Teva is doing really well and is now taking longer breaks away from the puppies. She has joined us on walks with the other dogs and this morning she had a good play with Tinbie, Cava and a Wubba!  She still likes to spend a lot of time in the whelping box, cleaning and feeding her puppies. She is now getting 4 meals a day, which she is quite pleased about.

We took their portraits on their one week birthday, so here they all are:

Yesterday the puppies got their first package in the mail! Yup, a parcel addressed to "Teva's Puppies". We opened it for them, as they don't have any teeth yet. The package contained a beautiful set of 8 puppy collars from our friend Christine who owns Teva's half sister, Willow. Christine makes absolutetly gorgeous collars and we are thrilled to have such adorable collars for the puppies. It will be a couple of weeks before they will be wearing them, but for sure there will be photos when they do!  Christine's website is www.nearlynakedneckwear.com Thank-you Christine!

The puppies are even more mobile now, not quite walking, but very very close..... We now have rubber-backed mats in the whelping box as this gives them better traction than just towels.

We've noticed a few developments in the puppies today. Their eyes are showing the tiniest signs of opening, just little slits so far, but they are starting to open - it will take several days and then more days after that before they can make much sense of what they are seeing. They are also beginning to notice and react to our presence, not just Teva's. If we put a hand in the box, they start to investigate it with their noses (and mouths too!). Oh yes, and their ears are starting to flop downwards, making them look more like proper little flat-coat ears and less like Vulcan-ears.

They are also now peeing and pooping without any assistance from Teva, although she is still doing a very good job of cleaning up after them. We've put a puppy pee pad in the corner of the whelping box to encourage them to start using it, and so far they have found that it's a very acceptable place to go to sleep! 

We have decided that Teva is a very "anti-clockwise" kind of dog - she goes into the whelping box and almost always winds around it in an ant-iclockwise direction. This means she ends up lying on her right side about 90% of the time and the milk glands on her left side are used much more often than those on her right side..... so we are doing what we can to try to persuade her to lie on the other side to even things out, which is proving difficult!!

July 17 & 18th, Days 11 & 12

As week 2 draws to a close, eyes continue to open a bit further and the puppies are now up and walking, albeit a wobbly and uncoordinated walk. Because they cannot see, they usually end up walking into the walls of the whelping box... They are also starting to interact a little bit with eachother, with some licking and mouthing. Grandparents, Huxley and Lupine have been in to visit a few times. Huxley looks at them an wags, Lupine is eager to help Teva raise the puppies and has helped with some cleaning. Teva is spending more time away from the puppies during the day and is now starting to have a bit of a life outside of the box. She is feeling quite playful and has been playing with Cava and even our cat, Salander!  She has been a bit uncertain about Salander up until this point, but now thinks she is quite a bit of fun.