Puppy care - washing and grooming

Washing and grooming 9 puppies was the most exhausting and tiring tasks I have ever done! My puppies play in y garden all the time, and that is where they get muddy and dirty. Special care and treatment should be considered, since puppies are very delicate. I followed tips from the internet in order to do this. Some of the tips are:

1. Buy your puppy a shampoo specially for dogs. Human shampoo is not recommended, since dogs and humans do not have the same pH level balance (Brotherton, 2005)
2. Warm water should be used for washing your puppy. Puppies and dogs are very sensitive to heat, so warm for you means hot for them. (Brotherton, 2005)
3. Always wash your puppies head at last. This is because when the puppies head is wet, their automatic response is shaking their whole body. Therefore, after washing the puppy's body, wrap the puppy with a towel and then wash his head. (Brotherton, 2005)
4. After washing and drying your puppy, brush him with a brush for dogs. (absolutelygolden.com, 2005)
5. Don't bathe your puppy too often. Dogs have oils on their coats which protects them. Washing your dog too often will was away these oil. (absolutelygolden.com, 2005)

Grooming is also difficult and this difficulty increases as your dog grows. Golden retrievers are a breed in which special grooming should be taken. You should groom your dog by brushing his coat with a Oval Porcupine Bristle Brush. You should also cut your dog's fingers if they grow to long by using dog nail clippers. Golden retrievers never have to be shaved. Their hair protects them from the weather and temperature.

Products for dog grooming are available at pet stores and websites. http://www.absolutelygolden.com/ offers a variety of items for golden retriever grooming.

Tip of the day: Golden retrievers are a double coated breed. They require a lot of care with their hair since they shed it everywhere. Brush your golden often, so it can make both your dog and you happy.

Puppy care - Obedience

Puppy care is an exhausting task. However, numerous amounts of websites offer tips and advises in order to give your puppy the best care.

We all want our puppies to be obedient. To do this, you need to teach him how. You need to start by giving him/her basic obedience such as no biting inappropriate objects, no barking and listening to the command "sit". The best tip for following this is this "The key to training your pup is to realize that he really does want to please you. Praise and reward your puppy for appropriate behaviour and use a stern “No” when you wish to correct his behavior" (pedigree.com, 2005).

In conclusion, dog obedience is not only important and beneficial for you, it is also a essential key for a healthy dog's life. It is cool and awesome to see a dog responding to your commands. Don't give up in teaching your dog the correct ways. If you give up, you can hire people who are dedicated into dog training. They'll do the job for you.

Fact of the day: "Golden Retrievers are: known for carrying things in their mouth (after all, they are a retriever!)" (SGRR, 2005). Therefore, buy your golden retriever some toys for chewing, so that they do not chew things that you don't want them to chew. It is essential to teach them what they can bite and what they can't if you don't want a disaster.

The pups

As I said before, 9 pups were born alive.

They are now identify by wearing a ribbon around their necks. Each ribbon has a different colour for each pup. The following list shows the colour of the ribbon and the name of the puppy wearing it:

• Red - Miena
• Blue - Fito (the only male puppy)
• Yellow - Goldice
• Dark green - Lana
• Light green - Lilo
• Magenta - Nala
• Pink - Abby
• Orange - Cinnamon
• Purple - Pucca

Thinking names for female dogs wasn't easy. I didn't name one in particular, I just agreed in the ones my sisters were saying. Anyway we put the dogs "temporary" names because we didn't like the idea that the dogs should be identify by the colour of their ribbon.

Fact of the day: The most popular dog name in NYC in 2004 was Max, followed by Lucky, Princess, Rocky and Buddy (Dog Names!, 2005). From my puppies' name list only Abby was one of the most popular ones. Abby is in the 8th place from the most popular female dog names list (Dog Names!, 2005). This means that most of the names I have given to my puppies are quite rare and unique.

The father

The puppies' father is called Chester. Chester is a smart golden retriever. I actually haven't seen him, but I would like to meet him. The one who knows Chester is my sister, which made the all the arrangements with Chester's owner, who is a friend from hers. They have told me that Chester is tall and big, his hair is slightly reddish and his mother worked as a trained dog that looks for hidden bombs.

Chester has a pedigree. A pedigree is defined as "The written record of a pure-bred dogs ancestry (lineage)" (crazyfordogs, 2005). Chester is slightly younger than Kansas, about one month younger.

The puppies where conceived at his home. Well, at the beginning we though Kansas didn't get pregnant, since she stayed at Chester's for only 4 days. I thought that they were not enough days because she was still in her heat phase (that is when she is still dropping blood from her vulva (seeFIDO, 2005)).

However, after one month, we noticed she was getting fatter. We took her to the veterinarian to see if she was successfully pregnant. The veterinarian made her a ultrasound test and she was pregnant indeed! Wohooo! What a joy! However, he couldn't determine how much puppies were going to born. I hat to do another test to find it out, but those tests were very expensive so I took it as a secret that was going to be revealed until the birth date.

This is how the story of the dogs began. These are the first puppies for both Kansas and Chester. We counted the day when the puppies will probably born. Normally the pregnancy lasts 2 months. So the birth date would be between 4th-8th of November.

When Kansas's reached her last week as pregnant, we could feel the puppies kicking. It felt like a miracle. It was also a sign indicating that the puppies were coming soon.

Tip of the day: A large breed pup stops being a puppy until he is 2 years old. This is is due to the slow growing rate of large breed dogs. They mature slower than smaller breed dogs. If pups weight more than 50 pounds, consult a veterinarian for applying a diet on your dog. (Yahoo! Pets, 2005)

Fact of the day: A dog's pregnancy time (gestation) lasts for 2 months. This is very different compared to human gestation time (9 months) because gestation time varies across species. Gestation time and life expectancy of species are very similar. Dogs get to live between 15-20 years average and humans about 72 years average (Lee, 2001).

The beginning of a story

To begin this blog, I want you all to meet my puppies!

They were born in the 7 November 2005. The delivery time was long and very difficult. It was from 11:00 am to 7:00 pm. A total of 11 puppies were inside my lovely dog Kansas. Each of the puppies got out from her womb every 30 minutes. I was very sorry that I could not attend from the beginning of the delivery to help on her because I was at school. When I returned from a long day of school at 4:00, I saw one dead puppy and I was shocked. Oh my God, the puppies are coming to the world! But what happened to this unconscious puppy? Then I rushed to the study room where Kansas was delivering and I saw 2 puppies alive and healthy next to my dad. My sister was helping in the delivery. I was surprised and excited at the same time. Then I saw Kansas and she was quite tired and stressed but she didn't stop licking a puppy next to her which was just born. "She's dead" my sister said "Retire her while she is not looking, and put it next to the one which is outside. So far, there's two dead ones". I then retired the dead puppy silently without Kansas's knowledge.

I returned to the study room to assist the rest of the delivery. Delivering was good and a unique experience. I was previously prepared by reading websites such as http://www.seefido.com/html/dog_-_puppy_delivery__whelping.htm. They taught me what to do and gave me some tips such as "By general rule, female dogs eat placentas, which is a normal conduct. Normally, the mother will bite the umbilical cordon if the puppy retains his connection with the placenta"(seefido.com, 2005). I wouldn't know that before reading that, and I would thought that my dog was crazy because she is eating placentas. I still remember the palcentas's smell and how hurtful it looked when my dog was biting the umbilical chord, which according to the website, this is normal behaviour.

The puppies rested and drank colostrum after the birth. They slept next to their mummy in the study room, so she could keep them warm "Puppies sleep together at the beginning, to preserve body heat, gradually separating as their capacity of thermo regulation develops" (seefido.com, 2005). I counted 9 puppies alive, and 2 dead. So that forms an eleven-football team. I was so happy. However I was quite disappointed, since there was one male puppy and the rest were female puppies. Female ones are difficult to sell, since people prefer male puppies. The ones that were dead were a male and a female. The dead male was the first one to be born, and I could observe that he was the biggest one. Is a shame that they died.

Fact of the day: "Golden Retrievers are trained for search & rescue, arson detection, drug detection, therapy dogs, hearing dogs, guide dogs for the blind, and handicap assistance dogs. Not to mention outstanding hunting and personal companions" (topgoldenretrieversites.net, 2005). Therefore, there is no reason why anyone wouldn't want a nice golden retriever.