Ch Camelot's Diamond Lil (Lily) was bred to BISS MBIS Ch Camelot's Code Red, ROM (Mojave). The breeding was carried out on July 1 and the puppies were born on August 30. The following blog recounts the progress of the whelping and the first few weeks of the litter.

Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Lily's temperature was 99.1¡ last night and 98.7¡ this morning. Normal canine temperature is about 101¡ and it is usual for the temperature to drop about 2¡ the day before delivery. She rejected her morning meal and had about 10 minutes of nesting behavior about 9 am. She is now napping quietly. The whelping box is set up in our bathroom and I have all of the necessary supplies there, waiting to go. Probably in the middle of the night tonight.

12:29 PM

Lily is definitely in labor. Her water broke (unfortunately while she was nesting on one of the good rugs--oh, well) and she is in the whelping room on her bed panting. I am now thinking maybe we will start with delivery this afternoon. Maybe Lily is going to be one of those exceptioinal moms who has her puppies during civilized hours, rather than overnight!

1:00 PM

The first puppy, a ridgeless female, was born at 12:50 on. She was breach and at first Lily didn't have a clue what was going on. The pup weighs 12 ounces and is nursing normally.

1:22 PM

Second puppy, a 9-ounce ridged girl, was still born. Delivery was easy and she came head first still in the sac. But she was not breathing and her tongue was already grey. I tried to get her going but without success. Crap!

1:44 PM

Lily's 3rd puppy, a 9-ounce ridged boy, was still born. Same deal, came head first, fully incased in sac but never a hint of a breath. Holy smokes--in more than 30 litters, I have never seen something like this. I am totally bummed out.

4:00 PM

Frankly, after the back-to-back stillborns, I was dreading delivery of the next puppy. But it did come and was a 12-ounce ridged male--ALIVE. This was followed in 10 minutes by a 9-ounce ridged girl, also alive. So now we have three puppies--one an obvious pet and two show potential. I am pretty sure Lily has at least one more as she is still having periodic contractions.

4:59 PM

The 6th puppy was a 10-ounce ridged girl. So now we have 4 living puppies, 3 girls and 1 boy. Except for the ridgeless girl, the others all look fine as far as I can tell. No kinks, excess white, ridges are good. I will check for dermoids later tonight after I am sure that Lily is done.

At 7:30 Tracy and I took Lily and the four pups to Bishop Ranch where we had an x-ray, which showed that there was still one puppy, and ultrasound, which showed that it was not alive. We brought Lily and the pups home and put them in the whelping box and about half an hour later, Lily delivered the stillborn puppy. It had obviously been dead for several days and had been partially resorbed. I was unable to tell any details (gender, ridge, etc). So now we are done. Closer examination tells me that we have one ridged female with multiple crowns, so at this point there are two clear pets, one ridgeless and one with a faulty ridge. The other two, one girl and one boy, do not have any apparent faults at this point.

Wednesday, August 31, 2011 4:02 PM

I slept on two dog beds on the bathroom floor next to Lily's whelping box last night. Ow! Lily is a very good mom, to a fault. She doesn't even want to get out of the box and leave the pups to go outside to do her business. She eats and drinks water only if I put the bowl into the whelping box so she doesn't have to lose contact with the little rodents. From time to time I put a leash around her neck and take her out the door that is right next to the whelping box, into the little garden outside our bathroom. There is a dog door for her to use but she really hasn't taken possession of it yet. She seems fully recovered from yesterday's delivery. Early this morning she pushed out the last of the largely-degraded placental material from the last stillborn puppy but since then she has not had any discharge.

Mom and pups are settled into a boring but comfortable lifestyle. Lily is a great mom and sticks in the whelping box with the puppies almost all the time. I have been able to lure her out to the kennel to have breakfast and dinner with the other dogs for the last couple of meals. She eats, goes out into the yard to relieve herself, then hightails it back to the whelping box. She has also learned to use the dog door that connects our master bath, where the whelping box is located, with a little privacy garden out the back door. We keep the bathroom door closed so that the other dogs won't come in and bother her. She is pretty comfortable having them visit one at a time, and the three older dogs (8, 9 and 11) will only go back there if I am there--otherwise, they seem to either respect Lily's domain or are just intimidated to be in a place with such unusual new odors. The terrible trio, however, are another matter. If they are in the house and the bathroom door is open, they all bound in, stick their heads in the whelping box to check out the new critters, and this makes Lily a little nervous. So we try to avoid that by keeping her door closed.
The four pups are gaining weight steadily--the rich milk came in yesterday. The boy is over a pound now, the ridgeless girl is almost a pound and the smallest (show-potential) girl is 11 3/4 ounces, up from just 9 3/4 at birth. The larger ridged girl (pet due to extra crown) is 14 1/2 ounces, up from 10 3/4 at birth.

It is about time to assign temporary names. Since we have one boy and three girls, my friend Tinamaria van der Horst (who has been my name maven before) has suggested Charlie and his three angels.

Cheri has not completely bought into the girls names and prefers Kate, Jacklyn and Farrah, so we will continue to ponder on that, but for the time being we will try the stage names.

Saturday, September 3, 2011 9:59 AM

The pups are all gaining weight steadily (about 2 ounces a day on average). Since they only weigh 13.5 to 19.5 ounces, this is a 10-15% gain per day. Boy, just think it you gained 20 pounds per day! One of my vets once held one of my puppies and said "Wow, this is amazing--it's just DNA and milk!" I made a little weight chart and will update it daily, just to see if everyone is on track.

Lily is very comfortable in our master bath, which is her "den". The whelping box is set up in a corner next to the shower and she has her dog bed right outside so she can retreat from the pups periodically. But she still spends most of her time in the box with the pups. We keep the door from the bath to the bedroom closed because that keeps the bathroom nice and warm. Our bath floor is electrically heated and we have it set to be on 24/7. With the door closed, it keeps the temperature about 75.

Sunday, September 4, 2011 9:14 AM

Nothing important to report. Lily's appetite has increased and she is eager to go to the feeding room in the kennel with the other dogs when it is time for breakfast and dinner. The pups are starting to have the look of rotund little piggies. This morning's weigh-in showed an average weight of almost a pound and a quarter, with the largest (boy) being 23 ounces and the smallest (show girl) being just over a pound. Michael and Tracy Ware (Lily's human family) are coming over later this morning for a visit and I will snap a few photos.

Monday, September 5, 2011 9:20 AM

Lily is spending more time outside the whelping box. After she nurses, the pups usually fall into a deep sleep and she wanders about her domain. The master bath, where we have the whelping box, is attached to a large master bedroom, which we keep closed so that the other dogs don't go back and bother her. So she has this room to use and sometimes she naps on our bed. There is a dog door tucked neatly underneath the bathroom counter and this leads outside to a small privacy garden that is separated from the main yard by a brick wall. We only plan to use this dog door access when a nursing mom is using the bathroom--the rest of the time it is shuttered and not accessible. Lily has taken full possession of this portal and now spends some time out in the garden, just "taking the sun." The following photos illustrate:

Names: We have decided on a new set of names (Charlie's Angels just didn't stick with us). So here they are:

Tuesday, September 6, 2011 6:57 AM

The pups are one week old today and, right on schedule, their average weight is double what it was when they were born. They are starting to look more like little ticks than puppies. Moe is nearly two pounds now and even little Eeny is a pound and a quarter.

I expected to have quite a few puppies this fall, as I bred Sheila to Ruger and Lily to Mojave in successive months. However, the Sheila-Ruger breeding did not take and although the Lily-Mojave breeding did, we had the misfortune to lose almost half the litter on the very first day. With only four puppies, and only two clear pets at this point, I am having to contact most of the families who have expressed an interest and sent in my puppy questionaire.

This litter will be unusual for me in another regard--on Thursday I will head out with my four 17-month old puppies in my RV for Rapid City, South Dakota, for our annual Rhodesian Ridgeback National Specialty. Cheri isn't going and will be here watching over Lily and the pups in my absence. I will probably not be able to keep up the blog while I am gone, but I will catch up on September 18 when I get back.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011 5:29 PM

Well, one of my friends wrote me that "breeding is not for sissies" and this year sort of proves it for me. First, my Sheila-Ruger breeding, long planned, did not take at all. Then the Lily-Mojave breeding did take and we thought we had seven puppies by ultrasound. As it turned out, we did have seven puppies, but only four were born alive. Now it turns out that all three of the girls have faults and will not be breeding candidates or show dogs. Meeny, of course, lacks a ridge. Miny has the extra crown(s) so that does it for her. I thought Eeny was our show female prospect, but in the last day we have discovered that she has a tail kink. It is subtle but undoubtedly there. We have seen these before, so it is clearly genetic. So we are down to Moe being the only remaining show prospect. He is looking better and better every day--he has a very handsome head for a week-old puppy. We still have a long way to go before we can say if Moe's early promise holds up.

My friend Lisa Barrenger flew in today from Australia and she will drive with me to Rapid City for the RRCUS specialty, which starts Sunday. We are taking the "fab four"--Molly, Salsa, Ruby and Lola. They will all show in the 15-18 class in Junior Sweepstakes on Sunday and they will show again in various classes on Tuesday. They all got their baths today and their coats look fabulous. Hopefully they won't need another bath before Sunday morning when they go to the ring.

So this is likely to be the last blog until I return on Sept 18.

Monday, September 19, 2011 8:55 AM

My friend Lisa Barrenger, from Canberra, Australia, and I arrived back home late Saturday night after our 1400-mile, two-day drive from Rapid City. The trip was eventful and productive for the Camelot dogs. Eventful because the RV broke down (radiator trouble) only 200 miles from home and it took two full days to get it repaired and back on the road. As a result, we had to make the last 1200 miles in just 24 hours. Productive in that we did manage to get there just in time to show in Junior Sweeps, which Lisa won showing Salsa. I showed Molly, who took 3rd in the class.

I hardly recognized the four puppies! They are up to an average weight of 4 pounds now, their eyes are fully open, and they are creeping around the whelping box on unsteady feet. They had visitors yesterday--Lily's human mom Tracy Ware, and Claire Peterson and her two kids, who will be getting one of the puppies, and our friend Barb Bridwell. Lily is fully comfortable with visitors now and isn't bothered at all when strangers cuddle her pups. She no longer spends all the time in the whelping box, but only goes in every couple of hours to check on the pups and nurses about four times a day. They seem like a very healthy bunch and it won't be long before they are romping in the yard.

My friend Mary Sorosky caravaned with Lisa and I from the Specialty. Mary lives in Santa Barbara and spent Saturday night with us before driving on South on Sunday morning. She looked at the pups and does not think that Miney's tail has a kink after all. That would be great because I really wanted a female puppy from this pedigree for breeding down the road. That means that Miney will probably go to live with our friends Ken and Claire Petersen and their two children. The Petersens have had Ridgebacks for the last 18 years (predating both of the children). The last was our Uno (Ch Camelot's One for the Money), who passed away a few weeks ago.

Wednesday, September 21, 2011 9:56 AM

The pups were three weeks old yesterday and are changing daily. They have almost outgrown the little Salter kitchen scale that I use for the first three weeks. Moe is over 5 1/2 pounds, which is just about the maximum capacity. I will soon have to switch to my postal scale, which goes up to 25 pounds.

The second and third weeks are the easy times in raising a litter of puppies, especially when the litter is small, as this one is. Mom is in total control of cleanup and all I have to do is change the mat and papers in the whelping box once a day. The pups are taking their first steps toward being house-trained. They usually sleep on their little mat and when they wake up they walk off the mat, over to the other side of the box, where they squat and pee. After 24 hours, the indoor-outdoor carpet that lines the whelping box, and the papers under it, get pretty soaked and need to be replaced with new papers and a clean mat. I have four of the 4x4 ft carpet liners and every other day I wash two in our clothes washer and lay them out on the patio to dry in the sun. I don't put them through the dryer because it causes them to shrink too much.

Over the last few days, the pups have had several visitors and are having a good opportunity to be held and cuddled, which is important for their socialization as they grow up.

Friday, September 23, 2011 10:29 AM

The pups are prospering--even the smallest is 4 1/2 pounds, and chunky Moe is 5 1/2 pounds. At this age they grow in spurts--skin and hair spurts first and they look all baggy for a day or so. Then the insides catch up and they don't look so baggy. Since there are only four and since Lily is making plenty of milk, they are having a hard time digesting all the milk and have a tad of the runs today. They don't like that at all and we change their mat when it gets too skanky for them. I am scaling back on Lily's food a bit and about a week from now we will start the weaning process. They are also starting to walk around pretty much like dogs and not like little creepers. This morning Moe was barking and growling in his sleep so they are obviously starting to cultivate those skills as well.

Saturday, September 24, 2011 6:00 PM

We had visitors today--Ken and Claire Petersen and kids Katherine and Matt. The pups are now at an age where they like to be held and they got plenty of cuddling during the Petersen visit.

Sunday, September 25, 2011 8:44 AM

I had to take Moe and Meeny out to the kennel this morning to weigh them on the postal scale. Moe is 6 pounds and Meeny is 5 3/4. The transition from kitchen scale to postal scale is always a little jerky as the precision of the kitchen scale is ±1/4 ounce whereas the presition of the postal scale is ±1.4 pound. They are getting to be little dogs now--they stand with straight legs and I can begin to see for the first time how they carry themselves. As is usual when they get to this stage, the weight gain graph is beginning to dip downward, mainly due to the fact that they are now getting a fair amount of exercise running around the whelping box (well, not all the time, but for 5-minute periods several times through the day) and also because mom is having trouble producing enough milk to keep a linear growth line going as the puppies get bigger. That is, the total weight gain for the four puppies is still about 12 ounces per day. But just one week ago a 12-ounce total gain was 4.8% whereas the same 12-ounce total gain today is only 3.5%. If there were 7 or 8 puppies, the downward trend would be greater and we would probably be starting the weaning process. But with only four puppies, we expect that Lily will be able to nurse for almost another week before we start with the pan food.

Then I replace the wet papers with dry ones, put down a clean liner and mat, and return the pups to their clean home.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011 1:50 PM

The pups had more visitors yesterday, Fiona & Alex Zecca, who will be Miney's new family. They have a 3-year old female RR who is the granddaughter of Hadley, our 11-year old house dog. Today when I changed the bedding in the whelping box I gave the pups their first taste of outdoor life--exploring the privacy garden just outside our bathroom. They spent about 1/2 hour exploring and getting the feel of concrete, gravel and Miney even went out onto the grass yard through the wrought-iron fence. It is pretty hot outside now so I didn't leave them out very long. Later this afternoon when it is cooler, I will give them another taste of the wild.

Wednesday, September 28, 2011 6:38 PM

Eeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe. They are little dogs now. I gave them 1/2 hour in the garden outside the bathroom again today and they are getting a little more comfortable with being outside. Although they did all curl up against the wooden step (too high for them to negotiate) and took a nap, instead of using the nice comfy mat I put out with them--it was further from their whelping box, which was where they really wanted to go.

They also got their first bowl food today. I start the weaning process with a milk that is made to the following formula:

Puppy Milk Formula

Thursday, September 29, 2011 7:57 AM

I have given the pups three bowl meals now. This morning they roused me at 5:45 am with a cacophony of yells, wanting breakfast. I upped their chow to 1 1/2 cups of milk and a full cup of rice cereal and they wolfed it down. I took a little video with my iPhone to show that they pretty much have the hang of eating this way (although they do manage to drop some on the heads of their bowl-mates (click on the following picture to play the video).

A milestone was reached today. Eeny climbed over the barrier and out of the whelping box. After the pups (and I) had finished breakfast, I heard an uproar in the bathroom. I went back to investigate and there were Lily and Molly, and Eeny, walking around with them. Meeny had her front paws hanging over the barrier, screaming, presumably because she wanted to be out as well. So now I have pressed both door barriers into service:

Friday, September 30, 2011 9:03 AM

It is Frantic Friday! Friday morning at 8 am the houscleaning crew comes to do their weekly 2-hour job on the inside of the house and the yard crew comes to do their job mowing the lawns. My normal job is to get up at 6:30 and feed the dogs, have breakfast, shower, and go out to walk our 1/2 acre yard to pick up the poop so the yard crew has a clean canvas to work their magic. It is Cheri's job to make the Honest Kitchen breakfast for the dogs, then go through the house to put things away and give the house crew a clean canvas to work their magic. The problem is that Cheri is in Kanvas, where she went Wednesday to attend the funeral of her 92-year old Aunt Marjorie Benjamin. Also, we have four month-old puppies to take care of. To top it off, I overslept and didn't get up until 7 am today! So I busied around, made Honest Kitchen and milk and rice cereal for the puppies, showered, fed dogs, moved everyone (including Lily and puppies) to the kennel so that there are no dogs in the house while cleaning crew is here, and policed the back yard. Fortunately, the yard guys didn't come until 8:30 today.

Yesterday I cleaned the kennel, including moping the interior rooms with a dilute bleach solution, and set up one of the indoor-outdoor runs for the four puppies. They are getting pretty mobile now but they still aren't big enough to negotiate the big setp down from the dog door, so I built them a porch with steps from pieces of wood I keep in the garage for this purpose. Here is their porch:

Our kennel rooms have Hale dog doors, and these have two flaps with a 6-inch dead space between them. This makes for great insulation, both in summer and winter, but it is a little daunting for a puppy to learn. So I start them by stapling the outside flap up against the outside wall, so there is just the inside flap:

For this morning, the inside flap is still down. Later, when it warms up outside, I will tape it up so the door is fully open. They will no doubt explore and learn to come and go to the outside. In a week or so, they will be doing all their poops outside. For now, in the first day, they are just curled up in their little crate.

Monday, October 3, 2011 8:42 AM

It was an eventful day for the pups. Saturday Michael and Tracy Ware came to take Lily home for a few days--she needed a break from motherhood! She was ready to stop nursing (since the pups have a full set of puppy teeth now--sharp!-you can understand that). On the other hand, her matronly instincts were still compelling her to try to nurse them from time to time and because she was dribbling out a little milk now and again, her body was still filling up her mammary glands. So best to go home for a few days and dry out while the puppies get used to getting their full nourishment from the pan meals I give them. I will bring her back to be with the pups and give them some adult supervision next week.

They have also gotten into a routine on eating. I am transitioning them from the goats milk and rice cereal to kibble, in stages. By the end of the week their meals will be kibble, softened for a few minutes with warm water. There were a couple of days when the weren't into the swing of the change from rice cereal to powdered kibble in their milk and a couple did not gain. Today's weights show that everyone is back on the normal growth curve, with Moe still the big boy at 8 pounds and Eeny just a petite 6 pounds.

A very big step forward is that they have now learned to use the dog door connecting their indoor sleeping room with the outdoor kennel run, with the flap down. At first I had both flaps tied up so the dog door was just open. But because it is chilly at night, I have been letting the inner flap be down at night and I would go out in the morning and tie it up again. This morning when I went out to clean their sleeping room and give them their breakfast, I found the sleeping room empty--all four puppies had figured out how to push the flap and get outside. As I was cleaning their room, they all came bounding back in. So now the flap can stay down all the time. In another week or so, when they get really good with the inside flap, I will let the outside flap down as well.

Sunday afternoon we had lots of visitors, which is always good for pups this age because it contributes to their socialization. We also taught them that it is fun to run in the grass--before yesterday they prowled the concrete patio but were unwilling to venture out into the grass. Following are some pictures I snapped while the Pederson and Zecca families were visiting.

Friday, October 7, 2011 11:40 AM

We have had a lot of rain this week so the pups haven't had a chance to play in the yard since last Sunday. Today it is nice and sunny so the little critters are enjoying time on the patio. The following photos are Moe, chewing on the corner of our wooden garden basket, and Eeny, napping in a "tent" formed by an old sheet that we use to cover the cushion on our patio recliner, to protect the cushion from the adult dogs, who like to climb on with muddy feet.

The pups are completely weaned now and haven't even seen mom since she went home last weekend. Now that she has substantially dried up and isn't producing much or any milk, I will bring her back for a visit this weekend. We'll see if the pups enjoy the adult supervision. They are gaining weight at an amazing pace. This morning's weigh-in showed that Moe is now over 9 pounds and eeny is over 7 pounds.

Saturday, October 8, 2011 8:18 AM

The first photo today is the little indoor kennel room the pups use. I replaced their 300 Vari-kennel with a 400 because their combined mass was starting to spill out the door. It has several layers of bedding and they love to curl up in it. This morning I fed them and while they were out in the outer kennel room I cleaned their room (removed the papers and the indoor-outdoor carpet piece, which is replaced daily, freshened their water bowl). After they cleaned their food bowl they all went out through their dog door to poop and then came back in and curled up in their crate. When I came out later to feed the big dogs, they didn't even stir!

The other photos I have today are a few I took out in the yard yesterday afternoon. I took Eeny over to the side yard to show her to our neighbor Mari, who was out riding one of her beautiful Friesian horses. After we chatted a few minutes, I left Eeny in that part of the yard with the three teenagers, Molly, Ruby and Salsa. They played together for another half hour before Eeny found her way back across the big back lawn to the kennel to be reunited with her siblings. Next week will be fun because this is about the time the pups start to explore the greater yard (our fenced dog yard is pretty big--see the photos).

Sunday, October 9, 2011 4:05 PM

Here is the first stack photo -- Eeny at almost 6 weeks of age. She is a real looker and almost automatic to stack. Clone of her mom. She is also gaiting when she runs around the yard, not bunny hopping. I think Eeny is a keeper.

Saturday, October 15, 2011 2:16 PM

I haven't written this week but the pups have turned into little dogs. They had their first DHPP vaccinations this morning. They can run pretty fast (fast enough to get to the door before me when I leave their kennel room). They are also exploring the full yard and have taken a perverse interest in one particular area of my prized little flower garden with its centerpiece water feature. So the part they have been digging in is now fenced off with x-pen. This afternoon we will have visitors so they are out in the yard just napping in preparation.

Sunday, October 16, 2011

Yesterday was a big visiting day. Following are photos of Miney with her new family-to-be, Alex and Fiona and children, and of Meeny and her new family-to-be, Keri and Sarang.

After an hour of romping with everyone, we are pooped!

Today they are just hanging out. We are hosting our wine tasting group this afternoon and evening so the pups will undoubtedly have some more solialization. I haven't been weighing them every day but I did weigh them today. Moe is still big boy--12 pounds. Miney and Meeny are both about 11 pounds and Eeny is 10 pounds.

Monday, October 24, 2011

It has been more than a week since I wrote in the blog. My excuse is that we just completed five days of dog shows and I have been schlepping my teenagers back and forth to Pleasanton every day and spending a large part of every day there. (And then there was the World Series, of course). My teeners did well. Molly was the star. She was Reserve Winner's Bitch Thursday and Friday, then Winner's Bitch at the Bay Area Rhodesian Ridgeback Club Specialty on Saturday. This earned her AKC championship so she moved up the the "Best of Breed" class for the Sunday and Monday shows. Sunday she got an Award of Merit (meaing that she was one of the last eight dogs in the running for Best of Breed (out of more than 100). Today she did even better--she was picked as "Select Bitch" meaning that she was one of the last four dogs in the running for Best of Breed (out of about 60).

Last Tuesday I took the four pups to Bishop Ranch for their wellness exam with Dr. Lisel Pedersen. They all passed with flying colors. My main reason for wellness exam is to have their heart exam--to be sure there are no murmurs. Now that the pups are eight weeks old, I have a final evaluation of their show potential. The good news is that they are a very handsome bunch of puppies with excellent conformation. The bad news is that three of them have faults:

This leaves little Eeny as the only show prospect from the litter. It is disappointing to have this happen, especially on top of the disappointing loss of three of the puppies on the day they were born. However, if Eeny turns out to be as nica an adult as she looks now as a two-month old puppy, this litter will still be a success.

Sunday, October 30, 2011

The pups all went to their new homes on Friday. It is always bittersweet when that happens. For the last two months, taking care of the four little tykes has been at the top of the daily task list. Running around are large yard, tumbling head over heels in the grass, exploring the vegetable garden, finding ways to get into mischief--all done, at least as a group. We are happy that none of them will be "solo" dogs. Meeny and Miney are both joining families who already have an older dog. Moe and Eeny are going to stay together. And of course, we will see them regularly as Eeny is going to be a show dog and some day will have her own puppies at Camelot.