Litter Updates

6/7/09 - Week Seven and Eight

Spencer is now seven weeks old and weighs just over one and a half pounds, where the typical puppy of his age would be closer to 4-5 pounds. He is still eating puppy formula mixed with some food, but his teeth have not yet come in enough to be able to chew soaked puppy food as of yet.  He is truly in need of near constant care. His growth and development could not be foreseen in earlier weeks, as he has made gains in some areas but not in others.  At this time, given the lag in his development, he will not be ready for placement for quite some time. He needs constant care and he is not yet properly developed in his strength and motor skills, as you will see in the attached video, which was taken just last night. He is not walking or playing as he should be at seven weeks old, and he is not the “roly-poly” type of puppy that we normally place in new homes at eight to ten weeks of age. After he eats, would rather curl up and sleep instead of engaging in play or attempting to move around. He does not respond as he should to activity around him, except that he does recognize the sounds of our voices.  If he were with other littermates, he would most likely be picked on as the runt of the litter.

We are very concerned about Spencer in that not only is he not the caliber of puppy that our customers have come to expect from our breeding program, but that his development is such that he requires special attention and care. Given his present circumstances, we believe the veterinarian will not give him a satisfactory clean bill of health at this time.  As I am sure you understand, Spencer is very special to us and we need to do what is best for him at this time. We will need to keep him until he is fully ready for the outside world, which could be well into the summer at this point.  The more time that passes, the more he seems to lag behind. He is developing only as quickly as his body is allowing him, and we are doing all we can to help him grow to be as healthy and active as possible.  Just how active he will be as he grows up remains to be seen.

5/24/09 - Week Six

Spencer continues to grow, although his development is lagging by several weeks. We do not expect him to be ready for placement until he is at least ten weeks old. This is largely due to his being the only one of his litter, and having no littermates to play with, but we also think that it has something to do with his placement in the womb. He needs play time in order to get regular exercise, and we do the best we can do give him that whenever we can. He is growing into his body and learning how that all works, but he is still very tiny, wobbly, and still unsure of his motor skills. As you will see from the latest pictures, his proportions have not all caught up with each other yet, and we expect him to always be smaller than his parents or the rest of his line.

As for personality, he is doing just fine in that area. He perks up when he hears our voices or his name, he knows when it is time to eat, and he lets us know when he is displeased or when feeding time is over. We would like to get him started on semi-solids soon, but that has yet to happen as well. He is beginning to get his teeth, so we will be working more with that as time goes on.

All in all, Spencer is a joy to have around, even though he is several weeks behind in his growth. Here are the latest pictures, taken just tonight.

5/17/09 - Week Five

Spencer has had a tough week this week due to a cold and some congestion in his lungs. Since he is still being hand fed, he sometimes takes in too much at a time and aspirates formula into his lungs. He has been seen by the vet and is on an antibiotic now, which is helping. Along with that, we give him steam treatments from time to time to loosen the congestion, and he really seems to do well with those. Once he is done, he curls up and goes right into a restful sleep.

Other than that, he is doing alright. He is not progressing as quickly as we normally see with our pups, but that is because he has no litter mates to play with. We take him out to play often, and he does enjoy that too. The vet loves him and thinks that he is doing just fine. His markings are good, his tail is beginning to curl, and his vision is becoming better and more focused all the time. It's just taking him a little longer to develop since he has no other pups to wrestle with and learn with.

Here are the latest pictures, taken just last night. Enjoy!

5/10/09 - Week Four

This week, Spencer has been busy learning how to use his legs more and more! He gets around the pool pretty well now, and so we have had to adjust the angle of view on the Pug Cam to try to keep him in sight for you all! He is still nursing on formula, but is getting the chewing motion down more and more now. Soon, we hope to start weaning him away from the formula and getting hi on semi-solid food. He also has learned to give himself a snack of sorts in between meals by licking the formula from his paws! Between Daisy and the rest of us, we do our best to keep him clean, but as is with all babies, there is always leftovers to be found somewhere, and Spencer is no different!

We are trying something new this week with the Pupdate pictures. We have posted them to Google's Picasa as web albums, and have embedded all of the weekly update pictures here as a slide show. Check out the slide show below and let us know what you think!

5/2/09 - Week Three

Well, this was an exciting week for Spencer and the rest of us here at Dakota Pugs! This was the week that Spencer's eyes opened for the first time. The first one came on Wednesday, followed by the other one a day later. He is also getting the feel of his legs now, too. He is still a bit wobbly, but he gets around pretty well, especially at feeding and play time! We have trimmed his nails a bit just so that he doesn't snag them on the bedding when he moves around. The tips of the nails are like tiny little needles or hooks, and they tend to act like Velcro when he ventures out and about, so we try to keep them trimmed or filed so he doesn't snag and hurt himself.

Spencer got his first taste of the outdoors and sunshine this weekend too! It was nice and sunny this weekend, so we took him out for a moment to see what the rest of the world looks like. We're not too sure what he thought of it, as you can see in the following picture! At any rate, Spencer continues to grow and Daisy continues to be a good mother by taking good care of him.

4/26/09 - Week Two

Spencer continues to grow and thrive. Daisy stopped lactating this week because while Spencer was nursing fine, just one puppy was not enough for her system to keep producing, and she shut down. Since then, we have been feeding Spencer by hand with a milk replacement formula, and he has been loving every drop.

Both Daisy and Spencer have been to the vet for their post-whelping checkups and both are doing nicely. He is active and growing quickly. We are not concerned about the hand feeding, as Spencer received all of the colostrum he needed in the first days, and the formula is good for him. He will soon have his eyes open this coming week and then he will really become active, eventually moving to a fodder ball made of moist puppy food and formula. Daisy still does a good job of mothering him, and he gets plenty of attention, as shown in the following pictures! Click for larger images:

4/19/09 - Week One

We are pleased to introduce Spencer the Pug to you!  Spencer arrived on 4/14/09 and is going to be living in Rapid City, SD with his new humans once he is old enough.  Unfortunately, Spencer's brother and sister did not survive the whelping, however.  This was Daisy's first litter, and it was a difficult one for her.  We had to make a last minute 70 mile trip to the Vet for a C-Section, but Spencer survived and is doing well.  Daisy was a tad groggy from the surgery early on, but she is doing fine now too. 

Spencer needs littermates, so we have placed a pair of Beanie Babies in with him so he has someone to cuddle and dogpile with.  He will have plenty of attention as he grows older, so no worries there!  Here are some pictures of Spencer and Daisy's first week together for you to check out. Click on the pictures for a larger image. Be sure to watch his progress on the Dakota Pug Cam as well!

Stay tuned to this page as well as the Dakota Pug Cam for more developments and weekly Pupdates once the litter arrives!

PAST LITTERS

1/29/08 - We are happy to announce the arrival of our latest litter of puppies! Dougherty's Dakota Lil' Lili whelped 4 puppies on January 27th, 2008, and all are doing well. There are three females and one male in this litter, and they should be ready for delivery on or about the first week in April. They are all very nice looking pups, and can be seen on the Dakota Pug Cam link whenever you want to take a peek! If you are interested in one of these puppies, please let us know!

11/30/07 - Dakota Pugs is pleased to announce that we will soon be having puppies again! It has been nearly two years since we have delivered our last litter, and in the meantime, we have brought two new bitches into our lines and now they are ready to begin producing quality pug puppies.

Today, Dougherty's Dakota Lil' Lili was bred by Dougherty's Dakota Duke of Rolling Stone. This will be Lili's first litter, and we expect the breeding to be positive and that it will produce some fine puppies. We also expect our other new bitch, Bailey's Sweet Daisy Mae of Dakota Pugs, to come into heat for her first breeding within the next few weeks, and expect that breeding to occur around the first of the year. This means that we expect to have two fine litters of pug puppies available for delivery in March and April of 2008.

Please stay tuned to this site for further updates on these litters, and thank you for your patience as we grow our lines. If you are interested in becoming owned by a Dakota Pug, please contact us and sign up for our mailing list by using the "Contact Us" link listed to the left.

5/26/07 - At this time, we are excited to announce the return of the Dakota Pugs "new and improved" breeding program! We have recently acquired a beautiful little lady named Bailey's Sweet Daisy Mae of Dakota Pugs. She has an excellent pedigree, and is a proud addition to the Dakota Pugs breeding program. Her first breeding should be by the end of 2007 or early 2008. Keep watching the site for more details, and photos. Thank you for your continued interest, and please feel free to contact us to be placed on a waiting list for future litters.

11/13/05 - This is the weekend that brings mixed feelings around here. Our three little ladies are gone now, happy with their new families. Jo-Jo left for Canada on Friday, and Rhea and Maggie are on their way to Colorado as I write this. Everyone was very happy with their new little puppy, yet it is somewhat sad to see them go. One would think we would get used to it after all these years, but it never changes.

What does make it better is when you see everyone's smiling faces as they meet their new puppy. It's especially satisfying when we have return customers like the Olson's who came to pick up Rhea and Maggie, and brought Ace back for a visit. The Olson's were adopted by Ace in August of 2004, and are now being adopted by Rhea this year, so it was nice to see everyone again! The Olson's are bringing Maggie back to Colorado for Brooke, as they only live a few hours away from each other. And to have had the Haussermann family travel all the way from Winnipeg, Canada to pick up Jo-Jo and also to get to meet this wonderful family was a treat for us as well! You can see both the Olson's and Haussermann's with their new puppies in the scrapbook photos above, as well as a picture of Jo-Jo that was taken on her journey to Canada!

For as happy as everyone is with their new families, unfortunately, we still have two little homeless guys here who miss their sisters! We would love to find good homes for them soon, so if you are interested, please let us know.

11/6/05 - Well, this is it. The last pupdate for the three little girls. Rhea, Maggie and Jo-Jo will all be leaving us at the end of the week, and we will miss them. They are all going to new homes, so that makes it somewhat easier. They are all happy and healthy, and they all went to the vet yesterday for their first check up and shots and wormers. They all passed with flying colors, and everyone loved to see them.

10/23/05 - This has been a fun week for the pups. They have gotten to go outside for the first time, and that's always en experience! They are used to the warm bedding in their pool, but when they feel the cool grass in their feet and tummies, they wonder that's up with that! But they get used to it, and soon are having fun in the sun.

They are all still on track for delivery on or around November 11th. They are one big happy family, as you can see from the photo below. They are sleeping at the moment, but once they see your mouse roll over, they'll perk up for you! :)

Roll the mouse over and see what happens!