Day 3--Pups do lots of sleeping

Color? How do we tell?

Standard schnauzer breeders are often asked how we can tell if a puppy is black or pepper & salt at birth.

Although many pepper & salt pups are born a very dark color, they are not born black to gradually lighten as they grow, as is seen in some horses, for example.

I always find the question of how do we know which color is which a bit hard to answer because, well, the black pups are ...black.

And the pepper & salt pups not black, but rather the mix of white and black banded hairs that make up the pepper & salt coat. Even the very dark pepper & salt pup shown nursing next to her black sister in the forth photo has clearly visible lighter color under her tail and lighter undercoat and banded hairs across her sides. Compare her coat to her lighter colored p&s sister above and you can see although there is great variation in color, the basic characteristics of the p&s coat are very different from a black coat.

I hope, even though the lighting from the heat lamp makes pups seem kinda brown, these photos of both colors of two day old pups illustrate that it is not difficult to tell the difference in the two colors right away on standard schnauzer pups :-).

Day 2--Happy Nursing Tails

Schnauzer pups in North America are typically docked during their first week of life.

Iska's pups have their tail docking appointment soon.

I love the little natural tails and like to make to sure get lots of photos of them.

Hope you enjoy.

Day 2--New family settles in

Iska is very particular about how her blanket is arranged. After getting it just right, she watches her pups and settles into happily nursing ... and keeping an eye on me!

Day 2--Iska inspects her pups

A careful mom must make sure that her pups are okay after being removed from the whelping box so it can be cleaned and new bedding installed.

Iska seems satisfied, but not until a thorough check of every pup!

What a good mom!

Iska's pups--day 2

Here the pups are hanging out while their whelping box is being cleaned and refurnished.

You can see they enjoy sleeping all cuddled together, look great on a green blanket and have super cute little ears!

A wee bit of St Patrick's Day, leprechaun-y cheer for everyone!

Iska's new family--day 1

As you can see from Iska's decisive paw across her pups in this photo, Iska has decided that her tiny posse has been photographed enough for their first day in the world.

She is certainly right, as you can see from all of the photos following.

Hope you enjoy. Iska may demand that I take less photos in the future!

Iska's new family--day 1

Iska's new family--day 1

Iska and Ash's new family is here!

Iska's pups came very quickly this morning. This was great because we had both been up and down all night as she became increasingly restless and uncomfortable. Pups were born between 7:30am and 9:40am CST. Whelping pups often takes hours, so we were very lucky to have it happen "lightening fast," in the words of our reproductive vet.

Iska and pups are doing well. Pups are uniform in size and are enthusiastically nursing. Iska seems to be figuring out what being a mum means.

Here is what Iska had in order of birth:

black girl
pepper & salt girl
black girl
black boy
pepper & salt girl
black girl

So, the final count is:

1 boy, black
5 girls (2 pns & 3 black)

I will post some photos of the new family this evening.

Goodnight Iska!

After a long day of waiting on pups, Iska has finally gone to sleep.

I have made a bed of sorts next to the desk and whelping box to keep Iska company and monitor her. You can see that she still would prefer to sleep under the desk than in her whelping box.

Oh, well. When the time comes, the box will be waiting and just right for new pups and Iska.

Night from Iska!

Pregnant girl's last walk?

Until after pups, that is :-).

After her hard work thinking about whelping places, Iska wanted to go for a walk.

Here are a couple of shots, one in the park and the other meeting her friend, our neighbor the weim, Violet.

And here is a little video of Iska slowly going for her last walk before pups will be born.

What about the whelping box??

Would the whelping box be okay?


Iska must test it out to see if it would pass muster for hosting her pups.


Yep, meets with her approval.





Of course, as the photo shows, that is only if she can get Flute out of the box!




If Iska is not careful, Flute will not only try to take over the whelping box, but also Iska's pups!

Pups due--oh, where to have them??

Iska can clearly tell that pups are coming soon. She has become even more picky about what--and how much--she will eat and she has begun obsessing about where to have her pups. You can see the worry in her eyes in this photo.

Even though she has a beautiful whelping box all ready for her, she prefers to nest under my grandfather's huge old desk. You can see her here this morning testing it out to see if it is to her liking.

Yep. As the photos below show, under the desk seems okay.

Of course, where Iska really wants to be is in the bedroom closet. This would be the perfect place for having pups, Iska says.