Puppies as Adults

     Bella's litter recently turned two years old, and they've all grown into beautiful and happy dogs.  I thought I'd share some updates.

This is Jessie, now named Kira, with her new buddy, Rhett.  She's four months old here.

We visited our kids when Rosa was four months old.  It really seemed as if she still recognized us!

Duncan and Bella have plenty of "play dates" with other dogs.  This was Duncan at four months old.

Chester came over for a visit!  The pups are six months old here. They've lost the puppy look and look like dogs now.  They will still grow more though!

When they were seven months old we managed a visit with both Chester and Brutus (now named Koukouzelis, or KouKou for short).  You can see that their coats are getting longer now.

At seven months, Duncan is already a master at supervision!  Collies are very curious, sometimes to the point of being downright nosy!

Rosa at seven months.  Still the smallest of the litter, but still a beauty! 

Fraser (Wallace) at seven months old.  He has the run of a farm now and loves it!

Tug was renamed Giric, and looks very happy in his new home!  He's also seven months old here.

One more seven month shot - at Christmas-time.  A good mother & son shot - you can see that Duncan is already bigger than Bella, but it is typical for male collies to be a bit bigger than the females.
I was holding a dog treat above the camera, which is why they are looking so intently at the camera here!

And finally, some shots of the pups as full-grown adult collies:

KouKou (Brutus), born the largest, and still the biggest of the litter.  He's a big, happy, friendly boy, with a stunning, shiny black coat!

Rosa, with her bunny companion, Emit.  She is surprisingly gentle with him.  She also knows no strangers!  She & our kids live in Texas now, where she is regularly mistaken for the Texas A&M's collie mascot, Reveille!

Chester after graduating from obedience school.  He is a big, happy, goofball, who adores his family!

Kira (Jessie) is just stunning!

Willow has a new companion, and it is now her turn to be a surrogate mom.  We're told she takes that duty very seriously!
And wow, she looks so much like Bella!

Giric (Tug) with his companion, a smooth-coat collie named Tina.  Yes, he and Duncan still look like twins!

As a quick aside - there's a reason that Tug, Duncan, and Rosa look so similar:

This is not Duncan or Tug!  This is Bow Hunter, the sire of Bella's litter.

Bella and Duncan, in case you couldn't tell!  Though Duncan is bigger and heavier, Bella is the boss in this relationship.  She has the most herding instinct of any collie I've ever known, and she takes her guarding duties very seriously.  If there is ANYTHING different or out of place, she is the first to let us know.  Duncan however, is more interested in playing and in being involved in whatever we are doing!

Fraser (Wallace) apparently inherited more of his mother's disposition.  We're told that he herds the barn cats, and that he lets his family know if anything is amiss on the farm.

     It's so good to see the pups all so happy with their families!

Finding Homes for Puppies

     Finding a good home for any puppy takes some time and effort.  With our puppies, I asked lots of questions, and I made sure that all prospective buyers knew what to expect when getting a collie.  Though they are great family dogs and pets, they do have grooming requirements, they need to spend time with their families, and they need some space for exercise.  It turned out that only three of the pups went to first-time collie owners, but they are all thrilled with their pups.


     Jessie was the next puppy to leave.  She went to a family in New York who already had a collie, and some Basset Hounds.  She will have lots of doggie brothers and sisters!

It was hard saying good-bye to this sweet face, but she went to a great home.  We were told that she didn't even cry on the car trip to her new home - she simply curled up and napped!

    

Just three boys left who need homes - Tug, Wallace, and Brutus. 

     We were surprised when our neighbor across the street came over to take a puppy!  He'd lost his dog a couple of years earlier, but kept saying he wasn't quite ready to get another dog.  He came over a few times to visit Bella and the puppies, but kept insisting that he wasn't going to give in to the cuteness.  It turned out that he'd had his eye on Brutus all along!  So, Brutus went to live just across the street from us! 

Chester went home with his girl next.  She was so excited to get him, and proudly told us she'd been studying all about collies!  He is now adored by her and her parents!

     Wallace was next.  Some friends of ours had lost their dog recently, and said they were considering getting a new pup.  They came over for dinner one night, and Wallace just took to them as if he knew he was theirs. 

Happy puppy and happy family!  We get regular updates on Wallace, now named Fraser, and he is constantly referred to as being "The best dog ever!"

 
     That left us with just Duncan and Tug, "the twins."  Since there were just two of them and they were house-broken at this point, we moved them from the puppy shed back into the house with us.

Time for the second set of shots.  Duncan and Tug were very well-behaved at the vet's office.

     A couple of weeks later, Tug did get his family though.  He moved to West Virginia to be with his new family, who already had two female collies.  We joked that he was getting a harem!  His was actually the hardest good-bye for us though.  All the other pups seemed happy to go with their new people, but Tug had been with us long enough that he cried a bit when he was put into a strange car.  We were told that he very quickly fit in to the family there, and I get regular photos of him looking very happy now.

Our handsome Tug-boy at fourteen weeks old.

     So, it was a LOT of work, but also a lot of fun raising a litter of collie puppies.  I'd do it all again if I could!  Bella has been "retired" as a mom though.  She had two litters of puppies in her life, and now it's time for her to just be a (slightly spoiled) pet!




















































Puppies Leaving the Nest

     At seven weeks of age, we needed to prepare the pups for going to their new homes.  Though they'd already had one vet visit when they were younger, it was now time for their first set of shots.

It's hard to transport eight puppies at once!  Luckily, Willow and Rosa were still small enough to share a carrier.

     It was also time to get the pups used to being on a leash.  Some of them took to it pretty quickly, and seemed to love the opportunity for some one-on-one time with us.  Others needed a little more convincing....

Our freedom-loving Tug puppy was NOT a fan of the leash at first!

     Play time (socializing) was still a must - and a "chore" which we loved.  We also snuck in a little training during play time.  By this age, house-breaking was well under way, the pups would eagerly come to us when called, and they were starting to sit on command.  Collies are smart dogs and are known for being pretty easy to train. 

You simply can't be stressed or unhappy while playing with a litter of puppies!

         

They still love their belly rubs too!  This was our sweet Jessie, asking nicely for a belly rub.  I have to admit that if I could have kept a second puppy, it probably would have been Jessie. 

Duncan plays with a favorite puppy toy - a stick!

The puppies were so active that it was hard to get them all in one shot.  I caught six of them together here.  That's Brutus in the back, overseeing everyone as usual.  Left to right along the gate are Tug, Duncan, Jessie, Wallace, and Rosa.

     When the pups turned eight weeks old, they were old enough to go to their new homes.  It was a bittersweet time for us.  Logically, you know that you can't keep that many dogs and spend enough time with each of them (not to mention buying all that food!), but it's still difficult seeing them leave.

Rosa was the first to leave - right at eight weeks.  The kids were eager to take her home, and she seemed very happy to go with them.  It was a little easier for me knowing that Rosa was still going to be in the family.

     Willow left the next day.  She went to a couple in Rhode Island.  Willow was always a bit more reserved around new people than her siblings, so I was pleasantly surprised at how well she took to her new family.  It didn't hurt that they brought their dog, Ginger, with them - Willow seemed to bond with her instantly.




Travel buddies and instant best friends.  We were told that Ginger quickly became Willow's surrogate mom.

    

At the end of eight weeks, we were down to six puppies.  Three of them (Duncan, Jessie & Chester) were spoken for, so we really just had three that still needed homes.

Just before Rosa left, I was finally able to get a decent shot of all eight of them!  There's a puppy toy on the other side of the fence from them, out of view of the camera, that kept their attention just long enough for me to take this!  Left to right are Rosa, Chester, Willow, Brutus, Jessie, Duncan, Wallace, and Tug. 

Puppies All Over the Place!

     At five-weeks-old, puppies are very active, very hungry, and unbelievably adorable! 

Six puppies sleep together in the doghouse.

     Their personalities were starting to become more apparent too.  Brutus was always the leader, and always dominant over his brothers, though he was very gentle with his sisters.  Rosa was the smallest, but was very playful and always had a lot of spunk.  Chester was a snuggler and was happy to follow his siblings in mischief.  Jessie was playful, sweet, and a "talker."  Willow was smart and adventurous, but took just a minute or so longer than the others to warm up to a new person.  Tug lived to run, play, and wrestle.  Duncan loved to wrestle and play too, but also loved being with people.  He was the second largest pup in the litter, and sometimes challenged Brutus - usually by sitting on him!  Wallace was probably the smartest pup in the litter; you could watch him figure out things.  He was the first one to "escape" from the whelping box, and the first one to figure out how to get over the puppy fence in the yard. 


     It was good timing, because people were just starting to think about choosing their puppies.  This process proved to be fascinating.  I swear that in most cases it seemed as if the puppy picked the person or family. 




     Since Duncan was clearly staying with us, second pick went to our son and daughter-in-law.

She narrowed it down to three, but was having trouble choosing! 

    

A few weeks later, she & our son took Rosa home with them.  Our son told us that Rosa was the one who came running to him when he whistled!

     The next to be claimed was Chester.  He was chosen by an eleven-year-old girl who lived near us, because he liked to cuddle with her.  He would stay with us until she got home from summer camp though.  I didn't mind a bit; it gave us more time to enjoy him!

Chester - who wouldn't fall for that sweet face?

    

They all still have very healthy appetites!

   
    

Bella enjoyed spending more time with the puppies once they weren't nursing so often!

     At six weeks of age, the pups had their first baths.  It wasn't planned that way, but there was a potential buyer coming over, and Willow decided to roll in poop that morning.  So since we had to wash her, we gave each of them a bath.


    

Willow did not seem to enjoy her bath! 

    

Here they are all clean and fluffy again.

     They have also learned to roll over to ask for belly rubs now.  It is adorable!

Rosa wants a belly rub!

    

Yes, they just keep eating more and growing larger.  We should've bought stock in puppy kibble....



Puppies - catching up!

     So, it's been a couple of years since I posted.  Life got busy!  I thought I'd try to finish what I started with this blog, and bring people (if anyone is still reading this) up to date.


     At three weeks their eyes opened and the pups became a lot more playful!

Here, "the twins" Duncan and Tug, wrestle while Brutus tries to join in on the fun!

    
     This was the week they learned to sit up too.

Willow shows how well she can sit.

     Bella was still feeding them, but we were also still supplementing with milk and some mashed, milk-soaked puppy kibbles.  We also moved them out of the house at this point, to an enclosed shed which we could heat for them at night.  Feeding them solid food means that their waste smells more, and when you multiply that by eight.... Yikes!  It also gave them more room to explore, and it gave Bella a chance to take a break from them sometimes. 

Dinner time!

     By four weeks of age, the puppies were VERY active and playful!

Everything is fair game for being chewed!

    

Two of their favorite things - going outside and meeting new people!

Bella is still feeding them, but less often now.  The weaning process has begun.

    

Though I love all the puppies, Duncan seems especially attached to me.  I thought I would be choosing a puppy to keep from this litter, but it appears that he has chosen me!

     They grew so much in the first four weeks! 


     Until next time....