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Sock Puppets

Sock had a total of 8 babies, including four chocolate-brown-and-white pups - and even better, two of them are female. Chocolate brown is a new colour and only 3 breeders that we know of can currently can get that colour - it's very hard to get. Deb has bred 38 pups in the last year with a brown daddy and these are the first brown pups. So as you can imagine, Deb is over the moon and so am I.

The other 4 are a nicely marked blue roans (black and white, like their mum). Deb is strongly considering keeping one of the brown females, just in case this is a miracle and she never has another brown, in which case Deb'd be kicking herself up and down the street.

Here are the pictures. The first is the first-born pup about 5 minutes after birth, and the second is a picture of the litter at one day old. Just like dalmations, they carry more white in the coat when they're young. The deeper colouring, feathering and roaning comes in fully when they're about 6-9 months old.

The thing I am most pleased about is that Sock is in fantastic condition. She has managed to keep her bodyweight at the same time as having good-sized pups, which means she has a bit of extra fat to put in the milk, and is muscley and very fit so she won't lose her condition. I mean, only a day before giving birth, she was having her walk around the park and chasing balls. She's just flown through this pregnancy and I'm glad that I followed my instincts about her.

And the really special thing is - she didn't do what all the others have done and find a hidden corner to give birth in. She came up as close to me as possible, right on the bed next to me, licked my hand and got a bit of a pat, and then just got on with the job. I was blown away by the amount of trust she showed. It's not uncommon for bitches to hide their litters, or have them outside or something. Instead she came right close to me by choice.