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Handler - @rthritis

I read your most recent upset. Yellow sounds like it would a great service dog/working prospect as well as Orange! Curiosity and adventure are my favorite traits when looking. I can’t wait to follow along with all your posts! Signed a fan!

I used a trusted babysitter when Ollie was really young to give me breaks out of my house. I loved him and didn't want to take breaks, but it's great to be able to think about other things once in a while. The puppy blues will get you if you aren't taking of yourself too.

They have progressed to their second stage of socialization. In this time frame, puppies are developing a startle response, so the breeder starts introducing them to new sights, sounds, and textures. Toys are added to the box along with a couple new surfaces for the puppies to walk over. The puppies are raised in the busiest part of the house, so they learn to live with the chaos of multiple adults, children, and other animals.

Mom doesn't spend as much time with the puppies now, mostly dropping in to feed them before leaving the box again. This doesn't seem to be negatively affecting the weight of the puppies, who are already the largest litter this breeder has ever produced. Regardless, the breeder adds a pan of formula to the box to give them extra food, just in case.

At 18 days of age, the puppies have started to show some personality. Blue Collar is super cuddly, Red Collar is an instigator, and the most vocal of the bunch. Orange Collar is a problem-solver. Purple Collar, despite being smaller than their littermates, is always the first in line as mealtimes and will push others aside to get there. Yellow Collar is described as adventurous, a trait that I have asked for. I'll be keeping my eye on this one.

Day 19, Orange Collar manages to escape, twice, so the pig rails are removed. These exist to keep the mother from laying on small puppies and smothering them by accident, but they're not really necessary anymore: these puppies are HUGE, one of them already over 5 pounds.

At this point, they have also learned how to bark, and some of them have figured out how to relieve themselves unassisted by their mother, so a litter box is added for everyone to use. This is quickly upgraded to an extra room being added to their setup, one for sleep, the other for potty. This is a step in the direction of them learning to use the bathroom outside of the home.

As the breeder introduces them to their first scary things, no one cares. Thunderstorm? Not a problem. A vocal dog? Also no big deal. A toy is hung over the box where it will brush their heads when they walk. This will help them get comfortable with having something overhead, and will also teach them how to look up.

I'm wishing you all of the luck! The waiting is so hard.

Here's a bit of what I've been up to:

I wasn't feeling like my current treatment plan was helping much at all, which directly conflicts with my plan to take care of a puppy soon. Started seeing a new primary who referred me to some new doctors and ran some more tests and found some new problems that we then treated, which has me feeling better somewhat. I am at least feeling more confident in my ability to raise a puppy right now.

I've been getting as educated as I can. I've finished reading a number of books on canine cognition and behavior. I found a few resources through my public library, and a few more in a used book shop. I dug out the old training plan I wrote for Ollie years ago and rewrote it, using my experience with training Ollie to guide me. This blog was very useful. I browsed through my earliest posts and thought about what I could have done differently. I factored that into my new training plan, keeping it flexible. I have not met my puppy yet and won't know exactly what we will need to work on yet. But at least now I have a general idea of how I want to start out.

I started preparing my house early. This is an energy-preserving technique, allowing me to set everything up as slowly as I need to avoid stress on my brain and body. It's also a useful way to let my existing animals adjust to the change that is about to come. I put a crate and x pen in my dining room, and all of my animals take turns exploring the space and everything I place in it. I have gone through all of Ollie's old things, retired anything unusable, discovered some new-with-tags puppy items that I never used. These get moved to the x pen for storage for now. I also get my bedroom ready, rearranging furniture until I have space to move the crate later on. I deep cleaned, too, though it's too early for that to have mattered much.

I also started fixing our routine. I am feeding Ollie in his crate or on an elevated bed. I put us on the daily schedule I expect to follow once puppy is here. I'm enforcing a meal schedule, a set bedtime. Ollie has adjusted to this quickly.

I've established the professionals I will be using for the puppy's care. Ollie's vet knows I am expecting another dog. I have picked my groomer. I have three trainers set aside already: one for puppy classes, one for sports, and one I can see virtually.

Because I will be traveling to another state to pick up this puppy, I've done a few things related to my trip, mostly just booking my hotel and briefly looking at the route I am driving. I've cursed myself a few times for picking a breeder that lives so far away, but I know this puppy will be worth the trek.

I haven't bought anything yet, but I have an online cart filled with essentials. I will buy this closer to the bring home date.

I have been doing my best to avoid having too much free time because my mind drifts back to these puppies and how badly I want to know which one will be mine and it torments me that they're not here yet. Can't let myself daydream too much or the impatience will overwhelm me. So I spend a lot of time at the gym (I am going to have no problems lifting this puppy, I'm getting so strong). I was spending a lot of extra time with Ollie, too, but I was starting to exhaust him and I had to back off. Not even Ollie can match my anxious energy right now. I fill my extra time with games, books, and blogging. I'm sure you've noticed the length of my posts. Stress wrote these posts.

And yet, this has been the calm period. From here on out, time is going to move faster and I am going to have so much to do and I'll catch myself wishing I had an extra week to prepare.

At three days old, the puppies begin Early Neurological Stimulation and Early Scent Introduction. Through these processes, puppies will be exposed to different stimuli, encouraging them to use their brains and bodies. These exercises are done every day with the goal of raising confident, capable puppies with fewer long-term health problems.

On Day 9, the puppies begin to open their eyes. They will become more mobile soon now that they are able to see where they are going. Not very coordinated to start out, they toddle around and fall over often.

Mom is ingesting over 5,500 calories each day to produce the milk she needs to feed 7 babies. She doesn't seem to spend a lot of time in the box with the puppies, but it's clear that everyone is well-nourished because they're all gaining weight steadily. Not even two weeks old, three of the puppies are already over three pounds. These are the largest puppies this breeder has ever had.

When awake, they either eat or shuffle around the box. They begin to notice and respond to loud noises. They discover their ability bark and growl. The breeder predicts that they may be on the vocal side, which is cute for now, but check back in with her again in a few weeks.

When the puppies sleep (22 hours a day!) they may begin twitching, which is a sign that they are in a specialized state of REM sleep called "activated sleep" in which the puppies are getting a natural workout, developing their muscles and neural pathways.

After Day 15, the size of the puppies has started to make it hard for all of them to nurse at the same time, so the breeder makes a plan to start providing extra food in the box. The puppies will be allowed to lap up formula from a pan, which will also help them begin the weaning process.

One of Ollie's tasks is locating our house. While it doesn't get used as much as other tasks, this task has saved the day more than once.

A recent example is when we returned from a long walk and I couldn't recognize my house. I had found it, but I stood at the end of my driveway, stuck in a moment of derealization. I became anxious at the thought of going inside, out of fear that I would be walking into a stranger's home by accident. So I asked Ollie for clarification. When I asked him to find the house, he confidently took me to the front door.

The first time I ever needed this task was for a completely different reason. While on a walk, my back spasmed and I lost my ability to stand up straight. As we pushed on, I continued to fold forward at the hip until I was fully facing the ground. I had no ability to see where I was going. But I had Ollie with me and he got us home safely.

This video is a speedy (we don't usually walk this fast) demonstration of how this task works. I ask Ollie, "where's home?" and he immediately sets off, checking each house as we pass, and only stopping once we have reached our doorstep. Ollie knows how to target both the front and back doors.

The pregnancy is confirmed.

The mother dog is started on a high quality diet with daily probiotics and a b vitamin complex. This aids in fetal development. She will gradually eat more as her pregnancy progresses, though her appetite may decrease as she prepares to give birth.

Dogs are pregnant for 9 weeks. An ultrasound can be performed around 30 days in to roughly estimate the litter size and check fetal heartbeats.

Mom's activity level stays about the same until her belly begins to grow. Past this point, walks are short and slow. Stress is kept to a minimum, as bad experiences during pregnancy can manifest as trauma in the puppies themselves later on.

10 days before whelping, Mom is dewormed to help prevent intestinal parasites in the puppies.

The final week of pregnancy, a x-ray is performed for a more accurate puppy count. At this stage, Mom has gained nearly twenty pounds. Her scan shows 6 clear skull-and-spine combos and a couple more questionable shapes that may be puppies, or maybe not. If the litter is abnormally large or small, the breeder will book a c-section to deliver the puppies, but in this case, a natural birth is expected.

Two days before her estimated due date, the breeder announces a drop in Mom's temperature. This signals that labor is about to begin.

That night is sleepless. Mom spends the night nesting, just not where the breeder wants her (in the whelping box). Instead, she tries to burrow in the breeder's bed and requires on-leash bathroom breaks to prevent her from disappearing under the deck.

Around noon the next day, the breeder says she expects puppies to arrive late in the night or early the next morning. She is going to take a nap to prepare.

The nap never happens. An hour later, we have our first puppy. Over the next four hours, she delivers six more.

I watch each announcement with the fear that there won't be a puppy for me. It isn't until the 6th puppy emerges that my fear is replaced with a flood of calm. I am certain that my puppy exists now. I won't know which puppy is mine for another 8 weeks, but my heart wants it to be this one.

A big purchase I had never made was that of a good car kennel. Until now, Ollie has ridden in a car harness instead. But I got extremely lucky this week and found a used Ruffland for an amazing deal that I could not refuse.

I introduced Ollie to it on the ground, minus the door. I tossed treats into it a few times, allowing him to exit when finished. The first photo here is of the first time I asked him to enter the kennel without leaving again. As you can see, he wasn't extremely pleased to begin with.

But after another 10 minutes or so of entering and exiting the crate, moving the kennel to the car, and putting the door back on, Ollie felt fully comfortable loading in and out.

I was doing this quite a bit last year. I would find breeders through breed association sites, open each breeder in a new tab, close out on the ones that didn't immediately catch my interest, and then open new tabs for individual dogs in the programs I liked so I could look at them later. After I would check them out, I would close the tab and move on.

And then one day, I got stuck on a dog. I spent a long time looking at this one. I left her tab open and tried moving on to other dogs, but my heart wasn't in it anymore. I closed every tab until only hers remained. I revisited her for a few months. I spoke about her, a lot. I daydreamed about having a dog like her.

I connected with her breeder on social media so I could consume more content of this dog that I had become so fond of. At this point, I wasn't looking for another service dog yet, and I assumed I was considering getting a sport dog from her sometime in the future. I I really liked what I saw. This breeder surpassed my expectations for responsible breeders and was producing excellent working dogs with great temperaments. I noted that, while she did not advertise her puppies as prospects, she had previously bred dogs who were working as service dogs in their later years. This was important to me, as I am highly suspicious of breeders who place a lot of prospects but have few finished service animals on the ground. In the time I was researching, the dog from my tabs finished her Conformation career and passed all of her health testing.

I have to admit, my decision to start raising my next dog right now was at least partially due to this breeding announcement. This pairing was expected to produce puppies with the sort of temperament I was looking for— highly stable, passionate about their job, with a beautiful off switch. I called my spouse into the room to share the news about the breeding. Having heard me talk about how much I loved this dog and her breeder for months by this point, he told me I needed to go for it.

And I did. I carefully filled out my application and submitted it. The breeder promptly reached out to me and we interviewed back and forth for a while. Then she added me to the list.