Well it's been 9 1/2 weeks now, and things are finally settling down around here.
Much thanks to those of you who had advice and encouragement to offer (none to those who just had criticism).
We found a home for the last two of the puppies that we're not keeping (we're keeping two) last week. We could have easily "gotten rid of" all of them at six weeks, but I decided that they could only go to homes that we could be 100% sure would spay/nueter and my husband (I'm not sure this was totally neccessary, but I agree with him that it's optimal for a puppy to grow up with a sibling) demanded that they had to go in pairs - so finding people that had the means/ability/love for two puppies, and that we trusted to meet their commitment to spay/nueter took a little extra time. It was worth it though, as all of the new owners have been in contact with us repeatedly to give us happy updates of how they are doing. The one that we had to send out single was to a retired widow lady who is home all the time and that puppy is her life! She doesn't drive, so hubby is going over to her house to pick the pooch up to take it to the vet for shots etc for her. We paid for the first 3 series of shots and spaying/nuetering at the vet of choice for the nine we found homes for. Ouch! Not too cheap.
Anyway, we kept two (again at hubbies insistance), "Bowser" and "Zsa Zsa" (remember my daughter named them). We kept the second largest of the litter, "Bowser" (a boy) and the second smallest of the litter, "Zsa Zsa" (a girl). Hubbie claims that to him Zsa Zsa looks just like a pit bull, and Bowser - well we don't know what he looks like - some people claim he looks like a St. Bernard. Whatever he winds up looking like, he is going to be big! Hopefully he'll be a gigantic, intimidating dog, and Zsa Zsa will look exactly like a pit bull when she's grown, as we have some security concerns - not that either of them will actually be mean enough to bite anyone (pretty hard to get a dog to be a mean biter when you give it lots of love, and who with children would want a mean biter anyway), but they hopefully will "look scary" enough to scare off home invaders etc, and will bark anytime anybody shows up at the house.
These two pups really love each other. The have ferocious sounding wrestling matches constantly, where you think they are killing each other, but every time the noise stops for a minute, and the dog that was "winning" backs off because he/she thinks they hurt the other, the other pops up from their submissive position and attacks again! Every time one of them is sleeping, and the other awake, and the awake one wants to go to sleep, he/she looks around to see where bro/sis is sleeping and goes over and plops down on top of bro/sis to sleep.
Zsa Zsa is definitely the smarter. Bowser only puts his front feet in the litter box to pee/poop
They both are "sit" trained now.
Anybody have reccommendations on how soon I can let them outside without worrying about them getting sick from parvo or distemper? They've had their first two shots.
So here is a picture of our big, burly, beefy, boy Bowser, and our sweet, little petite, girl Zsa Zsa. They are nine and a half weeks old. Bowser weighs 27 pounds, Zsa Zsa weighs 20.
Much thanks to those of you who had advice and encouragement to offer (none to those who just had criticism).
We found a home for the last two of the puppies that we're not keeping (we're keeping two) last week. We could have easily "gotten rid of" all of them at six weeks, but I decided that they could only go to homes that we could be 100% sure would spay/nueter and my husband (I'm not sure this was totally neccessary, but I agree with him that it's optimal for a puppy to grow up with a sibling) demanded that they had to go in pairs - so finding people that had the means/ability/love for two puppies, and that we trusted to meet their commitment to spay/nueter took a little extra time. It was worth it though, as all of the new owners have been in contact with us repeatedly to give us happy updates of how they are doing. The one that we had to send out single was to a retired widow lady who is home all the time and that puppy is her life! She doesn't drive, so hubby is going over to her house to pick the pooch up to take it to the vet for shots etc for her. We paid for the first 3 series of shots and spaying/nuetering at the vet of choice for the nine we found homes for. Ouch! Not too cheap.
Anyway, we kept two (again at hubbies insistance), "Bowser" and "Zsa Zsa" (remember my daughter named them). We kept the second largest of the litter, "Bowser" (a boy) and the second smallest of the litter, "Zsa Zsa" (a girl). Hubbie claims that to him Zsa Zsa looks just like a pit bull, and Bowser - well we don't know what he looks like - some people claim he looks like a St. Bernard. Whatever he winds up looking like, he is going to be big! Hopefully he'll be a gigantic, intimidating dog, and Zsa Zsa will look exactly like a pit bull when she's grown, as we have some security concerns - not that either of them will actually be mean enough to bite anyone (pretty hard to get a dog to be a mean biter when you give it lots of love, and who with children would want a mean biter anyway), but they hopefully will "look scary" enough to scare off home invaders etc, and will bark anytime anybody shows up at the house.
These two pups really love each other. The have ferocious sounding wrestling matches constantly, where you think they are killing each other, but every time the noise stops for a minute, and the dog that was "winning" backs off because he/she thinks they hurt the other, the other pops up from their submissive position and attacks again! Every time one of them is sleeping, and the other awake, and the awake one wants to go to sleep, he/she looks around to see where bro/sis is sleeping and goes over and plops down on top of bro/sis to sleep.
Zsa Zsa is definitely the smarter. Bowser only puts his front feet in the litter box to pee/poop
They both are "sit" trained now. Anybody have reccommendations on how soon I can let them outside without worrying about them getting sick from parvo or distemper? They've had their first two shots.
So here is a picture of our big, burly, beefy, boy Bowser, and our sweet, little petite, girl Zsa Zsa. They are nine and a half weeks old. Bowser weighs 27 pounds, Zsa Zsa weighs 20.
