Progress for Hokkaido Club: 1st Litter Born in North America
Each of the Nihon Ken are now represented in North America with in home birth statistics following the delivery of 6 healthy Hokkaido puppies last night to Genko (Washington) and Yezo (BC, Canada). The breakdown was 6 puppies total: 2 brindles (boy/girl), 2 white boys, and 2 very black, black and tan girls. It’s a nice litter and has effectively doubled the population of potentially breed-able Hokkaido in North America.
The plan after this includes placing these puppies in cooperative homes, and health screenings on the litter for eyes and MyDogDNA, with some added tests for each parent, and translations for the database and breed club. I would also like to breed Genko one additional time...I'm undecided as to who, but I am glad there are so many males to chose from (they are just none of them closer than 3 hours away). I plan to put profits from the puppies towards these goals.
Anyways, exciting times. Genko is a champ, delivering two smaller puppies first with ease after giving very minimal signs of impending labor in comparison to my Shibas. The first two puppies were both 7 oz, where my Shiba puppies are all around 9-10 at birth.
The rest of Genko's puppies were 11ish ounces. She did need some help for the third puppy which was quite large, which required me holding onto the pup and pushing her skin over his head. Otherwise she was a pretty good whelper and wouldn't set her 1st puppy down initially, and is good about collecting them to her by carrying them where they are supposed to be, and lining them up.
I used a larger ground level whelp box this time vs a smaller waist height Shiba delivery station as she was quite large at 37#. I have a heating pad underneath them in the middle so they can chose to be on it or not, and an infrared heat lamp pointed away from mom. She reminds me all the time "Hey, I like it cold! I'm a northern breed." I also did 4 full loads of laundry during and right after delivery (it's a juicy process and Genko puked a couple times on the clean bed, which is normal).
I wish I could say that I held up as well as she did...I spent the first night sleeping next to them on a cot waking up every 20-30 minutes when she had cramping to expel the last placenta after the oxytocin injection, and to make sure everyone was warm, dry, nursing and toileting ok. I'm thankful my whelper helpers were all present in shifts to take care of my other dogs and puppies while I stayed with Genko.
This after only 2 hours of sleep the previous day following a night shift...the first 24 is always the most dramatic and precarious time, so going without the sleep and "on call" is all apart of good care as these babies are precious. Definitely not glamorous, and boy is my back sore, but I'm glad to be sleeping in a real bed on night #2.
I do still set my alarm for every 1-2 hours on the second night to check, feed mom some meat soup and ice cream or ProBloom (probiotics in goat milk to help stave off the diarrhea from eating placentas). I'm also weighing the babies every morning and two are getting weighed twice a day. I'm extremely glad I invested in a Nest Camera, as this was literally how I knew she had actually begun having puppies, and I can easily check them now on my smart device over wifi from my own bed.
I do want to do a write up on the differences with raising each breed. I plan to socialize and raise these guys as I would my Shibas and I am happy to share the progress and hurdles as they occur. I think raising them this way will help make the transition to new homes easier.
Blog: https://hokkaidousa.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/hokkaido-litter-born-9615-1st-us-litter/
Like and share about the Hokkaido Project on FB: https://www.facebook.com/HokkaidoANA/timeline
My favorite puppy so far is the brindle girl with the star on her chest
I also need help coming up with names for them all!
The plan after this includes placing these puppies in cooperative homes, and health screenings on the litter for eyes and MyDogDNA, with some added tests for each parent, and translations for the database and breed club. I would also like to breed Genko one additional time...I'm undecided as to who, but I am glad there are so many males to chose from (they are just none of them closer than 3 hours away). I plan to put profits from the puppies towards these goals.
Anyways, exciting times. Genko is a champ, delivering two smaller puppies first with ease after giving very minimal signs of impending labor in comparison to my Shibas. The first two puppies were both 7 oz, where my Shiba puppies are all around 9-10 at birth.
The rest of Genko's puppies were 11ish ounces. She did need some help for the third puppy which was quite large, which required me holding onto the pup and pushing her skin over his head. Otherwise she was a pretty good whelper and wouldn't set her 1st puppy down initially, and is good about collecting them to her by carrying them where they are supposed to be, and lining them up.
I used a larger ground level whelp box this time vs a smaller waist height Shiba delivery station as she was quite large at 37#. I have a heating pad underneath them in the middle so they can chose to be on it or not, and an infrared heat lamp pointed away from mom. She reminds me all the time "Hey, I like it cold! I'm a northern breed." I also did 4 full loads of laundry during and right after delivery (it's a juicy process and Genko puked a couple times on the clean bed, which is normal).
I wish I could say that I held up as well as she did...I spent the first night sleeping next to them on a cot waking up every 20-30 minutes when she had cramping to expel the last placenta after the oxytocin injection, and to make sure everyone was warm, dry, nursing and toileting ok. I'm thankful my whelper helpers were all present in shifts to take care of my other dogs and puppies while I stayed with Genko.
This after only 2 hours of sleep the previous day following a night shift...the first 24 is always the most dramatic and precarious time, so going without the sleep and "on call" is all apart of good care as these babies are precious. Definitely not glamorous, and boy is my back sore, but I'm glad to be sleeping in a real bed on night #2.
I do still set my alarm for every 1-2 hours on the second night to check, feed mom some meat soup and ice cream or ProBloom (probiotics in goat milk to help stave off the diarrhea from eating placentas). I'm also weighing the babies every morning and two are getting weighed twice a day. I'm extremely glad I invested in a Nest Camera, as this was literally how I knew she had actually begun having puppies, and I can easily check them now on my smart device over wifi from my own bed.
I do want to do a write up on the differences with raising each breed. I plan to socialize and raise these guys as I would my Shibas and I am happy to share the progress and hurdles as they occur. I think raising them this way will help make the transition to new homes easier.
Blog: https://hokkaidousa.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/hokkaido-litter-born-9615-1st-us-litter/
Like and share about the Hokkaido Project on FB: https://www.facebook.com/HokkaidoANA/timeline
My favorite puppy so far is the brindle girl with the star on her chest
I also need help coming up with names for them all!
Comments
Just let me know if you want people to come play with puppies. I know several people who would love to play with puppies (including me).
I know you mentioned that Tora was born first, and that made me wonder...what was the birth order of the pups?
Name for the little brindle girl with the "star": Hoshi (star)
Shared this discussion with one of the key Shiba breeders here in NorCal.
Small brindle boy
Small black/tan/brindle girl
Big black/tan/brindle girl
Red tinge white boy
Brindle girl
Very white male
More pictures please!
Red tinged white male
Small black/tan/brindle girl
Larger black/tan/brindle girl
https://hokkaidousa.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/hokkaido-puppies-2-days-old/
In summation, I want a male and female aside from what I keep, placed into separate cooperative homes fairly close to me (neighboring states or over the boarder) who agree to not spay/neuter until the puppies mature into adults for evaluation for breeding fitness/health/type. I would like the people involved to agree to some health testing when old enough, and to make the dogs available to me to use for breeding if needed on a temporary basis (ie, to bring the dog to me for a weekend to breed, or bring the female to me to whelp and place a litter). It wouldn't be a co-ownership, but an agreement for the owner to make with me.
I didn't want to go too far off the deep end with popular culture (unless you have a theme), so I thought place names from Hokkaido were good ~
Asahi (Asahikawa)
Sapporo
Sora (Sorachi)
also Taiga (sounds like tiger, but also the name for the biome of northern Hokkaido)
Puppy 1, brindle boy:
Puppy 2, small black/tan/brindle girl:
Puppy 3, larger black/tan/brindle girl:
Puppy 4, red tinged white male:
Puppy 5, brindle girl:
Puppy 6, large very white male:
There are more white/brown hairs coming in little lines, still very dark though. These are not at all like any Shiba black and tan I have ever seen, even though they are also very dark as puppies, but you can always see something in the right places...not with these babies though. I have Genko's 4 week old photos, and they were all clearly black and tan, so it will be interesting to see this develop.