How we raise our puppies at Shannon Down


Our puppies at Shannon Down are whelped in Krystyl's bedroom and at a few days old their dewclaws are removed at home.  When they are born, they are weighed and we continue to weigh them every few days up until about 2 weeks old.  After that time we don't bother weighing them unless they appear to not be putting on weight.  At 3 weeks old, we introduce their first 'mush meal' that normally consists of ground up chicken or turkey mixed with warm milk or water to make it liquidy and easy for them to lap up.  It's normally a messy ordeal and they tend to play in it more than actually eat it but they get a taste for it and after a few days they get very excited when it's time for a meal. 

We start them out on one mush meal a day until they start to really eat the mush, then we move up to two meals a day and once they are good at handling that they move up to 3 mush meals a day.  They continue to nurse on mom as well but she can come and go out of the whelping box as she pleases.  Once those teeth start coming in around 3 weeks old the mother's tend to cut back on the amount of nursing the puppies do which is why we start introducing the mush at this age.   As the weeks progress we also put less liquid in the mush so that it's not so thin, as their teeth come in they start chewing some more so we tend to leave a few chunks of ground meat in there for them to chew on. 

At about 4 weeks old, or sometimes a little earlier if they are climbing out of the whelping box already, they are moved into an ex-pen in the dining room so that they can be around the family, other dogs and all the noises and become acclimated to the commotion of every day life.  At this time we also introduce them to the litter box, they learn to use the litter box incredibly quick and really helps with mess clean up while they are in the process of learning to ask to go outside to potty.  For some reason, we have found that using the litter box helps house train them even faster.  They tend to be very clean and do not like to potty in their play area, even in the litter box, but will use the litter box if we can not get to them fast enough to let them out.

At 4 weeks old we also start to take them outside to explore and learn to potty outside.  With the Winter litters the house training can take a little bit more time than with the Summer litters due to it being cold outside, no little puppy wants to go outside when it's cold out.  Since we have a porch with steps we walk the puppies up and down the steps until they learn to go up and down them themselves, and they are accompanied by one of us and usually their mother when they are outdoors for at least the first week, then their mother will go out with them when she wants but they are usually so interested in exploring they pay no attention to her.  In the Winter time they usually only go out long enough to potty and then come back in, but in the Summer they stay out for longer periods of time to play. 

Once their teeth come in all the way they start eating more solids, such as pieces of chicken, organ meat, tripe and chicken necks.  At about 7-8 weeks old we start introducing kibble to their meals as we want their tummies to get use to a kibble diet before they leave for the new homes as we understand not all homes will want to feed a raw diet.

From about 5 weeks on, our puppies also play loose in the house, always supervised by us and a few of the tolerant adult dogs and their mother.  Some of the adult dogs do not like puppies in their faces and running circles around them so they are put in crates or outside to play while the puppies have the run of the living room for a little while.