A Litter 2019

- 19.09.2019
The box now stays empty - Fellow slept in it for the nights of the last four weeks. The little dog moved out and is on his way to his new adventures with his humans.
He will have a good life - and I hope, a long, healthy and happy one as well.
Fellow will always occupy a very special place in my heart - he was the first Bramley tree's puppy, I will never forget his birth or the special, funny or exhausting moments with him. I am very grateful for all the people who supported me and without the the little pup would not turned out half as great.
Now I have to trust in the new owners, that they will also give their best. Of course I will always be there to give advise, if wanted and wish little Fellow all the best.

- 19.09.2019
This evening Fellow will move out into is forever home. The last eight weeks (also counting Mauras heat and all necessary checkups and preparations even months) have been exhausting at times, but also nice. Through all this I met new people, learned a lot (also about myself) and was able to make new experiences.
The last few weeks have passed very quickly and a nice feeling of being able to hand over this puppy stays with me. Of course there is also a big portion of sadness involved over the "loss" of Fellow.
I assume that those two feelings belong to being a breeder. And hope and trust that over time I will be able to give more puppies to such nice homes with Mauras help.

- 18.09.2019
Today we got visited be Fellows dad "Arco" and his humans Maja and Marcel. I somehow got the feeling that the humans were a lot more interested in Fellow than Arco himself and Maura and Arco kept themselfs rather busy while the humans tried to get nice pictures of Fellow (preferably with Arco and Maura). Which proved to be rather difficult.
Arco is a very nice example of a working line Labrador - he is a nice, rather calm dog which I could imagine to use for a later litter again, just because he is so nice (maybe not just the next litter).
I will very interested watch what becomes of littler pup Fellow - will he be more like Maura or Arco? Will he look like either one of them?
As Fellow moves to Stefanie's sister Nicole, Fellow will somewhat stay part of the "extended" family, what makes me really happy.

- 17.09.2019 (8 weeks)
We enjoy our last days together with Fellow. He shows a lot of parallels to Maura (he loves to lay underneath the settee, makes loud noises when dreaming, makes grunting noises when disturbed) and we will mitt the little guy, when in two days time he will move out. Because he has been alone, this gave me the opportunity (sometimes out of need) to do so much more with him than with a normal, larger litter. He already shows that he is a Retriever as he loves to carry toys, leaves and more.
In his time with us he met a lot of friendly people, got to know the whistle and Clicker, our cat, riding in cars, nice dogs and showed that he is a clever pup, with whom Nicole should have a lot of fun.
I know that Fellow has a good home lined up, with a family who will try to do their best to keep him happy and healthy. A family ready to show him what he will need in life, ready to get started with the adventure of having a dog for the first time. And even though it makes me sad thinking of Thursday and giving Fellow up, I know very well that he is now ready to move on and to bond to his family for a hopeful very long dog life.

- 16.09.2019
Since today Maura shows very very clearly that she does not want to feed Fellow anymore. Only during car rides he might be allowed to drink.
Today we had the vet appointement, this also means that the moving out gets closer. Fellow got weight (7,6 kg), vaccinated, treated against worms as well as chiped. The little guy was very good and I think was more bothered by my holding him, that the needles. Our vet Frau Theis (www.kleintierpraxis-brugg.ch) did not rush and everything was so relaxed, that Fellow even fell asleep various times.
Fellow enjoys being on the right side of the fence (his view). He likes Lenny a lot and follows him. Lenny is not too impressed.

- 11.09.2019
Normally I would prefer to take a break after a busy day like yesterday. But with Fellow being a single puppy, he just has to come along a lot, as leaving him home alone is just not a option anymore.
Therefore we automatically have some influences he has to cope with every day on our walk. Today we look at the motorway from a distance.
We had lunch at a friends house and Fellow was invited for the first time. We had lunch outside as the weather is still nice. After the meal we went to look at the garden.
When we got home, Fellow was allowed to play in his garden and this sometimes helps to get rid of some Energie and stress due to new experiences.

- 05.09.2019
Today we passed the RCS litter check with highest marks! I am very grateful and happy for the good results and it shows me, that the direction is good. It is motivation for the future as well.
In the afternoon we went so everdog in Schinznach Dorf (everdog.ch). There Fellow met his first puppy ever - Ramonas 10 week old Cocker Marvel. The two seams to like each other well enough and decided on a common project - cardboard box recycling. and as this was ever to tiring, Fellow fell asleep somewhere between the shop furniture.

- 03.09.2019 (6 weeks)
Fellow meets the Brackenwoods. We are visiting with Maura Lis Eggenberger's pack, which consists of Labrador Retrievers. She also made these great pics (more can be found in the "Galerie" in the German version). We could also borrow her Buggy and therefore be able to make a proper walk with all adult dogs. In the beginning Fellow was not to impressed with this idea, but he then even fell asleep. Afterward Lis took some great pictures.

- End of August
If you have been paying close attention to the pictures, you will see that the elements of the indoor play area are now used the other way round. Little Fellow is a real little mischief and tries to break out. First it was only the whelping box during nighttime, but soon after he tried very hard to climb over the indoor fencing. I guess this is mainly due to him being a single pup and with Maura and the other coming and going as they want, Fellow got inspired and wants to join life outside his area.
During the nights Fellow sleeps in a crate next to my bed (Maura has decided a while ago that she is not needed during nights). Thankfully he is a good sleeper and only sometimes I have to get once or even twice a night.

- 24.08.2019
Fellows first outing is today. Maura wants to "work" again. We ride with our old Toyota Landcruiser to the meeting point for our Mantrailing class (thanks Marc, for setting the meeting point in our direction, this was appreciated).

In the beginning Fellow thought the car ride was rather weird, however Mauras example of total relaxing in the car helped and he slept quickly.

Also at the meeting point he slept through quite a bit of the lesson - after he woke up, he was allowed to look at the people shopping there with metal shopping trolleys and meet the other mantrailers as well as Marc, out trainer. He managed this all so well and after a with he got so tired, he fell asleep on the parking lot.

- 20.08.2019 (4 weeks)
Fellow likes his area in the house and seams quite secure. When he tries to run or jump, he often falls, but walking works well. The little tunnel is also interesting for him.

The weather is so great at the moment, therefore Fellow has been allowed in the garden over the last days for some time. In the beginning he did not really like it and felt rather lost. But after couple of times he gained confidence and it does not matter if the pack is with him or not. When the Energie is used up, sometimes already after 5 to 10 min, he falls asleep quickly - some sometimes in the whelping box or somewhere else.

Last weekend I started to offer Mauras food to Fellow. He does not eat a lot, but he is interested and seams to like it. His baby teeth have come through and I wonder if Maura will be bothered by it, but at the moment this does not seam to be the case.

With his 4 weeks the little Bramley tree's pup weighs 3,93 kg - this is 7 times the birth weight.

- 15.08.2019 (3 weeks)
The area for Fellow in the living room is ready. Stefanie and I move the whelping box and built up the fence for his save play area.
The little dog show a great interest in Stefanies self built, noise making toy. Slowly Fellow seems more and more like a dog.

- 10.08.2019 (ca 2 1/2 weeks)
The eyes are open now and you notices that Fellow recognizes more about his environment as before. He also tries to stand frequently now, that works well in the box but not outside on our more slippery wooden floors.

- 06.08.2019 (14 days)
Fellow starts to open his eyes... it cannot bee seen that clearly just yet, but in the next days one should be able to see it.
Yesterday he was already more than 2 kg.

- 03.08.2019 (11 days)
The future family came to visit Fellow today. Maura likes all visitors a lot (as they all come to visit her), therefore no problem with human visitors, even when they show interest in Fellow.
In the meantime Maura has decided that Fellow does not need her the whole time and started leaving the box. She also joins me on walks again.

- 02.08.2019 (10 days)

The first of August is always a bit difficult as Lenny is really afraid of fireworks and very difficult to watch. Spotty and Maura do not have any problems and stay quite relaxed, which is nice. We had with Stefanies partner Sandro the first time a visitor, who is not a regular in our household. Nevertheless Maura showed no stress and Sandro could even hold Fellow.

And even though the own pack is allows in the same room as Maura and pup Fellow (as long as they do not have their head in the whelping box), best friend Milou is clearly not welcome there.

Fellow has tripled his weight to 1'655g.

- 31.07.2019 (8 days)

The little puppy has a cute name … he will be called "Fellow". His full name inclusive kennel name will be "Bramley tree's a true Fellowship begins"... I look forward to being able to call the puppy its name.

- 30.07.2019 (7 days)

Teh male Pup is already a week old and weights 1,3 kg. But this has to be expected for a single puppy, who does not have to share the milk with his siblings.

He crawls around in the whelping box and is quite quick in doing so. Toys are no barriers to him and he just climbs over them. If he gets stuck somewhere (or thinks he is), he will let us know quite loudly by now. However much he complains (and he does), Maura will still lick his tummy and is not disturbed by is not being happy with it.

Spotty and Lenny are allowed in the same room as the whelping box by now - but both do not quite know what to make of this little black fur ball.

- 23.07.2019 (62. day of pregnancy)
After couple of hours of some sleep Maura is getting restless. After a long period of labour with contractions finally bearing down pains start and a very big male dog is born. Unfortunately he is born without any signs of breathing and had the naval cord around his neck. We did try to safe him, but he could not be saved, which made this so very had. The first born ever is dead - we are very sad but do not have time to mourn but have to support Maura as labour starts again. But the birth does not proceed and at around 8 am we plan to go to the hospital. And just then a second Puppy falls into Stefanies hands as Maura is standing to leave the room.
The little male puppy has had a long way, but recovers after a while, starts to drink and we can finally relax. He weighs ca. 530g.
- 22.07.2019 (61. day of pregnancy)
Maura does not eat today. As I measure the temperature regularly, I see a drop of about 1 °C - both are signs for birth within the next hours.
- 18.07.2019
The x ray confirmes that the two puppies are still alive and well. From visual they seem close to due date.
- Mid of July
Even though it is very hot, Maura still ist quite fit, she enjoys the daily walks. Only the playing with Spotty, Lenny or Milou has stopped. If you look closely one can see a small belly and movement of the puppies. Also milk is clearly being produced, and dhe is very keen on digging the deepest hole in our garden ever.
- 20.06.2019
Mauras pregnancy has now been confirmed - however only to puppies have been found with the ultrasound. A third one has been reabsorbed - but at least there are puppies and we will have our first litter!
- Anfang Juni
Maura does not really eat as usual. She is not like a very greedy dog anyway, but she sometimes does not eat at all, which is strange - maybe a sign for a pregnancy?
- 22. & 23.05.2019
The progesterone value started out on the 21. with 4.8, therefore we fixed a date for Maura and Arco for both the 22nd and 23rd. Both times the mating went very smoothly and the dogs liked each other. Maura got in heat earlier than planned.

Bramley tree's A litter