The puppies are now one week old and so as traditions dictates – and needs must, it is the weekly weigh-in, nail cutting and photo shoot. The nail cutting is pretty essential for poor Halla, the pups’ nails grow so quickly and they are very pointed, and given that when puppies are feeding they pummel around the teats it certainly cannot be pleasant for the bitch if the pups have razor sharp nails. At this age/size it is quite an easy job, wait till the pups have had a good feed and are therefore sleepy – then snip off the tips using human nail clippers, as the nails are so small, proper pet nail cutters are just too big to use. Of course as the pups get bigger and more wriggly the task gets tougher over the weeks.

The weigh-in is useful to to check that not only are the pups growing but that no one is falling behind – and generally as a rule of thumb pups double their birth weight in first week. Certainly these six are no exception to the rule and are extremely well matched for size/weight. They seem to be equally competent and muscling in for the milk bar – so usually see a nice healthy line up as below.

Feeding time

As is usual in our breed the colouring really starts to change – with face markings spreading and the wolf sables becoming more noticeable.