Holly's pups have entered a new phase of development and Holly has entered a new phase of motherhood at the same time.
First, my tale of woe, which clued me in that things are changing around here. We went to bed Saturday night leaving Holly out with the pups as usual, with her doggie door open so she could let herself in and out as she wanted. About 1:00 a.m. Sunday morning Holly woke us by barking from out in Daneland. I checked the cameras and the pups were fine inside but she was unhappy outside. We couldn't sleep so I went out and brought her inside, up to a crate in the office. She continued to whine for an hour or so, and then was quiet for an hour or so. I never got back to sleep. She started up again about 4:30 a.m. and I finally got her up and out about 5:30 a.m. after discovering that she had shit in the crate. She and the pups had a very early breakfast, she stayed outside, and I finally got some more sleep.
Holly isn't nursing much now, only from a standing position and not for long. She's no longer cleaning up after them now either since they've switched to mostly solid food. I moved Holly back to adult dog food today and cut out most of her extra feedings. It's time she moved on from full-time motherhood and she seems ready to do so.
I checked back on my blog to Della's litter three years ago for a point of comparison. At the five week mark Della and moved back into the bedroom with us and the other dogs. We also cut her feeding schedule in half and the pups were entirely on moistened puppy food at that point. The other interesting fact was that Carlsberg, who was the largest of the male pups, had just passed the nine pound mark at five weeks. It's interesting that Holly's puppies are not that far behind Della's litter of Great Danes in terms of size. The largest of this litter, Boomer, was 8.85 pounds yesterday, just a few days after their five week birthday.
I also noticed when interacting with the puppies today that their curiosity, play, and sense of adventure has really gone up a level. (See video below.) They are primed and ready for a lot more activity. I'm going to start cleaning up and preparing the outdoor space tomorrow. Holly will still get as much time as she wants with the puppies and I certainly want her to be involved in their development and education for the next several weeks, but it may not be 24 hours a day involvement.
Holly is coming inside before we go to bed tonight. I don't know that we'll sleep through the night, but we'll see. I'm certainly tired enough.
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