• The TUGBBS forums are completely free and open to the public and exist as the absolute best place for owners to get help and advice about their timeshares for more than 30 years!

    Join Tens of Thousands of other Owners just like you here to get any and all Timeshare questions answered 24 hours a day!
  • TUG started 30 years ago in October 1993 as a group of regular Timeshare owners just like you!

    Read about our 30th anniversary: Happy 30th Birthday TUG!
  • TUG has a YouTube Channel to produce weekly short informative videos on popular Timeshare topics!

    Free memberships for every 50 subscribers!

    Visit TUG on Youtube!
  • TUG has now saved timeshare owners more than $21,000,000 dollars just by finding us in time to rescind a new Timeshare purchase! A truly incredible milestone!

    Read more here: TUG saves owners more than $21 Million dollars
  • Sign up to get the TUG Newsletter for free!

    60,000+ subscribing owners! A weekly recap of the best Timeshare resort reviews and the most popular topics discussed by owners!
  • Our official "end my sales presentation early" T-shirts are available again! Also come with the option for a free membership extension with purchase to offset the cost!

    All T-shirt options here!
  • A few of the most common links here on the forums for newbies and guests!

Puppies

Glynda

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
3,781
Reaction score
2,552
Points
599
Location
Charleston, SC
Resorts Owned
Bluegreen Points Lodge Alley Inn.
Brewster Green (two weeks).
Thanks for this information. You heard this first here: Our beloved blind Lowchen departed for the Rainbow Bridge just before Christmas. I fought adopting another for some time, but of course a silent house is not a good thing. So we've put in an application and deposit for a Goldendoodle from a local breeder who seems to run a clean, dog-oriented, non-puppymill business. All the parent dogs live with host families then when birth is immanent, the moms go to the homes of the principals who adhere to Puppy Culture and ENS training for each litter for 8 weeks before they go to their new homes. We are looking to get our new companion by mid-Summer.

Jim

We've said that our Shih Tzu, Olive, will be our last. She's 10 1/2 yrs old. But I can not imagine life without a dog. I do know that we don't have another puppy in us so when/if the times comes we will adopt an older dog. Looking forward to seeing a pic of your new doodle this Summer!
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Well, I have kind of a sad update: a week ago boy puppy stopped nursing overnight and then by the next morning he was exhibiting respiratory distress. I assumed he had aspiration pneumonia and went all In on treating him. I made him a little oxygen mask (yes I had oxygen at home!), I tube fed him formula every 2 hours, gave antibiotics and fluids, and I nebulized and coupaged him (using an electric toothbrush).

At first it seemed like he was getting better, and then I realized he was just waxing and waning. Sadly we lost him after about 48 hr. I did a little autopsy on him and didn’t find much- lungs, heart, diaphragm all looked grossly ok (I did not send any tissue for microscopic exam because I didn’t have any formalin at home). Likewise there was no cleft palate, and brain and abd organs looked ok. It still could have been pneumonia that I couldn’t appreciate, for functional disease of the heart, lungs and liver.

Mama Phoenix was distraught and took it hard for a few days. But she and her Girl Puppy are now thriving.

Boy puppy on oxygen:

15326323-3475-4287-B273-661336CC3BA0.jpeg





Mama Phoenix with her babies, boy puppy with oxygen mask:

54E2CF7D-2B13-449A-9844-64EC6BD54B13.jpeg



Did I mention this was such a sad thing?! Totally sad. However this is the way of life. Neonatal pups are very fragile, there’s actually a 30% mortality rate in the first two weeks. Who knew?
 
Last edited:

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
i mentioned Phoenix had a rough couple of days searching for her boy, but she has bounced back nicely and is a great doting mama to her girl puppy. Ninety five percent of the time.

The other 5% of the time, she tends to lie on her pup, or “hug” her by tucking the pup under her chin and resting her head lightly on her but then falling asleep and relaxing her head too heavily on the pup. So hubby and I have been on 24 hr puppy watch, sleeping In shifts. It’s been exhausting. However, it should be getting better soon, as pup is getting bigger and stronger every day. Probably another week of this continual watch.

Im normally the kind of person who rushes around and gets a lot of stuff done. But I will say hanging out and watching a puppy nurse is pretty relaxing.

Post nursing sleepy bliss state. This is very common, lol.
0820A88B-18C1-4FD4-999E-5F7DE87448AF.jpeg



Phoenix wondering when this pup will start fending for itself. Lol.
45089610-4AB6-44B1-8594-B0B6E5171BD4.jpeg



Mama love.
17F562EF-D109-48C5-AD6E-6B92B0B10677.jpeg



Happiness is a warm scarf.
AFB23D1B-43B9-4765-A7D6-05B817D6C192.jpeg
 

mentalbreak

TUG Member
Joined
Mar 25, 2011
Messages
898
Reaction score
1,368
Points
353
So sad, but Phoenix and boy puppy were lucky to have you there to give him every possible chance. I’m so sorry.
Just curious, was it difficult to do your autopsy investigation on your own puppy?
And thanks for all the pictures! So cute! Hopefully girl puppy is strong enough very soon so you can discontinue the constant monitoring.
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
So sad, but Phoenix and boy puppy were lucky to have you there to give him every possible chance. I’m so sorry.
Just curious, was it difficult to do your autopsy investigation on your own puppy?
And thanks for all the pictures! So cute! Hopefully girl puppy is strong enough very soon so you can discontinue the constant monitoring.

Difficult to do the autopsy? Yes. But I felt like it needed to be done, in case I found some obvious genetic defect. So: you do what you’ve got to do, even when you really don’t want to do it.

It was super super hard on Phoenix to have a sick puppy. She’s a maiden b1tch so she had no idea what to do (obviously there was nothing she could do, but she didn’t know that). And then every time I took him for an intervention- tube feeding, temp, fluids, meds, neb, coupage- she became very distressed if he’d squeak or wriggle. The whole situation was just bad for everybody. I am used to treating the patient set before me, but I realized in the litter scenario, you’ve got to keep the entire litter in mind. Helping Boy Puppy was hurting Mama Dog and by extension, Girl Puppy.

For a first litter, this has been something of a trial by fire. Which by the way will probably be the pups name. Briarwire is our “kennel” name (not much of a kennel, just our dogs, but having a kennel name is the convention when registering with the AKC). So the AKC name is likely going to be Briarwire’s Trial by Fire. That won’t be her call name of course. Phoenix’s name is FC Eternal’s She’s on Fire MW SHH. So I wanted to keep with the Fire theme anyway.
 

AnnaS

TUG Member
Joined
Apr 26, 2008
Messages
2,166
Reaction score
1,218
Points
523
Location
NY
Sorry to hear about boy puppy - :cry: You are a great mommy.
 

DaveNV

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
22,003
Reaction score
29,217
Points
1,348
Location
Mesquite, Nevada
Resorts Owned
Free Agent
This really is sad news. But considering the complications Phoenix had with her pregnancy, it's not completely unexpected. I'm really sorry for this loss.

On a brighter note, the girl puppy seems to be doing well. Her size and apparent weight look really good at this stage. She should be opening her eyes and crawling around pretty soon. You'll have to provide sibling stimulation to socialize her, but I think you're already doing that. You might want to add a few puppy-sized beanbags so Phoenix has something else to lay on, and the puppy has something to cuddle against.

You've got a great kennel name, and the "fire" themed registered name for the girl puppy suits her, and the situation. Does this mean her call name will be Sparky? LOL! :D

Hang in there, grandma. It's a learning process.

Dave
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
You've got a great kennel name, and the "fire" themed registered name for the girl puppy suits her, and the situation. Does this mean her call name will be Sparky?

Very likely her name will be Smoke.

We‘ve been doing Early Neurologic Stimulation with her, I’ll post more about that later. We also got her a stuffed dog with a heartbeat and a warm core, for the times she needs to be alone. But so far that is almost never, so the fake sibling isn’t getting much use.

Auntie Ash will hopefully play a big role in socializing her, but Girl Puppy is too young for that just now.

She gets a lot of handling though, and daily puppy massages.
 

DaveNV

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
22,003
Reaction score
29,217
Points
1,348
Location
Mesquite, Nevada
Resorts Owned
Free Agent
Very likely her name will be Smoke.

We‘ve been doing Early Neurologic Stimulation with her, I’ll post more about that later. We also got her a stuffed dog with a heartbeat and a warm core, for the times she needs to be alone. But so far that is almost never, so the fake sibling isn’t getting much use.

Auntie Ash will hopefully play a big role in socializing her, but Girl Puppy is too young for that just now.

She gets a lot of handling though, and daily puppy massages.


Smoke is a great name. And I'm guessing that means you're keeping her? (After all this, I'd expect you couldn't possibly part with her.)

Dave
 

Glynda

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
3,781
Reaction score
2,552
Points
599
Location
Charleston, SC
Resorts Owned
Bluegreen Points Lodge Alley Inn.
Brewster Green (two weeks).
Oh, I am so sorry! How blessed they are to have you as their person and their vet. The schedule, the process, and the loss had to be hard on all of you. Now you face new challenges but hopefully Phoenix and her baby girl will thrive and you will get more rest!

I'm curious about the father/donor. I recall that in some cases, the male's owner might get a pick from the litter in return for the service. Did you have some sort of agreement or was there just a charge?

Looking forward to reading more and seeing more photos of your beautiful girl!
 

MULTIZ321

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
31,265
Reaction score
8,993
Points
1,048
Location
FT. LAUDERDALE, FL
Resorts Owned
BLUEWATER BY SPINNAKER HHI
ROYAL HOLIDAY CLUB RHC (POINTS)
Well, I have kind of a sad update: a week ago boy puppy stopped nursing overnight and then by the next morning he was exhibiting respiratory distress. I assumed he had aspiration pneumonia and went all In on treating him. I made him a little oxygen mask (yes I had oxygen at home!), I tube fed him formula every 2 hours, gave antibiotics and fluids, and I nebulized and coupaged him (using an electric toothbrush).

At first it seemed like he was getting better, and then I realized he was just waxing and waning. Sadly we lost him after about 48 hr. I did a little autopsy on him and didn’t find much- lungs, heart, diaphragm all looked grossly ok (I did not send any tissue for microscopic exam because I didn’t have any formalin at home). Likewise there was no cleft palate, and brain and abd organs looked ok. It still could have been pneumonia that I couldn’t appreciate, for functional disease of the heart, lungs and liver.

Mama Phoenix was distraught and took it hard for a few days. But she and her Girl Puppy are now thriving.

Boy puppy on oxygen:

View attachment 34963




Mama Phoenix with her babies, boy puppy with oxygen mask:

View attachment 34964


Did I mention this was such a sad thing?! Totally sad. However this is the way of life. Neonatal pups are very fragile, there’s actually a 30% mortality rate in the first two weeks. Who knew?
Hi Heathpack,

My condolences on your loss. Thanks for your updates and pics.


Richard
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Oh, I am so sorry! How blessed they are to have you as their person and their vet. The schedule, the process, and the loss had to be hard on all of you. Now you face new challenges but hopefully Phoenix and her baby girl will thrive and you will get more rest!

I'm curious about the father/donor. I recall that in some cases, the male's owner might get a pick from the litter in return for the service. Did you have some sort of agreement or was there just a charge?

Looking forward to reading more and seeing more photos of your beautiful girl!

Hi there. The stud dog is named Midas. When this breeding was planned, he was still owned by Phoenix’s breeder. The agreement was that we‘d get first pick of the litter and she‘d get her choice of second pick or the price of one puppy. She never really thought she’d keep a puppy though, so it was always going to be a cash stud fee. She doesn‘t collect any $ until you have at least one live pup at 4 weeks of age.

However- something weird is going on with her. We started planning the breeding in late Dec and by mid Feb when it was time to do the breeding, the breeder had already sold Midas (although she retained his breeding rights). She was supposed to be signficantly involved in the breeding and whelping but I didn’t hear from her again after the breeding, which I managed completely without her. Shes aware the pups were born, and was updated when one died. But otherwise has been out of the picture.

Its unclear what we’ll pay for the stud fee since it was to be the price of the pup, and we have no pup to sell. But I’m not super concerned about it. We’ll pay her something fair In another few weeks.
 

Glynda

TUG Member
Joined
Jun 8, 2005
Messages
3,781
Reaction score
2,552
Points
599
Location
Charleston, SC
Resorts Owned
Bluegreen Points Lodge Alley Inn.
Brewster Green (two weeks).
Hi there. The stud dog is named Midas. When this breeding was planned, he was still owned by Phoenix’s breeder. The agreement was that we‘d get first pick of the litter and she‘d get her choice of second pick or the price of one puppy. She never really thought she’d keep a puppy though, so it was always going to be a cash stud fee. She doesn‘t collect any $ until you have at least one live pup at 4 weeks of age.

However- something weird is going on with her. We started planning the breeding in late Dec and by mid Feb when it was time to do the breeding, the breeder had already sold Midas (although she retained his breeding rights). She was supposed to be signficantly involved in the breeding and whelping but I didn’t hear from her again after the breeding, which I managed completely without her. Shes aware the pups were born, and was updated when one died. But otherwise has been out of the picture.

Its unclear what we’ll pay for the stud fee since it was to be the price of the pup, and we have no pup to sell. But I’m not super concerned about it. We’ll pay her something fair In another few weeks.

Thanks for the explanation! Wasn't quite sure how it worked these days. Glad your agreement was that you would get first pick and not her!
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Puppy opened her eyes yesterday. So cute!

We‘re going to call her Smoke. We have a fire theme going in the dogs’ names.

E5E8CB06-568F-4175-80DF-1B5737393ABC.jpeg




ED642377-D3BC-4882-8BF9-DDE80C449193.jpeg
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Im back to work now and no longer sitting around staring at the puppy as much- so less photos and less time to post.

But: little Smoke is doing great! She’s starting to toddle around some, looking at things and tracking them with her eyes. Yesterday she tried a little pounce while playing with mama and promptly fell over- but it was totally adorable.

She gets something new every day- new experience like walking on a novel surface or going to a different part of the house. Or we introduce a new object. Today is her third week birthday and her new thing was a felt mouse cat toy. So cute to see her go right up to it and engage. We couldn’t leave the toy with her too long though- mama really really wanted that mouse toy for herself.

4ECEE398-7A5C-489B-B576-84A54A6A5907.jpeg



She‘s lapping a little milk from a saucer but is much more interested in nursing than starting weaning.

The godsend stroke of genius last weekend was me buying a used baby bassinet off Craigslist. I could wheel mama and baby wherever I needed to around the house and get stuff done. Or wheel the bassinet next to the sofa, put mama in a small crate with a view of baby in bassinet and get some sleep. SOOO much better than the 24/7 puppy watch that we‘d been on.


D45BADC1-5F4A-4E42-86BB-ED4310EE1D70.jpeg


She’s a super duper enormous puppy- just over 1000 grams at 3 weeks old. A typical mini dachshund pup might be 500 gm at this age. There’s some concern for her becoming something that’s called a “swimmer” pup- which is basically when a pup is too fat to stand. They can’t stand, so they can’t build muscle, and the whole thing becomes a downward spiral. Theyre called swimmers because their little legs start to protrude out to the sides and they paddle around on their bellies. Because they’re still developing they legs being stuck out to the side is a big problem, it can become a permanent disability/deformity.

So because she’s so big, we are doing puppy PT with her several times a day. Basically getting her up on a firm surface with high traction (we‘re using pieces of carpet liner) and getting her to walk. She’s looking good- legs getting stronger and they’re properly positioned under her body, I‘m happy with how she’s doing but puppy PT leaves less time for TUG.

Interesting side note is that I got in touch with a dachshund breeder friend about my enormous puppy issue. He’s a big time Westminster-level breeder and he said not to worry. He has Russian import dogs and finds they are just very big as pups, whereas American lines tend to produce smaller pups. But they all wind up the same size in the end. Phoenix and Midas (the papa dog) are both American bred dogs but from Russian imports. Dog breeding is a huge thing in Russia (who knew?) and there are some beautiful dachshunds coming out of Russia these days.
 

DaveNV

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
22,003
Reaction score
29,217
Points
1,348
Location
Mesquite, Nevada
Resorts Owned
Free Agent
All good news. And now that you're back to work, you'll come home to new developments every day. The puppy will have grown, she'll be doing some behavior she didn't do yesterday, and it'll seem like forever since you were there. It sounds like things are doing just fine. Congratulations to the three of you. :D

Dave
 

JudyH

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 6, 2005
Messages
1,869
Reaction score
707
Points
473
Location
Near the sea.
I just love reading all these posts. Thanks for taking the time. I had many many dogs, cats, and horses and was lucky to have wonderful vets and a wonderful hubby who didn’t complain about the bills.
 

SandyPGravel

Guest
Joined
Aug 29, 2015
Messages
1,710
Reaction score
1,148
Points
223
Location
De Forest, Wisconsin
Resorts Owned
Westin St. John Plat+
2 BR-VGV
Westin St. John Plat
2 BR-BV
She's adorable.

In retrospect wish we would have named our silver lab either smoke or cinder. Or concrete. He blends in with all of the above. :D
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Little puppy Smoke is 6 weeks old now, can you believe it?

Shes still nursing mama some, despite having enough teeth now that it can’t be comfortable.

We‘re so busy, she’s much more active now. But super duper cute- running around, pouncing the big(ish) dogs, attacking our hedge in the yard.

I started clicker training with her this past week, which was the first week she was enthusiastic about taking treats. First she took treats by hand for a few days, then I clicked her and just gave her a freebie treat, to condition her to the sound of the click being the reward. Right now we’re playing the box game in which you present a box (really it could be any neutral object, ie not a toy or food) and anything the dog does in relation to the box gets clicked and treated. The pup could look at the box, sniff it, pounce it, anything. The lightbulb moment for the dog is when they realize that the route to the treat they want is not a straight line to the treat, it’s by doing something. What you want to develop is the idea in the dog that their behavior can result in reward, that they can get you to give them what they want.

At this age, puppies need very few repetitions in training. So we’ve done the box game enough to move on to the next concept, which is manding. Manding is when a dog is given a behavior that they can use to ask for something, it’s the dog version of learning how to say Please. We’ll probably start those lessons on Sunday.

Also on Sunday: we’ll have friends over for a puppy party. Ie learning to be comfortable with strangers around, and offering behaviors to strangers and getting treats from them too. So really what we’re doing is teaching our puppy to manipulate the max number of humans, I guess.

6E6D2983-DE34-431E-AF1D-476E5E8AAAAF.jpeg


97389A84-D809-43F4-AD91-92EAC3D51E45.jpeg
 

DaveNV

TUG Review Crew: Expert
TUG Member
Joined
Jun 1, 2006
Messages
22,003
Reaction score
29,217
Points
1,348
Location
Mesquite, Nevada
Resorts Owned
Free Agent
How can you resist that face? She's adorable.

Your training is a great way to get her doing what you'd like her to do. If the goal is for her to follow in Phoenix's path, regarding nose work and such, this is going to be a great way to do it. And you get to see the development of a smart puppy along the way. I'm glad it's going well.

Keep up the great work!

Dave
 

Passepartout

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Feb 10, 2007
Messages
28,462
Reaction score
17,213
Points
1,299
Location
Twin Falls, Eye-Duh-Hoe
Smoke is gorgeous! Our Doodle breeder starts the puppies on clickers early too. When they are with their litter-mates, the puppies that sit quietly when clicked, get a treat, and those that jump up and get impatient don't. They learn very quickly that the way to a goodie is to sit quietly when 'clicked'.
 

klpca

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
8,273
Reaction score
7,280
Points
749
Location
CA
Resorts Owned
SDO, Quarter House, Seapointe, Coronado Beach, Carlsbad Inn, Worldmark
She is adorable!

Clicker training is the best. Glad it's working so well for Smoke!
 

heathpack

TUG Review Crew: Veteran
TUG Member
Joined
Oct 22, 2008
Messages
4,651
Reaction score
3,750
Points
598
Location
Los Angeles
Resorts Owned
Hyatt High Sierra and Highland Inn
Disney’s Grand Californian and Hilton Head Island
Marriott Barony Beach and Mountainside
MVC Points
Sheraton Broadway Plantation
Smoke is gorgeous! Our Doodle breeder starts the puppies on clickers early too. When they are with their litter-mates, the puppies that sit quietly when clicked, get a treat, and those that jump up and get impatient don't. They learn very quickly that the way to a goodie is to sit quietly when 'clicked'.

She’s teaching manding. The dogs natural way to ask for something is to jump up onto the possessor of the thing you want. When you teach them to mand, typically you change the manding behavior to a sit. It’s different from an obedience sit which is done on command. This sit is up to the dog. They do it when they’re trying to say “Please may I have....?” Fill in the blank with “your attention,” “that treat,” “out of this pen,” “a walk”.

So when you get your puppy, he/she will have a voice and will know ways to communicate with you. Hopefully the breeder will explain this to you, so you understand what the pup is doing! If not, theres some free videos for new puppy owners on the Puppy Culture website. You can view them there.
 
Top