Can you believe it? I figured four – but nope! FIVE!!!

It started at 10:30 this morning with her begging to be back upstairs. She worked on moving them down until around 3:30 pm, when the pushing commenced.

Ya gotta love Ginny! Only an hours worth of pushing and the first pup was here! A black spotted on white boy (with possible tan points) arrived with his brother not far behind. 16 minutes later, his sabled fawn spotted on white brother was born – Both in the 4.5 ounce range and anxiously nursing from the get-go.

They were actually nursing when the first female was born. Our 4 1/4 ounce solid white sweetie arrived at 5:07 pm and boy, she’s a screamer! The sac wasn’t even off completely and it was obvious her lungs were clear!

The three pups and mom were resting and nursing of course, until about 5:50, when puppy number four made her way into the world. A Ginny, Mini-Me – A blue spotted on white girl who was the smallest of the litter. At 3 3/4 ozs, she may the be smallest but she was nursing with the rest almost immediately.

The last pup of the litter arrive at 6:17 pm. A black with white markings and possibly tan pointed male.  He too weighed in at 4.5 ounces but appears to be the chunkiest of the bunch.

All the puppies and mom are doing fantastic and resting. Boy it sure is nice to have an entire litter whelped while the sun is still up and without any complications. Of course – how about all within 2 hours too? Man do I love Ginny!

She knows the routine and is so laid back about the whole thing. Over the last few days, she has totally POPPED and I am sure we have more than three in there. Carrying that extra load must be exhausting! So much so that this afternoon, she begged to get let upstairs – the location of our guest bedroom/whelping suite.

She nested and paced around the room for a bit – as if checking everything out to make sure it’s set up to her liking – and then she plopped onto the floor to rest. She napped up there for a few hours and then back down she came for dinner. The whelping won’t be tonight but it will be soon!

A day we have been working for the last two months – walking the show ring with Sugar and Huggie!

My head is still spinning with all of the amazing changes and progress with our program since the first of the year and today was just the first of what I hope to be a lifetime of ring walks. Granted, it was only a Fun Match with the Tampa Bay Chihuahua Club, but still, it was a ring walk!

Sugar, Huggie, Jessa and I headed out this morning and wasn’t too sure how the day would play out. I have table training nailed but walking on a lead was not so pretty. I had Sugar walking on a leash with her harness and figured like with Ace, switching to a show lead would be easy. I switched 10 days ago and the change made her revert. Huggie was a statue on the leash and Jessa was a breeze on both the leash and the lead. We got to the match and allllll of that changed.

Huggie was walking on the lead with Vicky in seconds and so was Sugar with Shelly. Now our shy little Jessa was not going to take a step in the new surroundings, but that was ok because she got tons of socialization.

Huggie and I were the only entry for the smooth coat 9 to 12 month puppy class but that didn’t matter – I was just so proud to walk away with a 1st place ribbon! Now Sugar? I don’t know if it was her reverting yet again, the intense heat or the concern I was feeling but I knew I had to make her first ring experience as positive as possible. Confident and wonderful Shelly walked our sassy one and even without full training, the judge was torn! She got 2nd and walked away happy and tail a waggin’. I would call that a huge success! All three were zonked by the end of the event – and the entire drive home!

I am sure I am not alone in wanting to dive into the dog show world so as we take off on our journey, I will be sure to share what I learn along the way. I even thought I might create a whole section on our website, devoted to it. Until then, I will share what I learned today…

• Leashes and leads are completely different!
• Teaching “down” is a must
• Chicken is the best bait, hands down
• Every dog is different and requires training as unique as they are
• Read and listening to the instructions are wonderful but DOING is the best
• TRUE friends will always be there for you – Thank you Sandy, Vicky and Shelly for helping me make my dreams come true!

It’s amazing how quickly puppies develop. When Annie arrived here, she could barely wobble walk and mostly belly crawled to her desired destinations. Now that she spends the majority of the day in with our older pups, she has learned quickly how to keep up. She has also figured out that the doggy beds in the puppy playpen are the most comfortable. And in the last 10 days, she has mastered running and climbing – Fabulous skills to be the pup that claims the comfiest spot in the pen!

Ginny has reached day 58 of her pregnancy and it seems as though she has doubled in her wide-load load in the last week. I knew she was having a large litter. When I say large, I mean more than two. But looking at her stretch herself out today, it is quite apparent that we have at least four! The excitement of seeing the results of Ginny and Goody’s breeding is immense but now to know there will be 4+ to drool and watch grow up – AMAZING!

Ace has been the sire to the majority of our litters lately but now that Quik is of age and blue is as ripe as they get, Ace got to take a back seat today. You guessed it! Quik is officially a man! He handled it all like a champ. This will be Blue’s last litter – We are very excited to see what our handsome and social Quik can bring to the mix.

Annie is sustaining herself overnight and has started to gum on puppy kibble! That’s a great sign to her progress. Weaning without a nursing mom can be a tricky one but now that Annie’s teeth have popped through, I see a lot more progress in her future.

She is also learning a lot from Hemingway and Ixtapa. Annie was a singleton litter so entering her weaning stage with some adopted litter mates has been a blessing.

Hemingway and Ixtapa turned 9 weeks old yesterday and when they came out to play with the girls in my daughter’s Girl Scout troop tonight, it was very apparent that all of our socialization has really paid off. They almost spent the entire meeting with the girl’s and couldn’t seem to get enough.

The first initial of “J” aside, Jillionaire was their perfect pick. I can only do so much in typing a description or explaining it over the phone. From the moment they walked in the door, Jen and Justin saw first hand what I was trying to say. Jillionaire was running to and giving kisses immediately. Our sweetie will be living in the laps of luxury, and we couldn’t be happier.

…that little Annie is not the cutest Chihuahua puppy you have ever seen! I dare you!

She is doing great at weaning, napping and eating with our older pups and of course, enjoying playsession with them as well as our other dogs. Sugar has claimed her as her own and ironically, Suri who has conveniently entered her heat today, has done everything she can to dominate her. She is gentle about it but man, like Annie is any real competition, right?

Annie’s biggest activity has been playing with toys. Stuffed toys are being wrestled with, chew toys are being chewed on and when they aren’t in reach, a finger will do.