Sally and her pups - born in rescue

There are some videos of Sally and her pups at the bottom of this page

30th August 2006 - This is Sally, a good little Sheepdog aged 2 yrs.

Started to birth on the morning of 30th August 2006 at 4.30 am - the above photo, taken at 11 am, shows her with her pups - hopefully no more to come. Sally came from a farm that is to be sold due to circumstances beyond the control of the owners. Rather than sell Sally and the pups it was decided that she should be passed over to BCR so that she could have the pups with us and we could find new working homes for her and them all in due course. The Sire of these pups is "Garcia's Ben".

This makes the gesture of handing her over to BCR particularly altruistic as they had already turned down generous cash offers for Sally. One person wanted to buy her so they could sell the pups on the agility circuit.

The comment was made that although they could really use the money, they thought it better that the pups were re-homed by BCR as we would be sure to get them into the right sort of homes and ensure a good future for them. She was passed onto us in plenty of time to settle in, get to know and trust us and permit us to assist with the birth.

Sally said "it was all been a bit of an exhausting business - time for a nap!"

Sally had been under CCTV observation since she arrived, and her pups since they were born.
The camera had a microphone and infra red night vision so they could be heard and seen in complete darkness.

We were able to keep an eye on them all from the BCR office, the centre kitchen / staff room and staff bedroom.
It was by these means that overnight volunteers were alerted to the birth and were able to assist.

The use of CCTV also meant that our centre visitors were able to observe them without disturbing them or alarming Sally.
After only one week they had grown so much that, together, they mass more than a third of the weight of their mother.

We use CCTV to enable us to observe dogs without their knowledge, which means that we can watch them without affecting their behaviour.

In this way we can learn a lot about the way they naturally interact and in the case of Sally and previous mothers with litters, the way they look after their young.

Sally proved to be a good mother and we observed her moving the pups around with her nose so they all get their fair share of feeding opportunities.

We noticed that she paid particular attention to the smaller pups, making sure they had extra opportunities to feed. Now, by size comparison and after only one week, it is difficult to see which pups were originally born smaller than the others

Above - 13th September 2006 - now two weeks old

At this age their eyes were all open and average weight of each of them was just below a kilogram.
They had their first dose of wormer with follow up doses over the next two days. Sally was also wormed.
The pups were still unsteady on their legs but are able to get around well enough.
Two of them had started to explore their environment, but the other six were still inclined to stick close to mum!

Here are a few of close up shots of them - they had all started  to show individual characteristics, which is quite remarkable at this age.
We even heard some attempts at growling and one actually barked a few times (but will need to do a bit more work on it to be taken seriously) and they started to engage in a bit of play fighting to pass the time.
There was already a certain amount of bonding going on with two pairs emerging - one quiet and one adventurous.
The pairs were both made up of one dog and one bitch.
 
Above and below -13th September 2006

Above and below -13th September 2006

Above and below - Saturday 16th September 2006 - now 17 days old - Average weight just over 1KG

To identify the Pups they were all given temporary names, although for the first few weeks they were all known as 'Pup'.
The name 'Pup' as a collective identity is useful when trying to attract attention once a litter of pups start to roam and particularly when they are old enough to go outside. These had a  secure 'Puppy Garden' set aside for them.

Calling them individually was problematic but of they all responded to 'Pup' and the one word got their attention and we encouraged them to come back on that word. We only used their individual names between us to identify a particular pup when we were talking about them.
We often directly address puppies as 'Pup' until they are re-homed and leave the new owner to choose a name themselves.

When all eight are seen together with Sally, the pups collective mass seems to be more than hers!
Their temporary chosen names were - Boys : Cap, Moss, Jon and Sweep. - Girls : Jill, Jen, Gyp and Trim.

Above - 21st September

Below - 27th September 2006
Now very adventurous and also getting very people orientated, the pups were 4 weeks old at the time of the photo's below.
They were supplementing mothers milk with rice pudding twice daily.  They also got their routine Panacur worming.