Puppy breath is delicious.
Thanks all. Until last year when I brought home two Labradoodles, brothers, 4 months, and a month later 10 week old Jake Mastiff, we had not had puppies in the house since 97. We had up till last year, been losing our geriatric Mastiffs at the rate of one or two a year. We lost both geriatric Rotties after the puppies came last year. The puppies surely filled some big old holes in our hearts. It's been a little less than a year since we stopped having the poop and pee messes. But we are so used to it it is not that much of a deal. Our whole downstairs is all tile just because of keeping so many country house-dogs. Big doggie door helps too. Big X-pen too. More than one puppy at a time too, as they entertain each other. The doggie door to courtyard is Mastiff/Dane size, meaning that the bottom of doggie door is way up from floor, but the way little girl is jumping now, it won't be very long before she'll be able to jump up to it. She's way too tiny to be alone with the big puppies now especially all of them at the same time but pretty soon she'll be following them outside to potty and not too long after that going out there all by herself. She seems to demand going outside to potty.
Lily, she has a name now, wants to be either in our laps or with the big puppies. Although Jake Mastiff just turned 14 mo.s he is still a big baby, with much maturing and growing to do. He's amazingly gentle with her, even though he is still a baby. (Mastiffs mature and grow very slowly; takes almost as long as horses.) Today, he reminded me so much of a Mastiff dam with young puppies, the way he was being so careful to not step on her. Jake is about 160 lbs but has lots more growing to do. Moe doodle, the dominant boy here, (both Doodles are neutered but not Jake) is a little afraid or her. Curly doodle is already bouncing, and jumping, and doing all the things she does.
Lily, is already a spit-fire. Many of the show/working Mastiffs we've had over the years have been from our breedings but we've brought in, average one or two every year or two from other breeders. I thought they adjusted well. I've never seen any puppy adjust as fast as Lily. Jake Mastiff adjusted the fastest till Lily.
She spent a great deal of time snuggled/sleeping inside my fleece vest, head and paws sticking out, last night but at about 0200 I decided I needed to get some sound sleep so I put her in the X-pen, put on headphone, with TV sound, and that hardly muffled her shrieking and howling. DH put ear plugs in but they made his ears sore. We usually "den" with our dogs, sleeping, usually in our recliners, so she had lots of company very close by with us and the three boys. She finally got tired and stopped but then woke on the hour, every hour to do some more shrieking. Twice was to go doodie because she has already indicated that it upsets her to potty and doodie in the pen. I was so tired I decided to not get to up and take her out. She's only 6 weeks old and expressing her preferences and wants very clearly. She doesn't have many dislikes yet other than wanting to get down occasionally from being held or being put in the X-pen without one of the others snuggled up against the pen.
My Cissy Briard, French sheep herding/guarding, police dog, etc. was the most intelligent dog I've had the pleasure to live with. She was brilliant. We lost her a couple of years ago, age 12. Lily is a genius though. I just can't believe how smart she is at such an early age. BTW.... 6 weeks is way too early to take a puppy from litter and mom as they learn good pack behaviors for several weeks from interactions with litter-mates and especially mom. I never let my Mastiff puppies leave til 12 weeks. Jake came at 10 weeks but he was well taught by a huge litter and excellent Mom. She'll learn a lot from the boys and Chaco.
I'm going tomorrow to pick up the last female from the litter. She is supposed to be for neighbors, Chaco's (our boys play/swimming mate and best girlfriend) family but their Dad was over today and informed me that this is not a good time for them.
Told him I would keep her til they have things more settled. Anyway Lily will be happier playing with someone more her size. She's so tiny. And I'm sure she'll sleep more soundly at night. We've always preferred two young puppies at a time that makes everything so much easier. So if we "have" to keep her, we'll be fine. We may not let her go anyway. That's very possible. Whenever I had an occasional Mastiff come back from one of my litters, if I hadn't found another home for them before they came, and DH spent a day or two with them, they ended up staying here. I don't think any pair of puppies can the the terrors that the doodles have been. They are well behaved, active but not hyper, but they are wild things once they cut loose. I've never had any puppies do so much destruction to everything as these two. They certainly have lots of room, rarely confined, and many diversions and some jobs but they just like to steal things and tear everything up. They started alarming at Coyotes when they were about 5 months old. And they certainly keep Jake Mastiff in shape. He moves and plays, runs, jumps and turns in the air unlike any other Mastiff I've seen and I've had mostly really athletic working Mastiff. And his muscles are rock hard. But we've never had crazy, funny Doodles around to teach any puppies acrobatics.
Thanks for letting me talk about my babies. Lily goes to Vet appointment tomorrow a.m. Too bad I couldn't get her litter-mate today but Vet is only 7 miles away, thank goodness.
Big slobbery, medium sized wet, and tiny dam,p sweet kisses from the puppies at Dawg Ranch.
Total surprise. DH is on his way home with a new baby Blue Heeler. A girl. His personal lap dog and he gets to name her, subject to our discussion of course. Doggie fanatics can relate to this. In 33+ years of marriage this is the first puppy he has chosen all by himself, totally his decision and choice. He did call me to check on his sanity before committing.
I just can't live without my dogs! Friends come and go but dogs are your friend forever! 
