We are excited to annouce for Jules final litter that we have selected the very handsome Gus, (GCHS. Dojo's You Shook Me All Night Long). Gus is a good sized boy with exceptional substance and a straight coarse coat. He has a wonderfu front assembly and rear to match and moves effortlessly on the side. Gus has a very stable, sweet temperment. Gus is currently the #1 Belgian Sheepdog in All Breed Points - with a sizable lead over the #2 dog. Gus is a Multi-Group Winning boy!!!

Jules is an exceptional dog - very biddable and sound moving. She is a lover and a lap dog, and produced VERY WELL in her first litter. She dotes are her babies and is a great momma dog! Visit her page to read more about her accomplishments! We anticipate very sound puppies - in body and mind. These babies will have the confidence to do it all! Herding, Agility, Obedience, Rally, Scentwork, Conformation, FASTCAT, Coursing, - you name it! These babies will be ready. As always, these puppies will be raised under the Puppy Culture Program including Early Neurological Stimulation.

The babies arrived on Friday Set 23, 22 - between 7:05 am - 4:45 pm. Jules was SUCH a tropper and free whelped all 10 puppies. I was nervous and concerned about her having so many babies - but she did GREAT!!! All the babies are spoken for at this time. Birth weights/order are:

• Lilac (F) - 10.9 oz
• Purple (M) - 11.1 oz
• Yellow (M) - 10.8 oz
• Pink (F) - 11.3 oz
• Teal (F) - 11.3 oz
• Red (M) - 14.6 oz
• White (M) - 13.2 oz
• Orange (F) - 11.0 oz
• Brown (M) - 12.3 oz
• Grey (M) - 14.5 oz

Week 1 Update - Sept 23-30

We did an x-ray on Sept 21st to discover Jules had A LOT of babies in there – like 10! So, I called OSU and spoke with them about scheduling a possible c-section for her if I felt she would not whelp naturally. They reviewed the x-ray and agreed – if the babies weren’t out by Friday, sept 23 AM – we should take them out. Jules did have a temp drop early on 9/22 – but didn’t seem in any hurry. The concern with 10 puppies is that the uterus can stretch so much accommodating babies, that it CAN”T contract to push them out. It’s called uterine inertia. And sometimes, you can lose puppies, sometimes you can lose the dam… it can be bad.

I spoke to the vet at OSU on 9/23 at 6:30 am – and advised that Jules really hadn’t started contracting seriously and we decided I should come up for the c-section. As I got my things and van ready to drive up, Jules hung out on the puppy porch. I walked in the room to get her to leave for OSU at 7:05 am – and she was laying in the box, having contractions. She pushed hard twice and a baby came out! I guess she didn’t want to make the hour long drive… the next baby was born at 7:55 am, then 8:15 am, then 9:55 am and finally puppy 5 arrived at 11:04 am. Jules settled down with her 5 and seemed quite content. I let her rest for while, have some ice cream and water and relax with her babies for about an hour. Then around noon – I started walking her on-lead to get her contractions going again. That was not helping… so, called the vet and asked if I could give some Oxytocin – she said yes and so about 10 minutes later at 1:02 pm – Red Male came out breech. I had to literally feel her stomach as she contracted and pull the baby out. Next in line was baby #7 at 1:39 pm, baby #8 at 1:45 pm and baby #9 at 2:46 After baby 9, Jules needed to rest – as did I and all the other babies! After two hours of intermittent walking , I decided to put Jule outside in the puppy pen and clean out the whelping bx. So, at 4:45 pm #10 puppy entered the world.

A few significant things about the puppies were that:

• Red and Grey both had rear dew claws that would be removed on 9/26.
• Orange has a large patch of white between her front legs – not sure if that will be OK or not.
• Orange also didn’t seem to thrive the first day, she had difficulty finding and getting hold of the teats and she actually lost a little weight. Vet felt upon closer review that she may have a “pinhole” cleft pallet in the back of her throat . Since Orange was small – she felt that it might close up once she has more chance to grow. We decided to try and work with her and see how it went.
• White boy has a small white dot on his chest.
• Rest of the puppies are basically all black. Very little white.

They had their first card ride to the vet on 9/26 where all babies and Jules were checked over initially. They were all very quiet on that car ride (like the last time that will happen) and Jules rec’d some fluids as she was a bit dehydrated from not drinking much water. She received an injection of meds to settle her stomach which we all surmised was still upset from consuming all 10 placenta during the birthing process. Throughout the first week – it was a real struggle to keep Jules eating and drinking well. She was just nauseous - but still did manage to take care of her babies and keep them content. I picked up the role of chief bottle feeder to try and relieve a bit of the stress from Jules and just sat next to the box at each feeding and picked up puppies and bottle fed them until they were full after they had gotten some milk from her directly. During the first week I also found a great local goat dairy about 70 miles away and went down to stock up for a weeks’ worth of fresh goats’ milk and yogurt for Jules. This has been a HUGE of her food consumption during the first week. I started Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) with the puppies on 9/27 – day 4 for them. I also add in odors/scents during the ENS exercises in hopes that I am helping puppies who might later go on to do scentwork really understand those odors as well as farm animal coat/hair/feathers for any that may do herding. ENS the first week looked like this:

• 9/27 – ENS and Birch scent
• 9/28 – Wt CK, NT and Baycox treatment. No ENS – Puppies were stressed
• 9/29 – ENS and Sheep wool
• 9/30 – ENS and Anise scent

Weights at the end of the first week are as follows:

• Lilac (F) - 1 lb 2.5 oz
• Purple (M) - 1 lb 2 oz
• Yellow (M) - 14.8 oz
• Pink (F) - 1 lb 2.4 oz
• Teal (F) - 1 lb 1.7 oz
• Red (M) - 1 lb 7.8 oz
• White (M) - 1 lb 8.5 oz
• Orange (F) - 11.8 oz
• Brown (M) - 1 lb 2.1 oz
• Grey (M) - 1 lb 7.3 oz

Week 2 Update - Oct 1- Oct 7

The second week for Jules was not a lot better. I still struggled to get her to eat consistently and we ended up putting her on some metronidazole - thinking that she may have a bit of pancreatitis going on residually from the placentas… Jules is feeding the babies and taking care of them but she still feels bad and that is very difficult to see. I am still the chief bottle feeder and we still tackle most feeding times as a team. The good part about this is the babies look forward to seeing me just as much as their momma at this point. Hoping this extra engagement will be positive for them and their human attachment going forward. This week for ENS and other milestones, it looked like this:

• 10/1 – ENS and Angus X cow hair
• 10/2 – ENS and Cypress odor. Several babies are beginning to push up on their legs. Also babies are sleeping separate some times.
• 10/3 – ENS and Chicken Feathers - new puppy collars for all the babies – they are growing quickly
• 10/4 – ENS and Wolfhound coat (from our friend Nadine - which provided most other animal clippings). Several pups are beginning to eliminate on their own now.
• 10/5 – Pups were cranky and whiny. Skipped everything today as pups started with coccidia – even though I used the Baycox. Picked up Albon and started all pups and Momma Jules on a 10 days course. This is stress related.
• 10/6 – ENS and fresh Oak leaves from outside.
• 10/7 – ENS and Duck feathers.

The babies are starting to move around more and Teal was the first puppy to have the inside corners of her eyes begin to open on 10/4, then brown boy followed on 10/6 – by 10/9 – everyone has their eyes open but are still working on focusing. Ears will be opening up next. When Jules is in the box with them – it seems like there is not enough room – because there are just so many babies. The puppies are used to me sitting in the box with them daily and now that they see me they are figuring out what humans are. All the babies are pushing themselves up more and chasing Jules around in the box now that they see her. They are typically very content – and I try to stay ahead of the drama during feeding times by making sure I’ve got my bottle ready to help the cause. IF NOT – they will cry and howl … very sad.. These babies are a bit smaller than past litters at this point but once they are able to be bowl fed – I bet they will catch up quickly. There are just so many to feed for poor Jules. The ended out Week 2 at the following weights:

• Lilac (F) – 1 lb 14.3 oz
• Purple (M) – 1 lb 11.8 oz
• Yellow (M) - 1 lb 11.3 oz
• Pink (F) – 1 lb 14.9 oz
• Teal (F) – 1 lb 14.6 oz
• Red (M) - 2 lb 2.9 oz
• White (M) – 2 lb 5.7 oz
• Orange (F) - 1 lb 3.9 oz
• Brown (M) – 1 lb 11.9 oz
• Grey (M) – 2 lb 8.2 oz

10/8 – 10/16 – Week 3 Update

Week 2 didn’t start out great as I THOUGHT the babies broke with coccidia. Coccidia is a protozoan that lives in the soil/environment - and we definitely have it at our house. It’s an opportunistic parasite that can come in and set up in the gut during times of stress. It causes smelly, gelatinous poo – which is what the babies were showing. And, if untreated can dehydrate and kill a puppy or compromised dog. So, Jules and the babies all started treatment of this on 10/7. My vet asked me to bring in a sample from Jules and we sent it off for a very complete DNA Fecal Lab Test – results will be back in a few days. I’ll recheck as they grow too. But, outside of that – they are now starting to become little dogs. As their eyes open and they can see me, Mike, Jules and their world – they are much more engaging – all herding dogs are! They WANT eye contact. They are toddling around so I added the puppy porch to their box on 10/10 so that they can practice walking more and begin to see other parts of the room and outside. I also started playing music in their room – even though their ears aren’t open quite yet - I will cycle through different music genres as they age. I also play thunderstorm and Fireworks sounds, etc..

As of 10/9- I began rotating different toys into their box. I just do one at a time now so they can all get used to this new toy each day. I’ll include the different toys on their day events. Another fun thing that I started on 10/9 was to add pee pads into the box, cause let’s face it – there is a lot of urine and stuff coming out of these babies. Jules is still pretty good about cleaning poo – but if they go on the pee pads that will reduce my trips to the laundromat. LOL. On 10/9 – the first pee pad was QUITE a success as several immediately crawled off their fleece and used it! GOOD PUPPIES!! As they get older, I have litter boxes for them. I still use just the pee pads in the boxes though - so just in case you want to prepare for you new puppy coming home – Amazon human incontinence pads are cheaper than “PET PEE PADS” and exactly the same thing… For their 10/9 nail trim, I sat in the box after they ate and put each sleeping puppy on my legs and trimmed nails. This is BY FAR the easiest way to trim nails at this age. They got lots of belly and face rubs too. It was a good experience for all.