Luna and the three pups

Someone had asked in a comment about the gender of the two sets of puppies. Three of the six month old Troopers are male, just one is female. The gender balance flips the other way with the three new born puppies, two of which are female and only one is male.

Bruno and the four Troopers are all pretty friendly. Luna is pretty comfortable in her space, but she's not yet comfortable with us. I feed her four times a day, a mixture of canned and dry food. Going into the kennel is not a problem. She stays in the shed, barring entry, and watches as I bring in the food and place it in the feeder. She prefers a minimum amount of eye contact. Sometimes she does her ferocious bark, sometimes she will even advance on me, but she's not really serious about that, just trying to encourage me to leave her and the puppies alone. I can back her off by telling her to stop or raising my hand and saying "no."

Getting into the see the puppies is a bit complicated and the two Danes actually help here. If they come over to the kennel, Luna will come out and bark at them, giving me a chance to pop into the shed and pull the door closed behind me. Then I can change the blanket in the puppies' wading pool and take the opportunity to pick them up and hold them a bit.

This evening I went out and just sat in the outdoor space for a while. Luna was laying on her bed next to the puppies, keeping an eye on the open doorway. She would occasionally get up and come to the door to check me out. No barking, just watching. She didn't leave the shed but did put her front legs down on the top step. She knows I bring the food and she doesn't want to hurt me, but she makes it clear that her puppies are off limits.

It makes me realize how lucky we were with Della. We had her a few weeks before she gave birth. She trusted Clay and I completely with her puppies from the very beginning. She gave birth to the first one in the crate in my office. I picked up the pup and carried it to the whelping pool in the guest room. Della followed right along but she was fine with me holding her puppy. We were able to weigh each one several times a day. Della would keep an eye on what we were doing but she was fine. I'm not sure Luna will ever be that comfortable with us handling the pups, at least for a while, so we will have to close her out and slip inside to handle her pups the way we did the 12 pack.

Luna saying "back off, Jack."