[Fluff] My 2nd Kishu Ken Litter Has Arrived!

H

hisinlove

New member
I had my second Kishu Ken litter yesterday on April 3rd, 2017. KIshu Ken are a rare breed, still uncommon in their country of origin (Japan.) This is only the 6th litter registered with the Japanese preservation society that has been born outside of Japan since the breed's standardization in 1934, that I know of. (There have been plenty of Kishu litters outside of Japan, but there are relatively few of those litters are NIPPO-registered.) My first litter was only the 2nd, that I know of...

ANYWAY. Of course I took pictures and plan on taking a boatload more, but here's shots from our first day.

And, to follow that up, I'm going to be running puppy cam while they grow! You're welcome to peek in!

ETA: Internet service got unexpectedly interrupted today-- new live stream is here!
 
@hisinlove Congratulations! I've been popping in and out of the livestream over the last few days. How was the birth? What is the spread of male/female?
 
@r025 Birth was a little nerve-wracking because she (Fionna) was 2 days late according to initial progesterone testing. If she didn't go into labor on that day, I was going to bring her in (even though the repro vet didn't seem very worried.) There was a LONG pause between pup 4 and 5 that made me a little nervous, too...

In the end, we have:
  • Puppy 1 (Gwyddien): white male, born at 12oz
  • Puppy 2 (Coyote): sesame male, born at 12oz
  • Puppy 3 (Inanna): white female, born at 10.5oz
  • Puppy 4 (Uzume): white female, born at 11oz
  • Puppy 5 (Deimne): white male, born at 13oz
 
@hisinlove I got puppy 12 in my first litter six hours after puppy 11. We swore she was done. We had to run out to the store, came back to freshly born puppy 12. These were afghan hounds.
 
@akilah Wow! I would have freaked out if I knew there was a 12 in there, but I'm always thinking in worst case scenarios. It's a curse.

Fionna, the dam, has a sire from a litter of 13, so I was really worried that she had inherited some ability to throw massive litters. I was so happy when the ultrasound revealed 5 puppies, then I sort of felt disbelief when I saw how big she was... but no, just five monster-sized puppies for her.
 
@hisinlove We didn't know there was 12! We figured 9-10 from the x-rays. Once we where at 11 and she rested and ate, pottied, drank, and calmed down we thought we where done. Then 12. That was a fun litter. I had 6 males and 6 females.

And don't get comfortable thinking she'll have medium sized litters!
 
@akilah I think I would be eaten alive with 12 Kishu puppies! Though I know breeder friends with Shikoku who have had upwards of 9, 10, and 12. So much dog in such small packages.
 
@akilah I am NOT a puppy person (at least in person - love pictures, but puppies are just too much work for me) so 12 puppies sounds like some kind of intense hell. Did you have help? Did you sleep?! I can imagine that would have been a LONG 8 weeks before they went home with the buyers.
 
@imagebeastmarkbeast 12 puppies is more like a single organism. Thankfully, their co-breeder took half at 7 weeks. For the first month they are super easy. Then five weeks hits and the room I had them in had an outside door. I attached a run to that door and then covered the run in tarps so that they got noise, sound, smell, and some visual. The top is covered because I'm paranoid of birds of prey.

Then it was cleaning up after them constantly. I've been fortunate to never work a normal 9-5 schedule. This let me overlap with my mother or husband when I had my litters. I took the first week off of work to make sure everyone was thriving for each litter.

I also had a puppy cam up. This let me check in on them while I was at work and help my husband. But creating a whelping area was useful. Xpens are wonderful things. Lots more cleaning and training was just teaching them to be a single organisem.

The thing about raising the litter is the puppies are so focused on you. Getting them to follow me around and teaching them basics was super easy because I started from day one. All of the puppy horror stories didn't happen because they where so well handled that by the time they where 8 weeks old they had a schedule and submitted to everything I asked them to do (but walking on leashes. Leash training was some serious drama for some of them). But the key is a schedule. Thankfully, I don't have a social life so working and playing with puppies was a great way to spend my time.

I didn't start sending them home until three months. But with a run for them to freely go in and out of and an indoor area that acted as a run (tiled, lots of shredded paper) we did just fine and they where a lot of fun.

However, Afghans are not common dogs and selling them is hard as hell. I had a lot of blacks in the litter and everyone wants blonds or domino. I'm terrible at sales and there are some weird people out there that want free dogs and just seem to crazy to sell to.

The afghan that I still have was the 1st puppy born from the 1st litter. She turned 12 last January. I had 4 black bitches in that litter but thankfully they each had a progressive amount of white to their feet. Puppy 1 had no white, 2 had 2 white, 3 had three and four had all four white toe tips.

All 12 at 3 days old. I'm sure all 12 are in there. Some are just buried under others.
 
@hisinlove What are you planning as far as socialisation stuff goes with the puppies? Like early neurological stimulation, puppy culture, etc?

(Sorry if you already answered this in the chat, I had to go to bed.)
 
@r025 I'm planning on writing that down, actually, on a website I'm making to chronicle the litter and my practices (I'm using the litter for independent study credits.)

Right now, in week 1, I focus simply on handling - manipulating puppies from head to toe, regularly. Once they start walking more reliably (around the same time they open their eyes), I start incorporating more textures and toys into their environment.
 
@r025 Just replying again because I finally got the Puppy Culture-related book "When Pigs Fly" and some insight on what they actually go into in the DVDs and-- yikes! I'm sure these are good for people who don't really know much about behavior and psychological development, but they seemed really simple, to me. The book was just about basic foundation work and leading up to obedience. Waiting on the DVD through an inter-library system, but I've been told to expect this out of the DVDs, too.

It's probably very useful for pet owners and breeders who don't have a background in dog training and behavioral psychology, though.

It does make me more motivated to write everything down and the reason for why I am doing what I do.
 
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