We are a responsible small family breeder of English Springer Spaniel puppies. Our goal is to place high quality, biddable dogs with joyful, gentle temperaments in dog-loving homes.
Wow, we are 4 weeks and time has flown and in another 4 more weeks we go to our new homes!
Ann thinks we look a lot like the Poky Little Puppy. What do you think?
It's amazing how quickly we are getting to know our new world! Our biggest changes have been, in no particular order:
we love to play with each other,
we love to play with toys,
we love to play with the humans,
we love to eat puppy mash,
and we love to cuddle and play with Momma!
We love to sleep
Momma always keeps her eye on us.
Tegan is going to keep one of us!
We heard that Ann and Jim are working on our new outdoor play areas too so we can run and play tag and hide and seek. Won't that be fun! And every day, Ann and Jim have talks with us. They're getting us ready for our new families. But we're not quite ready yet, see how Momma still loves to be with us?
We love our tails!
Folks sometimes ask why our tails aren't docked like some American Springers. Ann says because our tails are important for our balance, express our emotions, and are very beautiful. She also says it is in line with European and Canadian standards (we're from European and Canadian lines) where docking is illegal and it's also opposed by the American Veterinary Medical Association. Here is a link to an informative article. What do you think?
Look at our cute tails!
New Portraits!
Today Ann tried to take our portraits again because she says we get cuter and cuter every day. She placed us against a pretty piece of fabric which was fun to explore and play with but we just wanted to crawl all over her instead. It was also once again our nap time. Take a peek at us now
Time certainly has flown since we were born and we are getting busier and busier (although it might not look it here)!
We still snooze 70% of the time even with the going ons.
Visitors
The last two weeks we had visitors: Carolyn who is a BFF of Ann's and an incredible Springer field trialer checked out how cute we are, and Ann's sister Mary and their friends Pat and his twin 7 year olds came to visit from Montreal. Since we're half Canadian that was fun to play every day with our Canadian friends!
Mary helps us get our portraits done while Uncle Charlie looks on.
Charlie and Momma get some much need personal attention.
Goldie getting loved.
Tiny hands and tiny paws
Ann and Jim left us for just a little bit when they went to the fair with everyone. And guess what Ann found there? GIANT Springer puppies. She wanted to take one home to us but she just couldn't win one!
Look at all those BIG Springer puppies!
Glad we aren't way up there!
Progress Report
With all of that though a lot has been going on inside our pen. First off we began walking, then our eyes began to open (see our new portraits below), and we also began to hear!
Since we now can hear and see, we started rough housing - though we're still a bit wobbly! That meant time to introduce us the solid food.
Right now we have puppy gruel in the morning and at dinner but Momma Bella still nurses us at least 4 times a day or more. She also does a great job of cleaning us and our pen - we get pretty messy in the food dish! She still doesn't want Uncle Charlie or Grandma Addie in our "bedroom" but she does let them sniff us if Ann or Jim are holding us. And of course nothing like cuddling with Mom.
Nothing like a cuddle with Momma
Orchid has Momma all to herself (Orchid looks A LOT like Momma!)
Momma is the sweetest, she's always watches us as Ann cleans our bedroom!
And Ann realized it was time for us to have a bigger pen. Jim and Ann changed it all out last night. Ann's hoping we soon learn to use the paper instead of our blankets for eliminating but really?! We hardly know how to do this ourselves yet without Mom cleaning us and our walking is still wobbly especially on newspaper! The cool thing is that when Ann cleans our bedroom, we get to hang out by Jim's piano — we're in the music room! So any piano you hear in the background — well that's Jim playing for us!
Snoozing again while our new bedroom and play area get cleaned.
Momma checks out our larger room to make sure it is up to snuff!
That was tiring moving in!
Orchid and Indy cuddle up
Uncle Charlie keeps watch.
New Portraits!
So how would you like to see our cute portraits from a week ago when our eyes barely first opened? Well here we are!
Setting up the shots: Ann used her iPhone while Jim used his Canon. Mary and Ann took turns holding us!
Betcha didn't know we spend 90% of our time sleeping right now—helps our brains grow!
Sleeping Sienna
Orchid, Goldenrod, and Cadet Blue snoozing
I’m sitting here with them in the late evening. Charlie at my feet and Bella contentedly nursing her 6 precious Little’s (as Melanie, her Dad’s breeder calls these cutie pies).
Today they started doing 2 new things!!!! Their first attempts at barking. Until now we heard mostly peaceful suckling noises and then sounds more akin to mewing of kittens, and alarmed squeals when needed. However today little barks!!!! So cute!!!! Secondly their back legs are starting to work in a quavering fashion. You can see them flexing their tiny feet in such a way that their weight actually is supported briefly by their tiny paws. Check out the video. We even saw a belly or two a full centimeter off the ground for a second, maybe two!
Any day now they will open their eyes, they’ll be the dog equivalent of crawling then walking, and they’ll hear! Amazing that they are vocal before they even hear!!! Stay tuned!
And some day we'll be as sweet and beautiful as our Mom.
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