Litter

Rocco/Libby Litter 1: Week 6 Summary for 2026/08/18 & Puppy Videos from 2026/08/15

Coswald August 18, 2026

Let’s start with the video. Watch it in 1080p if you can.

And now the weekly summary.

All weights are in pounds.

Weight Summary:

Miss Topaz takes the week for the first time at 37%. Her male counterpart is Mister Onyx at 32%. Mister Amethyst continues to lead the overall. Miss Ruby closed his overall lead slightly this week and is keeping up.

Another good week for the pups. They are growing in to being a large group.

Mama is still doing well and is still an integral part of the life and development of the pups.

Puppy Development:

Their separation is still in progress. They are still adapting to real food and still are taking in some milk every day from both Mama and raw goat’s milk as sources. The pups are very regularly groomed but for this last week, they did get their first full bath in a tub which they thoroughly enjoyed the experience of splashing around in the water.

The pups have no fear of anything so far. They are a very confident litter. Coats are coming in and all the coats a very plush, but some more than others, with the coats favoring that of Goldens more than Labs. As desired and predictably expected, the beautiful Golden coat is featured in this litter that is in terms of pedigree, 75% Golden.

These pups are likely to have large, sturdy frames and even the smallest pup (Miss. Topaz), will be a sturdy girl, probably similar to size and stature of her mother.

That about sums it up for the week. We are very happy with the litter.

Have a good week and God bless.

Rocco/Libby Litter 1: Week 5 Summary for 2026/08/11

Coswald August 11, 2026

All weights are in pounds.

Weight Summary:

Mister Sapphire takes the week at 45%. His female counterpart is Miss Ruby at essentially the same 45%, just slightly less than he was. Mister Amethyst continues to lead the overall. Last week, it looked like he was going to pull away from the rest of the litter. The overall female leader is still Miss Ruby and she is putting up a fight in second place in the overall and will not let Amethyst pull away. She is staying in striking distance for the overall lead.

It was a very good week for the pups. They were all, including Miss Topaz (“Little Bit”), able to make considerable gains after going through all the adjustments of moving over to more real food from the prior couple of weeks. Food transitions in week three and four tend to slow puppy weight gains.

The highlight was that Little Bit was more in the middle of the pack for the week and is looking real good.

Mama is still making visits every few hours with the pups and is doing incredibly well. She is beautiful.

Puppy Development:

The puppies have been separated into smaller groups and are getting crate exposure, as was demonstrated in some video clips we posted yesterday. They have yet to be isolated in a crate on their own however. They are not sensitive to noises or things that go bump in the night.

They have been adapting well to different textured sensations, sights, noises, smells, and heat and cold. This group tends to run a bit warm in my opinion. They prefer the room be kept cooler than most other litters. It was only two or three days after birth before they needed warming turned off, as they were very quick on developing the ability to regulate their own body temperature.

Of considerable note is that this litter is very olfactory driven. They know everything going on in the room by their noses.

They have had exposure to meat for the first time and they liked it. They have had beef and beef liver.

Upcoming:

For week 6, some time spent desensitizing to isolation in a crate, a few initial short car rides, and a photo shoot (not sure where yet), are all in the plans.

Have a good week and God bless.

Rocco/Libby Litter 1: Week 4 Summary for 2026/08/04

Coswald August 4, 2026

All weights are in pounds.

Weight Summary:

Mister Gold wins the week at 38%. His female counterpart is Miss Ruby at 27%. Mister Amethyst leads the overall and is beginning to pull away from the rest of the field. The overall female leader is Miss Ruby and she is likely to hang on to the female title all the way through to week nine. Miss Ruby is still second in the overall but we think she is likely to be caught by both Mister Emerald and Mister Gold over the next several weeks. There comes a time when it happens that most of the boys overtake the lead female and for those particular two boys, that time is likely soon. We will see if Ruby puts up a fight.

The weight gain typically slows down for a week or two during early weening. We have observed this in most litters, if not all litters, where the puppies have to adjust a bit and they might eat a little bit less.

A note on Topaz:

Historically in our data for the other breeds, being the smallest puppy in the litter hasn’t meant much, if anything at all. We’ve had the so-called “runt” of the litter eventually become the biggest dog. Here is an example of one of our Goldens who was the “runt” by the name of Sonny (Coswald’s You are My Sunshine).:

Sonny grew up to be a very large golden and is a working service dog today.

We’ve had the smallest up in our Laekenois litters be the litter boss several times and grow up to be quite large if not the largest.

That being said, a puppy the size of Topaz will be passed over by the guide dog evaluators and most other service dog organizations so we are going to make her available to the public. More on her and that happening later.

Puppy Development:

We have started the weening process with bowls of milk as we mentioned we would do last week. Here’s what that looks like:

Upcoming:

Real food and the separation process begins.

Have a good week and God bless.