Weighing In!

Here we are on Day Three and the pups are beginning to crawl around a lot! We put their new wool mat into the box today and it gives them much better traction. They are pretty darn mobile for only being in the world for 72 hours!

We have been weighing the pups since Day One. All along Astra has been leading the pack, though Andros keeps eating like he's trying to catch up to her! ;) Here are our Day One weights compared to Day Three. The pups should more than double their birth weight in their first week to ten days!

Astra: Born 23.3 ounces, Today 32.0 ounces (Astra wins the race to two pounds!)
Andros: Born 21.9 ounces, Today 30.9 ounces
Ajax: Born 12.5 ounces, Today 19.0 ounces


Today Astra won the title "Astra the Traveler". She finds it entertaining to crawl under a rail and then follow it all the way around the whelping box until she finds a comfortable corner to fall asleep in! Here are a couple of shots of Astra being herself (sleeping!).




Andros is eating and growing like crazy! His black-and-tan dual markings are starting to show up more now! It is fascinating to see how the colors of the pups change even from day to day! While he was still mostly black, though, he decided to play at being a ninja. Black puppy on black heating pad!


And Andros again:


Little Ajax is doing really well! He has learned that if he really wants to get in a good eating session, he should do it while his big sibs are asleep. ;) His color continues to be very beautiful, subtle shadings of grey and black. I am interested to see if he stays grey; my money is that the greyish color will turn to brown or tan like his mom's as he grows. :) Here are a couple of shots of little Ajax:



And just a few of mom and pups, since the light was good!




Thanks for reading, everyone! Check back for more photos in a couple days! :D

Please Welcome the Kyrie/Leo Pups!

Welcome to the official blog for Sparta ISSR Shiloh Shepherds Kyrie/Leo litter!


Kyrie re-wrote the rules throughout her pregnancy. She started giving milk and shorting herself on food around day 59 from the first AI, and kept us up late on puppy watch for a week with pre-labor spasms and panting--and yet she didn't actually deliver the pups 'till the 66th day!


On Saturday, March 26th, I had just emailed our co-owner and Breed Founder, Tina, that we likely wouldn't have pups today because Kyrie had cleaned her breakfast bowl and her temp hadn't dropped like it was supposed to. We were letting the other dogs out, I turned around and boom! She was in labor. One scorching-fast call to our on-call vet tech later and we began. It was actually an almost-ideal time; around ten a.m., so we were well awake and fairly energized!


Astra, our big white/buff girl, hit the ground squeaking about thirty minutes after Kyrie's water broke. We were going to call her Luna, in honor of the super-bright moon a couple nights before. But I thought since we are Sparta the Greek/Latin word for "Star" would be appropriate. Zak was supposed to name them but he let me get away with that one--I think because he didn't have any girl names picked out--he was hoping for three boys!


We were really startled to see a white/buff in this litter, and Zak said Tina was surprised too, when he called to tell her the news! We all thought for sure that Leo did not carry the white recessive. Well, we were wrong! It must have come from Grandpa Grizz by way of Holly! We knew that Kyrie had the recessive because her sire is white.


An hour after Astra we got Andros, which is Latin/Greek for "manly" or "warrior", a nice large boy! Andros came out wiggling and was a very mobile pup. He latched on to his first "drink" in no time! He is very dark but does have brown color on his paws and under his tail, so will likely be a black-and-tan dual or perhaps a bi-color. We will see how much black he loses as he gets older! This made me happy because I was hoping that Leo, though a sable, had a dual recessive. I like getting a variety of patterns! The only thing that would have made our "rainbow litter" complete would have been a solid black!


Only ten minutes later, as we were drying Andros and keeping him warm as he fed, our last little one slipped quietly into the world. Kyrie didn't even arch her back or stop cleaning Andros--just bang, I looked down and there was another pup! He was smaller than the others so must have come out easier. At birth he looked like a dark sable. Below, you can see him on the bottom, Andros on the top.


Zak wanted to name our last little boy Maxim (he wanted to do gun names for the whole litter!) but in the end he decided on Ajax! We are going with Greek names to fit with Sparta Shilohs, and since this is our first litter we will do the old traditional kennel naming: our first litter pups' call names will start with the first letter of the alphabet. :) Below, a close-up of Ajax:


Sizes...Astra is HUGE, almost a pound and a half at birth! Andros was just a bit beneath her, and little Ajax was a few ounces short of a pound, though he made up a lot of ground when we weighed him on his second day!


One last thing--I don't know how our Licensed Breeders do it. Kyrie and I were exhausted and we had a daytime whelping with only three pups. Some of our Breeders have gotten thirteen with labor that started at 2 a.m...I am just in awe. They are super-human!


We hope you enjoyed the photos and will keep checking back for more news!