Pups Growing and Keeping Us Busy

The pups turn 2 weeks today (& tomorrow since some were born after midnight). Pups are getting bigger, but eyes are not yet open. With 13 growing and hungry pups, Mira nurses them most of the day and night. Mira is eating about 8 cups of food a day to keep up with the milk demand. She is doing a great job and has plenty of milk for all. Sometimes, though, I do have to remove a particularly fat pup from a nipple and place a smaller pup there to help prevent the "biggies" from completely dominanting the "smallies" and promote fair milk distribution.

Every evening since day 3, we have been doing "puppy-sthenics," David's term for a gentle and careful series of "exercises" with the pups called "Early Neurological Stimulation" (to see the "exercises" and read details, including reasoning and benefits, visit http://www.breedingbetterdogs.com/achiever.html). ENS was recommended by our reproductive vet because it reportedly leads to dogs who problem-solve, perform and handle stress better in later life. It also gives us lots of individual time with each pup every day. I will take some photos of puppy-sthenics this weekend and post so you can see with live pups.