9 puppies down to 4 :(

It's been a very exhausting and somewhat traumatic day today. Last night we saw the first of our pups leave for their new home and today another 4 left. We're so happy to see them going to such wonderful, enthusiastic, loving new owners but it's also sad to see the back of the little guys after being there so far for every minute of their wee lives. On one hand it seems just last week that Jess was giving birth to them all as we stood by nervous and excited. On the other hand though it feels like these puppies have evaded our lives for as long as I can remember !  It's hard to picture our household with Jess being the only dog in it !

It's been a truly rewarding and interesting journey, and I've really enjoyed learning and sharing everything about the whole breeding process,  but it's also been very exhausting. We've got to say our goodbye's to another puppy tomorrow, then another on Tuesday. The last one is staying with us for a couple of extra weeks and then we will just be left with our girl - Lucy (and Jess). From 10 dogs back down to 2.

The million dollar question everyone is quick to ask is "Would I do it again". If it meant doing it all in 4-6 months time from now, my answer would definitely be no !  Seeing as though it will be a lot longer than that though (16 months till Jess' second season from now), I'll defer my answer to closer to the time :)  I would love to do it again but it would definitely all depend on our situation at the time - especially with regards to work. I've been lucky enough to be able to take it easy on the work front for the past 6-8 weeks - without the ability to do that it would have been an impossible task !

Cost update

Hopefully, all costs from the breeding are now in. I've estimated that over the 8 weeks that Jess required additional food (up to 4 times her normal amount at peak lactation) to the tune of £168. Extrapolating what it's costing us at the moment to feed the puppies to next Saturday brings the total cost of their food for the (nearly) 8 weeks to £90 for meat, plus £24 for the kibble for a total of £114.

Add to that £10 for puppy pack folders and DVD's etc... and the grand total cost of this breeding comes to

£2,337.33


Certainly not an insignificant amount of money !

Eating out of house and home

It seems like these guys are draining the freezer of meat nearly as quickly as I put it in !  They are now on about 400g per day split over 4 feeds. That's 3.6 kg per day for the 9 pups, plus about 600g for Jess or a total of 4.2kg. That equates to nearly 30kg in a week of food !  We're feeding nearly the equivalent of ten adult Labrador dogs at the moment. Just as well they start to leave from next Saturday else we would go broke with the food bill..... :)

More photos....

Week Six

and

Week Seven

Nicky, who took some amazing puppy photos back in week three, came back again today and did some studio and groups shots. It will take a little while for her to go through them all, touch them up and to upload but I will let you know as soon as she does.

Can't believe that they start to go to their new homes a week today. Not sure whether that deserves a :) or a :( - perhaps both !

Wall of puppies :)