The main reason why my blogging has come to an abrupt hold around the middle of April is this: Three four week old rescue Doberman puppies, all little girls, have found their way into our home...
...and have turned our life upside down.
All photos in this post were taken spontaneously the first evening when they arrived with an iPhone, so please overlook the not so great quality of the images.
Here is Skylar, our red Dobie boy, testing the new x-pen, the afternoon before the puppies moved in. He seems to approve of their new home!
'Can I find some mother milk here?'
Cuteness overload?!
The puppies have been rescued by Susan Kelber, Los Angeles, who is involved in Doberman rescue for the last twenty years. She got them from a backyard breeder, who was selling them individually over Craig's List at the age of four weeks. According to Susan, he claimed their mom was hit by a car and dead, and that was the reason why he was selling them at such a young age.
Puppies should stay with their mom until they are at least eight weeks old. If the mom is not available anymore, they at least should be brought up together until they are eight weeks old to keep each other company, play together and teach each other important things like bite inhibition etc.
When Susan got in contact with the backyard breeder he stated that it was a litter of ten puppies and that he had already sold four. According to Susan she explained to the man that puppies should not be separated at this age and tried to convince him to relinquish the puppies to her for rescue purposes, but he didn't want to do that. So Susan bought the remaining six puppies from him with the help of two generous and dog loving friends, to keep them safe and make sure that they stay together at least in groups of three until they can be separated at a more appropriate age.
Our friend and dog trainer Alexandra Gant, who is heavily involved in dog rescue, was looking for a second rescue Doberman for us and heard through her rescue contacts about the litter and connected us to Susan.
And so it came that three puppies went to a Doberman breeder in the Los Angeles area for fostering and the remaining three ended up at our home.
Our job was to raise and take care of them as good as we can until they are at least eight weeks old and can be adopted out.
First of all, we took them on, because we wanted to adopt one for ourselves. As I said earlier, we were looking for a Doberman companion for Skylar and we were searching for quite a while by then. But, of course, we also wanted to help these little puppies to get the best possible start into their lives, after obviously a very bumpy early beginning.
'This is a fun toy to play with!'
Skylar: 'Yes, but this one is mine and will stay mine, no matter how cute mom and dad think you are!'
The decision to take the puppies on had to be made rather quickly and I freely admit that we had no idea what we were getting into and how much work and time was involved to raise these little girls.
As luck would have it, I was taking part in a Vedic Chant workshop in Ojai, California and on the way back to San Diego, it was easy to stop by at Susan's home in Los Angeles and pick them up.
Not knowing anything about Doberman puppies, I was shocked how little they actually were when I saw them in person for the first time. But still, moments later I had them loaded up in a cardboard box into my car to take them home.
'My nose tells me that there is water!'
Crashed on my husbands leg after the long drive from Los Angeles to San Diego.
They really craved human contact.
Another one crashed in my arms. They seemed to either play, sleep, eat or poop and pee.
They were so little, they were fitting into one hand.
'Yum, puppy gruel!'
'Shall we eat some more?'
I just wanted to show you the little Dobie girls the way they looked the moment they arrived. By now, about six weeks later, they have grown so tremendously, they are hard to recognize.
If you would like to follow their story, please come back soon. I will try to post more pictures of them in the next couple of weeks and let you participate in their development!
Thanks for stopping by, as always I really appreciate your visit! Hope you enjoyed seeing some photos of the little Dobie girls!
Warm regards,
Christina
...and have turned our life upside down.
All photos in this post were taken spontaneously the first evening when they arrived with an iPhone, so please overlook the not so great quality of the images.
Since the puppies were constantly moving (at least one of them always was) you neither got all three of them in one photo,...
...nor did you get a sharp shot.
Here is Skylar, our red Dobie boy, testing the new x-pen, the afternoon before the puppies moved in. He seems to approve of their new home!
'Can I find some mother milk here?'
Cuteness overload?!
The puppies have been rescued by Susan Kelber, Los Angeles, who is involved in Doberman rescue for the last twenty years. She got them from a backyard breeder, who was selling them individually over Craig's List at the age of four weeks. According to Susan, he claimed their mom was hit by a car and dead, and that was the reason why he was selling them at such a young age.
Puppies should stay with their mom until they are at least eight weeks old. If the mom is not available anymore, they at least should be brought up together until they are eight weeks old to keep each other company, play together and teach each other important things like bite inhibition etc.
When Susan got in contact with the backyard breeder he stated that it was a litter of ten puppies and that he had already sold four. According to Susan she explained to the man that puppies should not be separated at this age and tried to convince him to relinquish the puppies to her for rescue purposes, but he didn't want to do that. So Susan bought the remaining six puppies from him with the help of two generous and dog loving friends, to keep them safe and make sure that they stay together at least in groups of three until they can be separated at a more appropriate age.
Our friend and dog trainer Alexandra Gant, who is heavily involved in dog rescue, was looking for a second rescue Doberman for us and heard through her rescue contacts about the litter and connected us to Susan.
And so it came that three puppies went to a Doberman breeder in the Los Angeles area for fostering and the remaining three ended up at our home.
Our job was to raise and take care of them as good as we can until they are at least eight weeks old and can be adopted out.
First of all, we took them on, because we wanted to adopt one for ourselves. As I said earlier, we were looking for a Doberman companion for Skylar and we were searching for quite a while by then. But, of course, we also wanted to help these little puppies to get the best possible start into their lives, after obviously a very bumpy early beginning.
'This is a fun toy to play with!'
Skylar: 'Yes, but this one is mine and will stay mine, no matter how cute mom and dad think you are!'
The decision to take the puppies on had to be made rather quickly and I freely admit that we had no idea what we were getting into and how much work and time was involved to raise these little girls.
As luck would have it, I was taking part in a Vedic Chant workshop in Ojai, California and on the way back to San Diego, it was easy to stop by at Susan's home in Los Angeles and pick them up.
Not knowing anything about Doberman puppies, I was shocked how little they actually were when I saw them in person for the first time. But still, moments later I had them loaded up in a cardboard box into my car to take them home.
'My nose tells me that there is water!'
Crashed on my husbands leg after the long drive from Los Angeles to San Diego.
They really craved human contact.
Another one crashed in my arms. They seemed to either play, sleep, eat or poop and pee.
They were so little, they were fitting into one hand.
'Yum, puppy gruel!'
I just wanted to show you the little Dobie girls the way they looked the moment they arrived. By now, about six weeks later, they have grown so tremendously, they are hard to recognize.
If you would like to follow their story, please come back soon. I will try to post more pictures of them in the next couple of weeks and let you participate in their development!
Thanks for stopping by, as always I really appreciate your visit! Hope you enjoyed seeing some photos of the little Dobie girls!
Warm regards,
Christina
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