Pups get Picked!

First Born, "Patriot" (Red Boy) is now happy to be,  " Gibbs" !

"Precious" (Turquoise Girl) loves her new name, " Molly"

It was so nice to meet the puppies' new families.  We are so happy for these pups ...they've chosen their forever families! Congratulations to all!! 

Adventurous "Squeakers" (Orange Boy) is now "Maverick"

"Sweetie Pie" (Lt. Pink Girl) is excited to join her new family!
(not yet named)

Playful "Lewis" (White Boy) is now"Max" 

"Precious" (Green Girl) is now "Maisey"

Playful "Blue Boy" (Blue Male) has been named, "Sirius"

"Dreamer" (Dark Pink Girl) is now Miss Macy.

Our last puppy, "Piggy" (Black Male) is now ARCHER! 

Yellow Boy "Wiggles" is now ROCKET!

Pups Play Outside!

The yard outside has opened up a whole new world for the puppies!  They aren't quite sure what to do with it, but they think it's great fun!  We just started taking them out once a day for a little     sniffing around time.

A few minutes of exploring and they are pooped! (no pun intended)
Then they all crash and fall back to sleep.

Curious Pup wants to know what that
 black thing is in my hand that keeps
getting pointed at him! (my camera)

 
                               Puppy Portrait 
          (he sat very nicely for his picture being taken)

Play Yard & Puppy Food

Oh, the pups are so excited!  They go in their new play yard several times a day for playtime AND puppy food time! The new play yard is set up in our family room and with plastic sheeting on the floor underneath, it's a great place to feed them and/or let them run around.  Here are some pics of them in the play yard and a short video clip of one them eating.  

little red boy - the first born

 Messy...but that's why there's plastic! ;-)
Yes, they have already begun the weaning process.  Golden Retrievers start weaning at 3 weeks old.  The first day we gave them puppy food (soaked in water and mashed), we thought they wouldn't know what to do.  Often puppies will just walk right through it, play in it or ignore it.  Not these puppies! They all went right to it and knew just what to do - what smart little puppies! ;-)  We are feeding them puppy food two times a day and they still get plenty of nursing time with Daisy (still their primary source of food).  

As you can see...some are quite enthusiastic and like get right in there! 

Pups want to know what's going on outside of the playpen too!

Short, but sweet little video clip of one of the little ones in the food dish.

Bathtime!

Most of the puppies love their "bath" which
consists of a wipe down from head to toe
with a warm wet washcloth (just warm water,
 no soap of any kind at this point) and then
a rub down with a dry towel.

Puppy "bath time" happens nearly every day.  With ten little puppies piling on top of each other all the time, things can get messy pretty quickly!   We thought you might like to see some pics of a precious wet puppy.

 It magically makes them fluffy and sweet all over again!  

One sweet clean puppy!

Puppies at Play (2 weeks)

It's been a few days since we've posted anything....its' been a furry (I mean flurry) of activity around here. ;-) We thought we would post a few updated pictures of the pups and a video showing them "play" together. We also wanted everyone to know that the littlest females are doing GREAT! They are gaining weight by leaps and bounds (we only had to bottle feed them for a few days) and now they are keeping up with the big dogs. ;-) They are SO much fun! Fun to watch, fun to cuddle and so much fun to see them change day by day.

Eyes Wide Open!

Look, I'm 12 days old and I'm the first one to open my eyes!!!

Puppy Progress

Right from birth, we identified the puppies in order of birth by marking them each with a different colored string around their necks.  This is useful to identify them so that we can weigh them and keep track of each one's progress.  We enter the weight into a spreadsheet, to keep track on this graph below:

Week 1 progress - they are all doing well!!

Puppy's are 1 week old!

Well, it's been a busy week here at the Bates' household!  

Our biggest puppy!!

We've been doing extra laundry, making sure Daisy has plenty of food and water, outdoor time and alone moments with her family while babies are sleeping.   While she steps out for a moment, don't think those puppies are left alone for long!  Our whole family can't get enough puppy time. They are SOOOOOO sweet! Daisy Mae has proven to be a VERY attentive and excellent Mama!  We are constantly amazed at the individual care and gentleness she gives to those 10 little puppies. 

Every morning and evening the puppies get weighed to make sure they are progressing nicely.  We have had a bit of a challenging week because two of our lowest weight females were not gaining at all.  We were giving them extra time alone nursing (a head start) while the others waited patiently in a separate heating pad lined box.  After a visit to the vets, we've been bottle feeding every two hours, day and night.  Needless to say, we are tired, but we're happy to announce that for three days in a row they each have been gaining at least an ounce - which is HUGE for them!  Yay!!  All of the other puppies are growing by leaps and bounds.  Our biggest puppy was 17.6 oz. at birth and as of today is 25 oz!  It's quite amazing how quickly they grow and change.  Here are some 1 week old photos. Enjoy!  

Our smallest puppy being burped
after bottle feeding

Second to the smallest female
being bottle fed

the two smallest puppies - now up 3 oz.!!! 

another picture of the smallest female puppy - absolutely adorable