This group of puppies have come in a couple different styles of fur. There are three quite wavy and the rest have a soft flat coat. I find myself googling to see what goldendoodle puppies look like at birth, as I know from when we had Airedale pups as kids , they can change looks a lot as they grow.
According to the pictures on google both coats seem common and the curl comes in later. However the more curious part is that I'm not sure if our black dogs might be turning brown? The longer their fur gets the more dark amber coloured highlights are being caught by the sunshine. Although Fergus (the Dad) is black, one of his parent's was brown so it's quite possible.
Black? Brown? Brindle?
Naming them changes the game
It's quite easy to stay detached from a collection of squeaky blind furballs that you know are not going to staying with you. I confidently had conversations with the kids about how it's our responsibility to love them and help create great pets for other families. I truly thought 'We've got this'. Then the weasels opened their eyes and we put ribbons on them so we could easily tell the boys from the girls. The biggest and most aggressive eater became Gunner, as in "Hold on big Gunner" which I google to see if it's really a saying or something I picked up.
According to Urban Dictionary
Lauren names one of the boys Chuppy. She explains it's because he is a Chill Puppy. He's the best cuddler. Since three of the boys look very much the same we think Chuppy might change depending on day. The point remains the same. With each day their personalities emerg and thinking of letting them go, gets harder.
Line up for your heartbreak
A good part of the reason that we signed up to have puppies was to give this amazing experience to the children. I have fond memories of puppies on the farm. Apparently I have blocked out the part when the puppies left. Yesterday Spence heard me tell someone that the earliest the puppies could go was 8 weeks. "Eight Weeks!" he cried "I thought we had them for eight months" as he fell into a heap of tears. It looks like I will be planning yearly puppy reunions.
At the beginning of the second week of their lives the puppies have already doubled in weight. We've learned that Molly doesn't much care for visitors or even family handling her puppies. We respect her by only cuddling while sitting in the whelping bed with her.
Molly is quite comfortable in the whelping box the Andrew's family made for her.
Everywhere we go people ask about the puppies. Especially the blond which we have started called Stevie. Human nature is so funny. Everyone wants the different one. I think that if we'd have had 7 blonds and 1 black. That would be the one filling my email box with requests.
The idea of placing them in homes is a bit overwhelming to me, so I haven't allowed anyone to speak for one with the exception of the three that are going to family. This mean's that there are likely three girls and two boys that need a home.
To buy some time. I created a newsletter with information for families that might be considering adding one of these guys to their life. Within 24 hours the page had been viewed over 600 times in 150+ places. This did not help the state of overwhelm.
The kids were so excited to get up in the morning to meet the puppies. Molly had taken to Motherhood with great focus and was keeping a close eye on each puppy. We moved the whelping bed into the office where the heated floor and a full length windows would give warmth and sunshine.
Spencer has a quick snuggle before heading off to school.
The first week the puppies were only awake to feed. Which seemed constant. Blind and deaf with a keen sense of smell, they use their front legs to scoot to find Mom and lunch. Without a runt in the bunch they fought from room to eat with surprising force. Their muscles twitch as they dream and we wonder what they could be dreaming about.
It's was early Thursday morning, around 2:00am and the puppy doula hat was getting uncomfortable. Molly hadn't slept well in three night's which meant I didn't either. We had moved the whelping box into our living room right beside the couch to try to help make her comfortable in it. As soon as I would fall asleep Molly would sneak out of the whelping box and into Lauren's room. I would wake, run up in a panic to see if the birth had started and convince her to come back downstairs. Then the whole thing would repeat itself twenty minutes later.
We had just come down from our 5th round of this exercise, when something seemed different. Molly was circling the box and starting to strain. With three pushes, and still standing, our first puppy was born.
She went straight to work cleaning it up. I was so impressed by her instincts to break the sack and cut the cord, when moments before she seemed to have no idea what was going on. She was still standing and had barely finished cleaning the first when another was born. Things were happening fast. I became more than a spectator as the puppies kept coming approximately 2 minutes apart. Cleaning the area and placing the new pups where she could see them. Molly was often not done with the last when another would come.
Six fat healthy puppies arrived in less than a half hour. Five black puppies and one blond were all nursing happily. Then 40 minutes after the last, birthing started again.
Two more black puppies came in quick succession. For a moment I was concerned they would keep coming. But those two completed the family. Eight squeaky squirmy little balls of fur and an impressive amount of laundry. At 5:00 am I stumbled into bed. Relieved and exhausted.
This is the video of the birth of the third and only blond puppy. If like me, 'wet noises' bother you, I'd recommend muting your volume. ;)
