competition can get stiff and the babies insistent. 

In a few days their eyes and ears will open fully and they can begin to learn how to use them. Yesterday we could see a few of them trying to force the eye lids open, but so far we don't see the dull reflection of new eyes. Once the eyes are open we'll remove the kiddie pool and things will get a whole bunch more interesting.

They've grown so much!

They most certainly know how to eat! 

The International Candies are all proficient eaters. It might sound weird but this isn't always how things go. We've had litters where there are one or two who don't know how to get enough food from Mom to put on the desired amount of weight. The danger in not eating is called a "failure to thrive". It happens every once in a while so we have strategies and tools to put the weight on when we see this and get everyone healthy if needed. Right now it's not needed.This bunch is a whole lot of milk sacks.

There are other concerns about eating too much that we watch for as well. Heavy puppies can have "Swimmer Syndrome" and need remedial training when learning to walk. This lot likely won't have any of that to worry about.  They will all be runners by four weeks and we are already seeing a lot of pushing each other around as they learn to use their legs.

We will weigh everyone on Saturday, at one week old. We expect them all to have doubled their birth weights and continue doubling every week. until weening at four weeks. We expect to see eyes and ears opening at the end of the second week, give or take a few days. This is when pictures start being taken.  This is about the time when we take the whelping pool out of the puppy pen and they will start running around. Four weeks is when Mom can't possibly keep up, so we start putting mushy puppy chow into the mix. From that point on it is a smelly pandemonium around here and people visitors begin to handle them.

Summer is the best time for puppies. they get a lot of outdoor time and start interacting wth our pack of hounds. This is going to be fun.

Dewclaw Day

Not a Basset Foot

 Very early in every litter we remove the "Dewclaw" to make everyone's life easier. Ann does most the work. Though I am a tough, I simply have a hard time watching. My job is to hold each puppy with my eyes closed and that's enough involvment for me.

The dewclaw is a thumb on the foreleg and it can be something of a problem. It performs no function for pets and can get caught on things and injured.And it makes makes trimming the nail more difficult, so the nail is often neglected since the other nails wear down through use and this one doesn't. Bassets are huggers and wrap their fore-legs around you in different ways, the dewclaws can make this less fun. So taking them off is a good idea and best done when the babies are only a few days old.  Ann does the deed and before you can carry them back to the Whelping Pen the momentary bleeding is stopped and the puppy feels just a second or two of pain the entire time. 

Today, while I went for supplies (mostly the junk food we eat during the long hours when the babies are very young) Ann called my brother in to hold babies and I came home to a peaceful, and Dewclaw free, house. Hurray for me!

Morning for our International Candies

Click for a bigger picture

 The Candies are doing very well. Eight beautiful Basset Babies have their cute little tails on the ground. Lilly is eating well, as are the Candies.  There's enough of everything, sleep schedules are being maintained, and nobody needs to run into town for anything. Even the weather is in sync. The days are lovely and the nights are cool with a light Summer breeze. I could go on and on. All is well.

We will be posting new pictures and weights pretty soon. Right now there isn't enough change to make our first pictures different than what we see today. But things progress pretty fast and the first six weeks go by quickly.  We weigh them weekly to make sure they are thriving. If someone doesn't eat well we find a way to get them growing. The milestones for growth are pretty well known. At six weeks we do a final evaluation and can say pretty definitively what each puppy will become. They have personalities right now and characteristics show up early on. But everything else is in flux and nothing is certain until about six weeks. The only thing that doesn't change is the boy/girl question, but even that can be read wrong at first. Laffee  Taffee's first Bubblegum girl (Bubbalicious), is the best boy Basset (Bubba / Stanley) we have seen so far. . . 

We've had a few people coming out to meet our family in hopes of finding a new baby for theirs. We really encourage people to come meet the hounds prior to committing themselves to spending money on their project. It is hard to keep the scammers out of your pockets and the most certain way to protect everyone involved is to do things old school. Visit your breeder, read the contract, and trust your gut. We will certainly earn your trust and deliver on the promises we make.

One family has chosen a puppy (not out of the ordinary to have early adopters). Pending my sending them a deposit invoice Toblerone will no longer be available. We don't encourage such quick decisions but we do things on a first come and first served basis and deposits are never returned if minds change. Take your time deciding as best you can, that is the best way. If you have preferences as to who or how many of what, we will try to accomodate your desires if it is possible. 

So far this entire year has gone along as if we planned it. This is strange because we've been doing this for twenty years and so far nothing has gone along as if we planned anything. Who and when we paired Lilly and Rocky was planned years ago. The pregnancy went very well and Lilly was very happy right up until the final act played out. The babies took their sweet time finding a way into the world, but we had everything in place to handle a seige of any length. In truth, we made it look easy this time. I suppose experience counts after all, but it might be that we didn't have crops to plant so time was on our side. However occurring, even the food we did plant went easier and is doing better. So life is better than good here and even the fruit tress are cooperating. Would that the length of our long lives had always gone so smoothly during the difficult bits.

Still more to do?

Update: Lilly has stopped laboring, panting, and having solid contractions, so we are assuming there are no more than the eight we have lounging around on blankets right now. We do everything naturally so we really don't know.  Any last babies are taking their own sweet time showing themselves. Right now there are five boys and three girls. This is a pretty good litter and easy to count. One more girl puppy would be nice, but another boy is certainly welcome too. So long as everyone is happy and healthy we are good with whatever the day brings. Eight is plenty.

Being able to count puppies easily is important because until their little eyes are open and they are up on their feet they are always in danger of bigger things. When they are very new they wander under their mom pretty easily and she doesn't notice. We will count them a lot and stay within close hearing range (twenty-four-seven) to avoid accidents. After they can keep themselves safe we will still count them a lot, but not because we're worried about accidents.

We are now accepting deposits from those people who wish to choose their new baby(s), but there is no hurry. People's preferences are being considered as we go forward and we will let you know if your preferences are in conflict with others. 

The International Candies Litter: Milka

10:20 a.m. Male Caramel Red and White named Milka. After five hours of waiting he came out with no note explaining his tardiness. 14.6 ounces and quiet.

The International Candies Litter: Kinder Bueno

4:55 a.m. Female, largely black, tri colored. Her kennel name is Kinder Bueno. Lilly is pretty tired out but she's still working on the project. 12.5 ounces of pretty little girl.

The International Candies Litter: Cadbury (taken)

4:20 a.m. Male Tri-colored named Cadbury. It took him quite a while to show up and it worried us a bit. But eventually he came through. He has a tremendous sucker and already shows off his boy bits, which is sort of rare. 12.3 ounces and walking with his feet under him.

Cadbury will find his new home in Winlock, Washington. A nice place with a very nice fence. Fences are a great idea . . . Everyone shoud have one if they can.

The International Candies Litter: Ferrero Rocher (not available)

Our beautiful Baby Ferrero Rocher suddenly developed a herniated bladder absess in her gut on her ninth day which was not operable and would have led into a short life of increasing suffering. The morning or the 21st she was fine and beginning to walk, by evening she was not. The thread of life is thin for puppies and it is not unusual to lose one or two along the way to varying causes. We are never happy about it and tears flow here.

This is the best that can be said. We will miss having her around and our hearts are saddened for anyone considering taking her into their family. But nothing could be done at any cost which would have effected the outcome and it is better that this happened to us than to someone who trusted us and put their hearts and money into it . 

The International Candies Litter: Hapi

2:40 a.m. Female beautiful Mahogany and White named Hapi. Came out a bit rougher than we like but sparked right up with a bit of toweling and twirling. She's quiet and more about breakfast than anything else. 14.3 ounces and very wriggly, very hungry. Her tail has the tiniest little white tip.

The International Candies Litter: Reisen

2:15 Male Mohogany Red and White. Kennel named Reisen. 11.5 ounces, hungry and headstrong.

The International Candies Litter: Pocki

2:05 a.m. Male Tri-colored male. He has a cute little Yin-Yang thing on his butt. 13.5 ounces and wriggly, very wriggly, puppy. But quiet (like a ninja).

Mother and baby

I don't do many pictures during whelping. It's a messy business so waiting for linen changes make for better family pictures.