I have to start by saying Daisy is spoiled, very spoiled. We sneek her table scraps, she sits on my sofas and chairs. If we take up to much room on the sofa she comes and "talks" to us until we move over and make room for her. She sleeps in the room with her BFF, my 9 year old daughter Chloe. She is so spoiled that when we redecorated Chloe's room we had to include a roll out bed for Daisy.
When it became time for Daisy to whelp her pups there was no way she was going to some quite far off place away from her family. We had to put her whelping box in the corner of the living room right next to Chloe's piano. Did I mention that when Chloe plays the piano Daisy has to lay at her feet right up agenst the piano front. She really loves her kid! One of our sofas has a single cusion bottom and we layed that on the floor in front of the whelping pool. My husband and I then took turns sleeping here for the 1st 2.5 weeks of the puppies lives.
When the puppies were two and a half weeks old we had a vicious cold snap with very high winds. The living room was becoming much to drafty for the babies. They had doubled in size and now there was no way all 6 would fit on the heating pad when they got chilled. Daisy was spinding all her free time in the whelping box just to keep them warm. My husband and I were being woke up all night retriving pups that had wondered away from mom and were whining about getting cold. We decided to move the babies into the master bathroom where we could add an electric heater. Daisy was fine with this move as we leave all the doors open so she can feed and care for the pups but still spend her free time in the living room with the family. My husband and I were also fine with this move because now we can sleep in our own bed again!
Once a day we do early nurological stimulation also known as the "Super Dog Program" Every night after dinner the family sits down for a telivesion program and some puppy love. Durring this time we play with the puppies toes and hold the toe nails to desensitize them to having their feet and nails handled for nail triming. We play with their ears so they are used to having their ears handled for later exams and ear cleaning. We lift their lips and open their mouths simulating an oral exam. We run our hands and fingers over their face and eyes simulating facial cleaning - something every bulldog is going to need to have done to it through out it's life. Along with these desencitations we also hug, pet, rub, kiss, and cuddle because lets face it they are just to darn cute not to!
Because the pups are raised in my house they will be desencitzed to many houshold noises that sometimes scare the death out of kennel raised pups. Like my 13 year olds drum practice. :) They are being raised with a variety of people handling them because with puppies this cute we are THE house for all my children's friends to hang out at. Even friends of my husband and I ask to come and hang out to see the babies.
I will try and get photos up soon to go with this page, but remember to check back often as we will update it as the pups get older so you know how we are raising them and what we are exposing them to!
