Regular readers will know our beautiful dogs, Biscuit and Blue had a litter of stunning cavapoochon puppies 8 weeks ago. The puppies are now ready to go to their new homes (aside from one of the puppies, Castiel who we have decided to keep). It’s been a tough 8 weeks and we feel the puppies are very much ready to settle in with their new families.
In a previous post, I detailed the first month in the life of our cavapoochon puppies. A lot has happened since then.
From week 4, the puppy’s development accelerated at an unbelievable speed.
Feeding
We began to wean the puppies at 3 and a half weeks. One of the puppies, Arlo took to puppy food with incredible ease. He is the biggest in the litter and is always the hungriest. The other 2 puppies took a few extra days to become used to eating solid food rather than solely relying on their mother’s milk.
As each day passed by, all the puppies ate more and more. By the middle of week 4, they understood when it was feeding time and would hover around the kitchen waiting for their food. By week 6, they would venture to the spot in the kitchen where their food was stored and prepared when they were hungry.
They spent less and less time feeding from mum. By week 7, they were barely feeling from Mum. When they attempted to, Mum would run away or push them gently aside. She was clearly in discomfort when they did latch on to her.
When they did touch her teats, she would sometimes vomit. After much googling, I discovered this is a reflex. Mother dogs will sometimes vomit to provide food for their newborns once weaned who are as yet unable to ‘hunt’ for their own food.
Walking
All the puppies were very keen to be moving around as soon as they were able. Fortunately, we didn’t have any lazy movers!
By week 4, the puppies were able to stand and walk around. By week 5, they were confidently running around the house. Those initial steps and runs were wobbly and absolutely adorable! While they found their legs, they would sometimes drag their back legs behind them as they moved. All puppies however had stopped doing this by week 6.
Sleeping
I slept downstairs with the puppies until week 4. I slept on the sofa and they slept in their playpen. By week 4 though I was really missing my bed. We made use of a crate we have for Biscuit and Blue. So from week 4, the puppies slept in their crate together. The crate was placed in our bedroom so I could enjoy some sleep.
Until week 6, the puppies would wake up in the night, usually around 4 a.m. They would cry, and I would let Biscuit into the crate. She would feed them and then I would let her out of the crate and they would go back to sleep. They then woke up at 7.30 every morning.
All puppies have been excellent at sleeping through the night overall. By mid-week 6, the puppies would sleep straight through the night without waking up. Amazing!
The puppies would nap frequently throughout the day, but as one puppy woke up, they would all wake up!
Toilet Training
We were very fortunate in that the puppies took rather well to the puppy pads. From around 4 and a half weeks of age, each puppy would do perhaps 75% of their wees on the puppy pads. We left one just outside their playpen, and one at the back door.
Their poos were a different matter entirely! We would find these all over the house and never in the same places! Sometimes we could smell it, but couldn’t see it!
The puppies had their first vaccination at 8 weeks of age. This meant they were then able to go out into the garden. We have had a few days with them in the garden before they go to their new homes. They have all managed to do some toilet in the garden which is a great start!
Life with 8-week-old puppies
I must say, it was so much easier when the puppies were first born. All we really had to do back then was to take care of Biscuit. Now we need eyes in the back of our heads! They are into absolutely everything!
All the puppies have taken a liking to my Converse trainers. As soon as I move one of them away from the shoe, another has found it and is chewing it!
They enjoy lying under the sofa, however, they are also fond of chewing the material underneath the sofa too. It feels as though every minute of every day we are pulling at least one of them from under the sofa!
The puppies had a dog bed and this is the bed Biscuit gave birth in. They had slept in this right up until week 7. We went out of the house for an hour and watched the puppies via the pup camera. To our horror, we could only see two out of the three puppies. Panic set in and we dashed back to the car. We soon realised one of the puppies, Belle, had managed to chew her way through the bed and was trapped inside it! Her brothers jumped onto the bed as she wriggled around inside and eventually emerged as we made our way home! The little rascal!
But despite all the hard work, the exhaustion, raising these puppies has been one of the most rewarding experiences. We have grown attached to them all and we will miss them dearly. Although they are going to their forever homes, they will always be a part of our family! And will always be loved by us all.
You can see videos of the puppy’s progress on our YouTube channel! We upload videos regularly to the channel and you can continue to follow the progress of Castiel as he grows!
