Tracking Progress

For the next few weeks Gertie will be taking care of the puppies’ nutritional and hygiene needs. Our job is to monitor their progress so we can catch problems before they get out of hand. The main indicator we use is the puppies’ weights.

For the next two weeks each puppy will be weighed twice each day. The weights are recorded on a log sheet and will be shown on the graph at the top of the left hand column of this blog. The log sheet is shown above. At the left-hand side of the page we have information that identifies each puppy. Included are the gender (‘F’ or ‘M’ at the far left) and a short description of color and unique markings. The times right under the ID numbers are the birth times.

We use a gram scale while the puppies are very small so the changes are more obvious. I convert from grams to pound for the graph we show on this blog. Gertie’s weight, in the last row, is in pounds.

You will notice that there’s a box drawn around the weights for Puppy #4. That box indicates that her weight has not increased and is a warning to us to keep an eye on her. No change or a minor decrease in weight for one or two weightings is not necessarily a problem because we may have weighed the puppy just before or after it has eaten. No gain or worse, a loss, over a 24-hour period means we may have to take action. We’ll be sure Puppy #4 gets time with Gertie in case she’s being pushed out by the other pups. Harriett will also give her some supplemental feeding to help her get going.