As much as Elsa loves me she would rather be home with Sarah so she came to stay with us onTuesday 7th June. If a dog has it's puppies before 3 or 4 days before they are due the puppies may not be viable, therefore leaving it so late was OK. The puppies are due Saturday 11th June. She will stay here now until the puppies leave. As alwaays Sarah will be a daily visitor. Elsa is eating three or 4 times a day, her kibble is suplimented with eggs, goats milk and tripe. She has also had fresh mince and fish as she gets fussier closer to her due date.

Thursday 9th June 2016 afternoon.

The first sign that mum is going into labour is when she starts to build a nest. Elsa chose to build hersin my flower bed....Don't panic! We are just reorganising the garden and this is an area where all the soil has to be dug out. I actually used the loosened soil to fill me hanging baskets. Much to Elsa's dislike. I was not quick enough to catch it on camera but Elsa kept putting teddies inside the whole. I wonder if she was checking it for size?

The heat is not great for any dog but when they are in labour even the early stages they need to find a cool place to hide. Elsa is pictures here laying in a wet patch of garden whilst sulking because I was pinching her nest.

Another sign that labour is imminent  is when mum refuses her food. Elsa refused her food tonight; Thursday 9th June. Instead of waiting with the other dogs for her food to be made she went and laid in the hall looking uncomfortable. I tried to coax her with a couple of her favourite titbits but to no availe. Sarah wants ot be here for the birth so I rang her to say,'I think we are on'. So once Lia was tooked up in bed she came over prepared for a long night.

Normally we hae the whelping box in our bedroom for the first three weeks, however sarah wants to be part of the process so we have set it up in the lounge. We don't leave the mum and puppies alone at all for the first three weeks so having the whelping box in our bedroom helps us get at least a little sleep at night. This time Sarah wants to be involved, luckily the sofa is quite comfortable.

Elsa continued to look uncomfortable during the evening and kept making a little squeeking noise. Then she started to have contractions, three strong ones close after each other. Sarah got into the whelping box and encouraged Elsa to join her. Elsa thought it was lovely having a cuddle with her mum.  So much so she had no more contractions and at about 12pm we all desided to go to bed. Elsa went to the spare room with Sarah and slept soundly next to her all night.

On Friday Elsa was uncompfy all day, she spent much of the time snuggled up on the small dog bed in our room. I left her to it checking on her regularly, it was obvious that she wanted to be away from the other dogs. By 5pm I rang Sarah and suggested that she have another night at mine if she didn't want to miss the birth.

Elsa contiued to labour until 3am when she started to push, as it was her first litter it took a while but at 3.15 we had a little boy, Gus pop out.

Gus was followed by Peach at 3.40am, Mist at 4.15am and Honey at 4.48am. 

It would have been lovely to go to bed then but when Elsa continued to have contraction and no puppy arrived we made a trip to the vets to be sure. A scan showed no more puppies and the contractions were probably expelling placenta. 

Each day we weigh the puppies to check their process. It is also an opportunity to clean out the whelping box and give mum a rest as at this early stage in their lives mum is reluctant to leave her puppies.

We are now on day 5 and Elsa has decided to do her own tidying of her box and has left the puppies to sleep whilst she has a rest

It has been a busy and tiring week. The puppies are nocturnal! All day long they sleep and eat but when it comes to be time they squeak and squeak and squeak. I have tried turning the heating up in the room, turning it down, rybbing their tummies cuddling them singing to the. They are no different from any other litter that we have but I so long for this first three weeks of sleepless nights to pass.

They have achieved a lot during this time with Gus (blue) opening his eyes at just 8 days old. It's normally 10, he was squeeling one night and when I picked him up he opened his eys and just appeared to stare at me as much to say, What took you so long?

One of the cats we took in last year had kittens three weeks before the puppies were born and now they all play together. It has been amazing how they have bonded hopefully this will ensure that the puppies are friendly with cats as they grow into adult dogs. The socialisation to all things has started and much of their waking time is spent experiencing new environments. We have a big job to do in ensuring that the puppies are well rounded and confident.

They have noisy toys to play with and have been introduced to the television and loud music. Now they are over three weeks old they come out in the car and visit Healthy Options pet store where they get to meet all sorts of people. When taken back there as older dogs even the ones that do not live locally remember the staff.

Hello, my name is Beth I’m 15 and I chose to do work experience with Su to learn more about what she does and to aid my career decisions.

This week has been great for the pups as they have been receiving lots of attention, with an extra helping hand we were able to give them more opportunities and having only four means we have more time for each individual dog.

It has also been a good week in their socialisation, we carried them around the park, we took them to the pet store and we introduced them to a lot of different people. Today we gave them their first bath and they all took to water very well without much fuss!

Their personalities have started to shine through, their curiosity is getting stronger and they are in the first stage of training. With encouragement they can already sit. They’re definitely a bright bunch which means lots of climbing and exploring (which isn’t always appreciated!)

I can already tell they’re going to make wonderful, well rounded pets J

I wear a fit bit to encourage me to exercise and I am doing 10K steps without leaving the house. The puppies are keeping me on my toes. They have a new playmate our pet rabbit Snow Flake. She does get a little fed up at times and then she hides in the top of her cage. She can also be found sleeping in a pile with the puppies.

Last week was very hot and the puppies needed cooling down because of their very thick coats they spent a lot of their time in the paddling pool and sleeping behind the water but.