31 Puppies?

a view of the main room of our walk-out basement, there are
large floor to ceiling windows and in this room we have
placed chip-board on the floors and arranged 4 pens,
each litter pen has a puppy-nest and opens onto
a central play area, to the
right are the stairs up to the kitchen, and to the left is the back
entry door (below).

a view of the walk-out basement exit,
showing the sheltered alcove under the deck where
the pups will venture out when they are young.
Puppies are in the basement to the left of the alcove

31 puppies probably seems amazing.

Well, I will tell you a secret..... It is truly amazing!

Those who know me know how much I enjoy Griffons and raising these 31 puppies is going to be a fantastic experience.

Okay, so it is a huge responsibility and there are some down points, like having to clean up after 31 puppies every day .... but for the most part, taking care of 31 puppies is a lot of fun.

Can you imagine anything more fun than playing with 31 puppies each day. And for those of you who are excited about watching puppies develop their hunting instincts, can you imagine anything more fun than watching 31 puppies develop and change every day, becoming more aware of their surroundings, and the thrill of watching Centuries of instinct awaken in each pup?

Basically, until now, we were not set up for this many litters at once. I had thought that we would only have 3 out of 5 breedings take, and we were so lucky that they each bitch produced a litter.

Since our litters are raised in our home, in our walk-out basement and upstairs in our kitchen and great-room.... we had to make some changes.

I needed to purchase more exercise pen panels, and purchase floor coverings (chip-board) so that the concrete of our basement would not be ruined. once I re-organized our walk-out basement (threw out and gave away lots of extra "stuff") we were off to the races. We moved a bed downstairs for me to sleep in while the pups are young... and since I only have two whelping boxes, we moved the bitches into draped puppy pens as soon as we were comfortable.

We also called all our old towels into service as bedding for little puppies, and took the plastic dog nests downstairs. New Puppy Toys, a new mop and bucket, some disinfectant, a few new water buckets and lots of dog food, and we were set.

Now everything is so well organized, it is a pleasure to care-take these puppies.

Ah yes, the last important detail, a digital camera, with which to share our 31 puppy experience with all of you!

Life is Good!

Shannon