Week 7 Progress: Our Golden Retriever Pups Growing Stronger

I can’t believe we’re already at week 7 with our little Golden Retriever babies!

Quote of the day: “Life moves pretty fast, if you don’t stop and look around once in a while you could miss it.”

Do you know who said these famous words?

By the way, that statement is so true. My daughter was born a little over 7 months ago and in the blink of an eye she’s gone from a helpless newborn to a crawling, cuddly, chatty baby.

In the coming months I expect walking, her first words, and much more, but I digress…

…Back to the Golden Retriever pups.

If you’ve been on board since week 1 then you’ve seen all the changes these little guys have gone through.

From opening their eyes and ears to finding their voices.

This litter has grown a lot in 7 weeks!

If you missed our other Golden Retriever puppy posts then click here to go back to week 1.

QUICK RECOMMENDATION: If you’re thinking about getting a Golden Retriever puppy we recommend picking up a copy of Puppies for Dummies. It’s a great book that will give you a solid foundation for raising and training a puppy.

Golden Retriever Pups Week 7

Since birth we weighed each puppy every day until they went to their new homes.

Here’s our Week 7 Golden pup weight chart:

PuppyShave MarkColorWeight (Day 43)Liberty (Berlin)Right Back LegGreen8 lb 15.5 ozTank (Bear)Left Back LegBlack10 lb 1 ozTrooper (Buster)Right ShoulderRed8 lb 13 ozPatriotLeft ShoulderBlue10 lb 9 ozSpiritLower BackPink9 lb 4 ozGunnerUpper BackBrown9 lb 11 oz

Trooper is nearly a full 2 pounds lighter then his bro, Patriot.

Overall I don’t think there’s a huge disparity in weight.

When we volunteered as fosters our German Shepherd mix litter from 10 years ago had a lot more variety.

Then again those puppies probably had more than one father.

Golden Puppies Week #7 Highlights

Day #44 – A Golden Puppy Piles

One of my favorite parts about raising these little pupsters is watching them form puppy piles.

I think I woke these guys up and they’re probably looking at me wondering if it’s time for their next meal.

By the end of week 8 I had them completely weaned off off mama we were feeding these youngsters mostly solid foods by week 7.

If you remember from week 4 we’ve been feeding our Golden Retriever pups Wellness Core Grain Free Puppy Food mixed with warm water.

We let the food sit for about 10 minutes and then mush it up for easier digestion.

Day #46 – Golden Pup and his Deer Antler Chew Toy

During week 7 we did a little photo shoot with a deer antler given to us by our favorite guide dog, Dublin!

Many moons ago we did a short write up about deer antlers for dogs, wondering if it was a good chew toy for dogs.

If you want to see the conversation go back to our post: Are Deer Antlers For Dogs A Good Chew Toy.

Be sure to check out the comment thread.

Day #48 – These Puppies Have Become Escape Artists!

You can see some of the teeth marks in the upper left corner of the photo.

We had a full and half door for our whelping box and by this stage our little pups could easily escape the half wall.

By the time week 8 rolled around a couple of these pups were escaping the full sized door!

I found this photo interesting because from left to right only puppy number 2 is not blurry.

It’s not a depth of field shot so I’m guessing the other puppies were in motion when I snapped the pic.

Our little puppies have become curious, mischievous, adventurous, and are now little explorers.

They are almost ready for their new homes.

So that concludes week 7 with these Golden babies!

Just in case you missed one of our weeks take a look at our recap:

• Week 1 – Six Golden Retriever puppies are born!
• Week 2 – Pups eyes are opening starting to waddle.
• Week 3 – First bark! Good or Bad…Adorable 🙂
• 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 – This is Week 7!
• Week 8 – Our golden puppies head to their new homes.

Okay folks, you’ve made it through 7 weeks of Golden Retriever puppies. What do you think?

It’s been fun, exciting, messy, exhausting, and amazing!

Have you ever experienced raising a little of puppies?

If so, tell us about your experiences in the comment section below.

By the way, if you’ve enjoyed this series of posts and are excited about possibly raising a litter of your own one day then please check out your local shelters and rescues.

Back in the day we volunteered with Cuddly Canines and fostered several dogs and litters of puppies through them.

Here’s a look at the German Shepherd puppies we raised from 3 weeks until 12 weeks old.

This was our first litter and I would have killed to know about the Puppy Culture DVD and Workbook. A great DVD and workbook that teaches what you need to do when raising a litter of puppies

Are you about to pickup a seven week old Golden puppy? You’ll want to check out Puppies for Dummies. This book will give you a solid foundation on raising and training a 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.