Deutscher Schäferhund
Mother & Puppies at vom Ostmeer
24 hours before our German shepherd puppies are born; we are by their mother's side to provided her needs and watch over her. Just in case of anything unexpected happen and of course we wanted to be there to support and care for her. We will never allow her to go through this on her own. During the first stage of labor the cervix begins to dilate and uterine contractions begin. These contractions are painful and perplexing to the dog. She will appear quite uncomfortable and restless - pacing, shivering and panting.
During the second stage of labor, uterine contractions begin in force. As this stage progresses the placental water sacks break and a straw-colored fluid is passed. Placentas are expelled after each puppy or sporadically during labor. Once the puppy is expelled, we were there to assist their mother to free them from the sac. We make sure the placentas came out. When their mother was trimming their umbilical cord (bonding), we were there to make sure she trimmed the cord nicely and not too short, we helped rubbing the puppy till we hear him gasp, wiped the newborns dry with clean towels and place them at their mom’s belly in search of milk. From birth, puppies are able to use their sense of smell and touch, which helps them root about the nest to find their mother's scent-marked breasts.
The first milk the mother produces, called colostrum, is rich in antibodies that provide passive immunity and help protect the babies from disease during these early weeks of life. It is very important to make sure all the puppies are cleaned, dried and nursed.
We record the ribbon color and weight of each puppy so that, we can make sure that each one is gaining weight each day. Someone is always present with the puppies during the first 10 days (days and nights) we ensuring the air temperature in the puppies whelping box must be maintained at
80°F-85°F for the first 10 days, then lowered to about 72°F-80°F on day 14.
* A newborn puppy must stay warm; he is incapable of regulating his own temperature. They often cuddle with their mom and litter mates to get warmer.
Starting from day 3 until day 16 , our German Shepher puppies are on The "Bio Sensor" super dog program. This was also concerned with early neurological stimulation in order to give the dog a superior advantage. Its development utilized five exercises which were designed to stimulate the neurological system. By Dr. Carmen Battaglia.
At about Two weeks old , puppies eyes start opening. Although their vision are hardly perfect, and their hearing begins to detect sounds. At this age, German Shepherd puppies actually start looking more like puppies, they are able to stand and sit wobbly, and they often fall off to the side when they walk. Although they are slow, but very mobile and active to explore their surroundings. I begin to trim their nails every 3 days at this age, short nails can prevent hurting their mom's breasts when nursing and to prevent them from scratching their littermates ear, nose and eyes when they move around.
At Three weeks old, puppies already walk quite nicely, they play with their littermates and mom.
We start introducing them to some soft food, such as raw ground beef mixed with goat's milk and raw egg yolk.
Our German Shepherd puppies begin their potty training around 3.5 weeks old. We believe early training
is ensential and this is a very important IMPRINT concept of housetraining at an early age. This in return not
only helps us keep the whelping area clean, it makes the puppy easier to housebreak once they go to
their new homes.
* During this period, I changed their bedding 2 times a day to keep them comfortable and begin to give
them dry bath so they can stay fresh like a cotton ball.
Four weeks old puppies are lots of fun. They bouncing around and are very active little fur balls, Cute but as their claws are pretty sharp and baby needle teeth are already in and being used. , Mother’s milk supply decreases as the appetites of the puppies increase, so we begin to feed them three times
a day to keep them healthy and full. * Nail trimming them every 3-5 days + Potty trianing continues + changed bedding 2-3 times a day now.
At 5 weeks old, Our German Shepherd puppies will received their first set of deworm. Taking all of the puppies out on a car ride to the vet's office is a great opportunity to introduced car ride, traffic noises
and scentl of the outside world. Puppies normally won't mind these sounds as I started playing movie's for them to hear different type of sounds everyday since they were 2.5 weeks old. * Continue potty taining + dry bath + nail trimming and change bedding 3-4 times a day now.
When puppies are 5-6 weeks I allow them to visit our outdoor space for 10 -15 minutes at a time, several times a day. Their mother will join them for a nice sun bath or have some play time together. I begin brushing puppies coats at this age. I also introduce them to different objects and train them to sit and lay down, immediately praise them as soon as they respond to the commend, I truly enjoy this bonding time with our puppies and I believe this early training would benifit puppies' life as well as their new family in the future. I feed our puppies whole goat's milk + ground beef or can puppy food or dry food soaked with warm water + 1 raw egg yolk + plain yogurt , baby carrots are also given to them as chew toy. * Potty training continues, change bedding 5-7 times a day.
By Six to Seven weeks of age we start welcoming visitors. This is a great socialization opportunity for them. *Potty Training continues , crate is introduced to each puppy for 2-3 mins at a time.
During 7 - 8 weeks our German Shepherd puppies get microchiped and are ready to go to their new homes soon! It is sad to see them go, I always want to keep one or two special puppies for my own, But at a certain point I have to make sure that we don’t end up with too many dogs that we can not give enough daily individual attention to.
Thank you for reading this article about how we raised our German Shepherd Puppies at Team vom Ostmeer. Remember to love, care and be patient with your new puppy, give him enough attention daily, feed him quality food and be sure to train him, becasue " A trained dog is a good dog "
