Week 3 Update: Our Golden Retriever Puppies Grow Stronger

If you’ve been following along then you probably already know that our Golden, Raven had six beautiful Golden Retriever pups a few months back.

Today we’re recapping WEEK 3 of the pups.

If you missed a post or two then take a look back at our litter of Golden puppies Week 1 and Week 2.

So, what happened during week 3?

Without further adieu…

QUICK RECOMMENDATION: If you’re thinking about getting a puppy first check out Puppies for Dummies. It’s a great book that will give you a good foundation on raising and training a puppy.

Golden Retriever Pups Week 3

Our movie quote for the week is “THEY’RE SO FLUFFY!”

Hint: Think animated and super villain.

I probably mentioned it multiple times, but I was nervous as heck the days leading up to Raven’s due date.

I had no idea what was going to happen, what I was supposed to do, or when it was going to happen!?

Luckily Raven had everything under control.

Honestly, after going through the entire experience I found I was much better prepared then I thought, but then again experiencing something like whelping a litter of puppies for the first time can be very stressful.

By the way, if you found us because you’re prepping whelp a litter of puppies you might want to take a look at our whelping checklist and make sure you have all the supplies you’ll need for the day your puppies arrive.

At least when my daughter Emma was born we were surrounded by doctors and nurses who I’m sure experienced child birth thousands of times.

One of the most important things is to make sure everyone is gaining weight.

For 8 weeks I weighed all 6 puppies once a day.

Here’s the Day 15 weight chart:

PuppyShave MarkColorWeight (Day 15)Liberty (Berlin)Right Back LegGreen2 lb 11.5 ozTank (Bear)Left Back LegBlack3 lb 1.5 ozTrooper (Buster)Right ShoulderRed2 lb 11 ozPatriotLeft ShoulderBlue3 lb 1 ozSpiritLower BackPink2 lb 11.5 ozGunnerUpper BackBrown2 lb 10.5 oz

The good news about week 3 is it was the first time I feel like I had a sigh of relief.

The puppies were doing great as their eyes were wide open, they were sobering up (the drunk man waddle was becoming more stable), and a few other major landmarks.

Day 16 – Lets Hear Some Noise!

Yep, I heard the first real bark from one of the pups.

First bark was cute, but not so sure 6 barking puppies is much fun (I can tell you from experience…it isn’t).

Day 17 – Puppy Socialization

We had a few friends stop by early on to see the puppies, but we started seeing more visitors during week 3 including family and several of our fellow GDA puppy raisers.

From children to adults to seniors our pups got to meet and greet many a visitor.

Day 18 – Puppy Play

YAY!  Puppies are becoming active!

They are finally starting to interact with each other in a playful manner!

Every step in their journey seems monumental and the first signs of playing together is no different.

Week 3 marked the time when puppies started looking and acting like puppies.

A couple other notes from week 3:

• Our Golden pups are becoming little fur balls as their coats grow in.
• Mom still cleans up most of their messes and keeps their whelping box fairly clean.  Although from day 1 we regularly change out the whelping mat.

Alright guys and gals if anyone else out there has ever raised a litter of puppies tell us about your experiences during week 3.

Were your puppies hitting all of the same milestones as this Golden litter?

Tell us your story in the comment section below.

That’ll do it for our third week with our Golden pups!  Check out our other Golden Retriever puppy growth week by week blog posts:

• Week 1 – Six Golden Retriever puppies are born!
• Week 2 – Pups eyes are opening starting to waddle.
• Week 3 – This is Week 3!
• Week 4 – Little guys are starting to eat solid foods.
• Week 5 – Puppies love car rides…in the laundry basket 🙂
• Week 6 – Fluffy, cute, adorable…that’s a 6 week old puppy!
• Week 7 – The great puppy escape artists!
• Week 8 – Our golden puppies head to their new homes.

FYI, Weeks 3-5 were some of my favorite weeks.

Raven still takes care of a lot of the messy puppy stuff while we got to play with little 3 lb fur balls!

Is your Golden about to have a litter of puppies? Check out Puppy Culture DVD and Workbook to get your started.

Or are you just searching for “adorable” Golden Retriever puppies because your about to get a Golden of your own? Puppies for Dummies will give you the basics on how to raise and train your new puppy.

Top Picks For Our Puppies

1. BEST PUPPY TOY
   We Like: Snuggle Puppy w/ Heart Beat & Heat Pack - Perfect for new puppies. We get all of our Service Dog pups a Snuggle Puppy.
2. BEST DOG CHEW
   We Like: Best Bully Sticks - All of our puppies love to bite, nip, and chew. We love using Bully Sticks to help divert these unwanted behaviors.
3. BEST DOG TREATS
   We Like: Wellness Soft Puppy Bites - One of our favorite treats for training our service dog puppies.
4. BEST FRESH DOG FOOD
   We Like: The Farmer's Dog - A couple months ago we started feeding Raven fresh dog food and she loves it! Get 50% off your first order of The Farmer's Dog.

Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.