Kailee and Kaito had Kai Ken Puppies
Well it has been a long time and boy oh boy has a lot happened. Most exciting I am living in Kai puppy heaven filled with cuteness every minute. Sad for me we are looking for new owners to take over the joy in about 2 weeks when they are old enough to leave Mom.
How do I start? Well, the day after Kaito turned 9 months old Kailee when into heat which pulled Mai Tai into her first heat, WOW I never knew what a bitch-in-heat meant until then. Before when Kailee went into heat we just stopped taking her to parks, classes, dog socials and other dog areas but this time we have our pack Mai Tai and Kaito that our forever friend Shigeru, that we are so grateful to, found us before we arrived in Japan to attend the Tenrankai Spring 2010, a truly memorable and enlightening experience for us thanks to Shigeru and his wonderful hospitality and translating. The first week she would not let the other dogs near her much at all and would snap and/or bark at them. At times she would put herself in her kennel and peer out the window thing and bark whenever Mai Tai or Kaito would walk by if they stopped to look at her she would start snapping, it was so darn funny, it was like she was timing herself out for being so crabby and was not happy about it at all. Kailee would also wait until Kaito and Mai Tai had finished eating and if they left any kibbles she would go guard it from them, it sure did not bother them at all.
My husband was convinced that Kailee would not let Kaito near her to mate but late Friday night within the time span of an hour things changed there was interest. When my husband got home from work I told him I had noticed a change and was keeping them apart in different rooms without doors just me keeping an eye on them and rerouting the interest. I then went to sleep and two hours later I was woken by the sounds of Kailee and Kaito hooking up.
When this phase of the heats came all of the fun left. Poor Kaito was so frustrated sexual he had already been injured by landing on a grate that we had accidently left out while working into the dark one night putting a back stop thing on the 6 ft. fence so Kaito could not jump over to chase cats, squirrels and birds down the street or wherever anymore. He went out the next morning and landing on it while trying to jump over the fence and sliced his palm paw pad and between the toes on his back foot pretty darn bad and had to have stitches for both cuts. Rob and I are both sick that this was our fault for not checking in the day light before letting the kais out in the morning. I guess I was groggy and not thinking when they woke me up by ringing the bell to go outside and did not think of checking for safety before letting them out, which was totally stupid. Poor Kaito and the pocketbook had to pay for that one, which now has healed up great on Kaito. The accident caused him to miss the last two weeks of this great class I had him in for recall because of his fence jumping, we missed the sessions that were taking the class skills to the park, another consequence cause by the stupid mistake. His healing was prolonged by his sexual frustration because when the interest started he was unable to leave the bandage alone and worked it off by licking and chewing. He sure was patient while Rob worked on getting it on so he could not get it off hopefully. We went back to the vet and they put him in a cone and on sedatives so the wound would be able to dry out and heal. I was up at the animal hospital every night before bed getting another cone because he had chewed of the one on his head. I am so not looking forward to the next heat knowing we will not have the sedatives which probably helped more than we realized at the time.
A few days later Rob got up and put Kaito out back and the girls out in the front yard and when to the bathroom only to be interrupted by the sound of Kailee and Kaito hooking up again. To Rob’s surprise Kailee had hopped the 6 ft. fence to get to Kaito who could not get over the fence from the back anymore. And Rob was worried that Kailee would not let Kaito near him, boy he has learned different.
With two unplanned mating we had no idea if one had worked or not. Kaito soon lost interest in Kailee and was obsessed with Mai Tai so I did some calling and discovered that Mai Tai had been pulled into heat early so she was having a four week heat for her first time. An extra week of no fun at all, with all three of them living in the house with us during heat, it is so not fun, we sure are not looking forward to the next ones coming. But the outcome is so special making it all worth the frustrations and efforts.
How do I start? Well, the day after Kaito turned 9 months old Kailee when into heat which pulled Mai Tai into her first heat, WOW I never knew what a bitch-in-heat meant until then. Before when Kailee went into heat we just stopped taking her to parks, classes, dog socials and other dog areas but this time we have our pack Mai Tai and Kaito that our forever friend Shigeru, that we are so grateful to, found us before we arrived in Japan to attend the Tenrankai Spring 2010, a truly memorable and enlightening experience for us thanks to Shigeru and his wonderful hospitality and translating. The first week she would not let the other dogs near her much at all and would snap and/or bark at them. At times she would put herself in her kennel and peer out the window thing and bark whenever Mai Tai or Kaito would walk by if they stopped to look at her she would start snapping, it was so darn funny, it was like she was timing herself out for being so crabby and was not happy about it at all. Kailee would also wait until Kaito and Mai Tai had finished eating and if they left any kibbles she would go guard it from them, it sure did not bother them at all.
My husband was convinced that Kailee would not let Kaito near her to mate but late Friday night within the time span of an hour things changed there was interest. When my husband got home from work I told him I had noticed a change and was keeping them apart in different rooms without doors just me keeping an eye on them and rerouting the interest. I then went to sleep and two hours later I was woken by the sounds of Kailee and Kaito hooking up.
When this phase of the heats came all of the fun left. Poor Kaito was so frustrated sexual he had already been injured by landing on a grate that we had accidently left out while working into the dark one night putting a back stop thing on the 6 ft. fence so Kaito could not jump over to chase cats, squirrels and birds down the street or wherever anymore. He went out the next morning and landing on it while trying to jump over the fence and sliced his palm paw pad and between the toes on his back foot pretty darn bad and had to have stitches for both cuts. Rob and I are both sick that this was our fault for not checking in the day light before letting the kais out in the morning. I guess I was groggy and not thinking when they woke me up by ringing the bell to go outside and did not think of checking for safety before letting them out, which was totally stupid. Poor Kaito and the pocketbook had to pay for that one, which now has healed up great on Kaito. The accident caused him to miss the last two weeks of this great class I had him in for recall because of his fence jumping, we missed the sessions that were taking the class skills to the park, another consequence cause by the stupid mistake. His healing was prolonged by his sexual frustration because when the interest started he was unable to leave the bandage alone and worked it off by licking and chewing. He sure was patient while Rob worked on getting it on so he could not get it off hopefully. We went back to the vet and they put him in a cone and on sedatives so the wound would be able to dry out and heal. I was up at the animal hospital every night before bed getting another cone because he had chewed of the one on his head. I am so not looking forward to the next heat knowing we will not have the sedatives which probably helped more than we realized at the time.
A few days later Rob got up and put Kaito out back and the girls out in the front yard and when to the bathroom only to be interrupted by the sound of Kailee and Kaito hooking up again. To Rob’s surprise Kailee had hopped the 6 ft. fence to get to Kaito who could not get over the fence from the back anymore. And Rob was worried that Kailee would not let Kaito near him, boy he has learned different.
With two unplanned mating we had no idea if one had worked or not. Kaito soon lost interest in Kailee and was obsessed with Mai Tai so I did some calling and discovered that Mai Tai had been pulled into heat early so she was having a four week heat for her first time. An extra week of no fun at all, with all three of them living in the house with us during heat, it is so not fun, we sure are not looking forward to the next ones coming. But the outcome is so special making it all worth the frustrations and efforts.
Comments
About 51/2 weeks later I could see Kailee showing a little and the seventh week she was really showing. This is about when to my surprise I received the UKC registration for Kaito and Mai Tai after applying last June or July. What a blessing the future pups will be eligible for UKC so they can be shown and we can show Kaito and Mai Tai at UKC events. The eight week Kailee looked like she had a watermelon in her petite body her normal weight is between 27 and 30 pounds and she was 33 lbs. On the evening of December 8th she rang the bell to go outside about every five minutes. It was cold outside and she wanted out front and when Kaito goes out front I have to be with him so I can help to prevent jumping over the fence I figured the babies were on her bladder making her feel like she had to go pee so it was in and out all night long.
After midnight she was still ringing I was thinking two more hours of this until Rob get home to take over I will be tired tomorrow then the bell rang again. I went out with Kaito and Mai Tai noticing Kailee did not come this time we came in and she was still sitting at the door and Mai Tai and Kaito were crowing her so I sent them away and saw a puppy was born, I went to get a towel. Kailee then got up to move away from the door I scooped up the baby and birthing and put it in the kennel I had set-up for her that she had been resisting, most likely because it was in a room she goes but her kennel had not been before. She got into the kennel and cleaned up the baby and had another two before my husband got home to see the last two being born. She seemed so comfortable having us with her assuring her during the birthing. I tried to take pictures but none turned out. After number three was born and I snapped a picture the flash let me see stripes on it, wow one was brindle at birth.
Kailee was a great mom she did not leave them for days until she went out to pee and to eat. The proud father Kaito did have a little marking problem after the birth for a day or two and he marked in the house scolding did not seem to bother him at the time. They were loud the first day but after that they were quite she was taking such good care of them and they looked so healthy. My dad came to check on them having had some experience with birthing puppies and all he had to say was how healthy they looked and that Kailee was doing an excellent job taking care of them. Kailee was not thrilled with him looking at and holding her babies she barked tons but has no problem with Rob and myself touching them. I have kept them in a room I use a lot as my office, computer room and TV viewing so they would be amongst people most of the time and I was able to put up a baby gate to keep Kaito ad Mai Tai away when we were not there to supervise. My niece who is 20 came to visit and this did not thrill Kailee either and she barked tons to show her disapproval. On Christmas Eve we went to my Moms about 10 minutes away so we took Kailee and the puppies for the family to see. At my mom’s house Kailee barked but because she is so hungry from nursing and is use to getting meat bites for treats from my mom she was able to accept treats from my mom and relax while people were holding her puppies, what a great plan we had to start socialization early without upsetting Kailee. Later that night the neighbor kids came over and Kailee was much less bothered with her puppies being held for a minute, the experience at my Moms seemed to do wonders. When their eyes opened and they started walking we moved them into the living room in a large pen. They have neighbor kids and adults visit at least 5 or 6 days a week the puppies appear to love being held and the attention. The only bad thing is Kaito and Mai Tai have picked up the bad behavior of jumping on everyone including Rob and myself for attention (they want to be the puppies getting all the attention again) and I have been trying everything to stop this behavior. Kaito can be coached to get a toy to show off to replace the jumping but this only works 50% of the time. Setting up their board game and letting them play helps some but when the game is over the jumping starts again. Having a dog come visit works but it creates chaos in the house.
One neighbor boy has taken a few puppies outside one at a time to stand on his skateboard he got for Christmas and took their picture on it with the camera he also got for Christmas; Kailee did keep a close eye on the puppies during the photo sessions. Mai Tai is found in their pen at least twice a day and Kaito visits at least once a day plus they are always visiting them from outside the pen and a neighbor dog that is part Sheppard has visited the puppies from outside the pen. Rob and I hold each one of them at least twice a day with most days being many more times because they are so cute and irresistible. When I come home from work I have the three Kais thrilled to see me and then I look and there are five cute as can be puppies squeaking looking out the pen wagging their little tails wiggling their little butts happy to see me wanting attention and to be pet. What a happy home coming I get every night it is so cool I love it. To wake up with the same greeting it really makes for a happy day. One day I woke up to see only two in the pen sleeping the other three puppies had climbed out over the short gate and were being babysat by the older ones. Kailee, Kaito and Mai Tai each had a puppy they were following around keeping an eye on waiting for me to get up and put them back in the pen, usually they don’t get up until they hear me or I wake them because they had not long before went to bed with Rob on his late night shift but, they were all three awake and on duty, it was so cool I would not have believed it unless I saw it myself.
Besides exposing them to people and dogs we have vacuumed around them, watched TV loud and low, played music, took them for a drive, take them outside and let them experience many other different sounds. I am trying to set up a time to take them to a head start preschool program to meet the children when they get a week or two older; I sure hope it works out I know the kids would love to see them.
We started them on food yesterday because their cute little teeth are getting sharp and want to feed every time they see Kailee, I figured she could use some help. They were so cute hogging that food down. Then we took them out in the yard for their first outside bathroom experience and they were all successful. They are using a pee pad 95% of the times, the few misses are not far from the pee pad. I have found that pee pads are 2.00 or more each at the local pet store and at a medical supply store I can get incontinence pads that are a little larger for .50 each and they seem to be absorbing better.
This has been a wonderful experience that I look forward to doing again. The Kai puppies look and act great I am so proud of Kailee and Kaito. Please let me know how you think I am doing and give me any advice or tips about what else we should be doing with this liter so they are ready to be great representatives of the Kai Breed and family members to their new homes when we find the right owners for them. Plus any advice on how things could be even better for the future liters we have.
The neighbor boy that has spent at least 10 hours a week with the puppies has named them but during the process was warned by his sister that naming them would increase the bonding that will be lost when the puppies go their new homes. The names are more of labels that are used to communicate between people which she approved of. After my suggestion she named one herself.
When the puppies were born there was the one brindle that looked more like Kaito and four blackies like Kailee. It has been so cool seeing them change daily eyes opening, legs walking, ears changing positing, tails cycling up and color changing. It seems that the brindle at birth one has darkened us some and the blackies are brindling looking more like Kaito than the original brindle one that appears to be going to be a different more predominate brindling than Kaito. Being blessed with Kai Ken puppies has been so much fun everyday is a joy; I wish I could take a snap in growth and keep them forever.
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Earring3.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Earring2.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Earring1.jpg
Introducing Milk: She has a small milk white dot on her chest that showed up between three and four weeks of age and this week it looks like a small drip. Shigeru said Kaito the father had a white spot of about ten white hairs on his chest when he was a puppy that is very hard to find now. Kailee the mother has a little white “y” on her chest and a very small white spot on her neck under her collar. Milk is the second largest of the puppies now and is a smarty she was the first one to discover the water bottle and learned to drink from it.
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Milk3.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Milk2.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Milk1.jpg
Introducing I Spy: She got her name from the first brindle bar close to her eye. She is the first one to doing things like climbing over the pen gate and getting out of the pool plus she explores the furthest when free in the house or yard. She is one that loves to be held in your hand while you walk around she grips on to your fingers while traveling around looking (I Spying) all about seeming very content and amused.
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/ISpy3.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/ISpy2.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/ISpy1.jpg
Introducing Pouncey: He was showing brindleing at birth, he is the biggest of the litter now, he was the first one to have his ears pop up (they did go down some the next day but are up more again) and he was the first one I heard a real bark out of. I would also say he is probably the Alpha of the litter. He got his name because instead of running he pounces when playing.
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Pouncey3.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Pouncey2.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Pouncey1.jpg
Introducing Nothing Boy: He is a cutie, like I Spy he loves to ride around hanging on to your fingers so he can be high up looking around at everything. He and Pouncey both really like to play with balls. He was named Nothing Boy because he does nothing no matter how you hold him or where you put him he does nothing to protest just goes with the flow wonderfully.
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/NothingBoy3.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/NothingBoy2.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/NothingBoy1.jpg
I suck at taking pictures, Shigeru knows I take tons of pictures and none of them amount to much, thank goodness for digital. But here are a few I am trying:
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/skateboardpractice.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Ourfirstmeal.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/NothingBoyandDadKaito.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Inthepool.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/bullytime.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/beerparty.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/bear.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/Basket.jpg
http://i1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/antlers.jpg
I look forward to seeing some pictures, but I enjoyed following the story so far.
I hope you enjoy the pups while you have them, it's always hard to see them go. We've ended up expanding our group a few times because there was just one we couldn't bear to part with.
The pups are cute, nice brindle on them! Very round eyes tho, I wonder if Kona will through that trait too?
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Very adorable puppies! (Oh, the puppy fever is returning!)
Are the puppies getting loaded on beer? lol
First feeding
Family game night
If you remove that from the image's URL it works.
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I don't mean to be the bad guy here, but I need to ask to clear it in my own mind... was this a planned litter? Do the pups have homes lined up?
~ the pictures of the puppies with props are a project I am working on for work I will not being using the beer because it is not appropriate for children. The puppies do not get all of the treats they are taken away and if I get the pictures up this time I assure you the puppy with the sucker did not get to eat it, I can’t wait to hear the conversations the picture is going to initiate when I use it at work.
~ antlers are great I heard about what a wonderful and healthy treat they are I went out and bought three I found them to be quite costly. I asked if they carried them at the meat market I get the Kais their smoked pig’s ears at and was told they had some, luckily it was hunting season, I was able to buy some for $4.00 a pound which is much more affordable. They needed to be cut off the head thing, so I came back to pick them up on the week-end. Kailee, Mai Tai and Kaito were with me when I picked them up and I did not notice the smell but it must have been good because when I got home and tried to unload, Kailee refused to get out of the car until I took out the bag of antlers.
~ Two of the girls do not have homes to go to yet but the other three do.
~ Don’t feel like the bad guy asking if this was a planned litter. The answer is that we were on a waiting list here in the United States for over two years to get a male Kai Ken to mate Kailee with. We were very blessed and lucky for the help and work of Shigeru finding us Kaito a male import from Japan and thrilled we would be able to help enhance the thinning blood line here in the US. It was not long after we got back from Japan that I receive a call saying a male puppy had been born and we had made it up on list and would be able to have one. I turned the puppy down because we were so pleased with Kaito and wanted to spend more time concentrating on our recent additions to our pack Kaito and Mai Tai before adding more.
We had not made exact plans for when they would get together because Kaito needed to be at least 9 months of age and that date and Kailee’s heat were so close I was not sure if it would be this heat or the next one but it must have been meant to this one because the day after Kaito turned 9 months Kailee went into heat. Because of what I have read I planned to control and pick when they should get together for the mating but I learned we are Kailee’s people and she makes those decisions herself because she knows what is right for her. Kailee is a smaller sized of the Kai spectrum so we were thinking that would make a difference in the size of her litter and were expecting 1 or 2 puppies 3 at the maximum so we had not planned on 5 puppies but were thrilled with the surprise. This has been such an exciting and fun experience that I can’t wait for the next litter. I was planning on the pups being a lot more work than they are and having problems with the adults getting along around the pups. I did not plan the jumping on people behavior which I would have done something about to assist with getting them in control before. I can kind of understand because the puppies get a lot of attention when people come to visit when before the puppies were born it was them that got all the attention and jealousy can bring out unwanted actions.
~ I love the game too. It has been great for teaching eating together and not guarding. Kaito was a little guardy of food when he first got here and Kailee had kind of a hard time when Kaito and Mai Tai came to live with us. The game seemed to solve that and it makes them think while playing so they are using their brains, they are very fast at it now so it must not be as much of a challenge as it was for awhile, I may have to look into a more advanced one. I do really like this one because they can play together and they sure act like they like it and come running to play when they hear it is game time. When Kailee was a bitch-in-heat she had a sharing problem and had to be sent away from the board for a timeout minute a few times because she was cheating and guarding the board from the others. It is kind of hard to believe but I would correct her and she would back away until I said ok you can play again and she would come back and play again following the rules for awhile.
It really has been the coolest experience for me to see the changes in them every day and a real treat to be able to be a part of their early socialization getting them ready for their new homes and lives with their people families. I just can’t express how much I have enjoyed seeing the changes in them. We weighted them this weekend and I was surprised to see how the size order has changed, Milk is still second largest but I Spy is now the largest and Pouncey is in the middle not the largest any more it seems like all the sudden one has this spurt of growth and the size order has changed. I also have enjoyed watching the ears going up my favorite is when they are half way up and when one ear is up and one is not all the way yet, it is so darn cute. I love to watch the tails also they are all cycled now and still trimmer when they are eating. But most amazing of all is the brindled coloring. It is hard to believe that four of them were all black at birth two of the blackies are very brindle now and I see more brindling on all of them then I do on Kailee plus they all have more brindling then I see on Mai Tai whom came to us as a blackie that I can see flicks of brindling in her now at a year of age. I sure hope I get to see what color they are when they turn a year old. Pouncey is very brindle I am thinking he may be a chu-tora, the two blackies that have brindled quite a bit seem to be more brindle in appearance than Kaito they also change in shade depending on the lighting, there has been times when I have mistaken the larger one of them for Pouncey. At first none of them had white on their chest like Kailee has or a small spot like Kaito had that I cannot see anymore then all the sudden one day I saw a small white spot on Milk’s chest which to this day remains very small like a small single jewel of a necklace. It was really hard for me to believe that many Kai Ken are born black and then brindle with age I am still waiting for Kailee to turn brindle but after witnessing the changes in this litter I am a believer because I saw it with my own eyes. I can’t wait to see what surprises the next litter will bring, I did hear that the second litter is nothing like the first one but the third one will be.
The boys are both spoken for the first person gets the choice but has not made it yet so the second family is waiting to hear which one they will be getting and has asked that I call it Kuki when I find out which one it will be so, while we are waiting for a decision I have been call all of them Kuki Kuki instead of babies, puppies or chibas like I have been and have been doing so for three days well tonight when I let them outside in the dark and called Kuki Kuki three came a running to me so I took them in and put them in the pen I then turned to the door and number four had just came in the door and number 5 was not far behind in its way in too.
They are so smart they are coming when they are called and they are so little and look so darn cute doing so.
http://s1024.photobucket.com/albums/y301/festerfairy/1-25-11 litter/