Coming up on 4 weeks, it was time to move the pups to larger quarters that don’t require daily cleaning as we transition from mom’s milk to lamb’s milk and kibble. Mom won’t clean up after them once they have eaten foreign food. And wood shavings are very forgiving.

The pups are getting inquisitive and cute.

Mirk, from a friend in Talybont, Wales.

3 Jazz x Max pups (2F/1M) left the whelping area in the house and are now in the puppy room of the barn looking very healthy as they come up to their 3-week birthday. Glad to have my house back! Here for another 3 weeks before going to the large group kennel, making way for Gail and her pups.

Puppies are fully mobile now, walking not crawling, playing with one another, eyes and ears both open, those sense continuing to develop over the coming weeks. One female is larger and more assertive than the other two pups.

Jazz’s puppies will be 2 weeks old on Monday 3-June. This weekend, they are opening their eyes (and ears) for the first time. If you look carefully in the video, the first puppy (also the first one whelped) has her eyes open (hard to see with the black mask) at 11 days.

The puppies still mostly sleep and eat, but they will start to be animated over the next week as explore one another and their surroundings with their new senses. The 2-week no-care honeymoon is just about over for me.

In another week, they will start to be walking and truly mobile. At 4 weeks they leave the house and go out to the barn.

After what seemed like an exceedingly long warm-up, Jazz delivered up 3 *extra large* pups by Max this afternoon. Pups have classic collie markings, will be long and lean like the sire. 2F and 1M pups.

The pups are well looked after. Jazz is a calm and attentive mother, unlike wild bitch Nel, who dumps the work on me. No puppies screaming because mom has neglected them or because they are being rolled by mom. Every pup should have a mom like Jazz.

These two awesome pups from Donal Mullaney, Letterkenny, Co. Donegal, Ireland arrive in Boston on 10-July.

Nel is going to be bred via frozen AI to Rob Ellis’ Bran, the reigning Welsh sheepdog champion and runner up the year before, coming 3rd in the International Supreme Championship.

Rob Ellis with his 2023 Welsh Sheepdog Champion, Bran.