8 Weeks & Ready to Go!

Cocheco, brown and white parti, male

Pemi, black and white parti, female

Saco, black and white parti, male

Can't wait to meet our families! September 25

Still small enough for the one-handed hold and still enough to remain in one place for considerable lengths of time, the #RiverPups make for sweet study-buddies for the McLaughlin kids. Left hand holding pup, right hand holding a chapter book or working a math problem — it’s the best life for puppies and students! 

Cocheco, Saco, and Pemi join Maisy’s #DancingPups for the majority of the daytime, in which they share a dish of “big puppy” food morning and evening and go outside for playtime in the newly fallen leaves.

We look forward to the visitors coming this weekend to hold and play with them!

Cocheco, brown and white parti, male, 3.72 lbs

Pemi, black and white parti, female, 3.56 lbs

Saco, black and white parti, male, 4.30 lbs

3 Weeks and Back to School! September 12

The past weeks with these cute, fat puppers have been full and busy as the McLaughlin kids started school and fall activities. The pups already welcome human attention, and we shall not deprive them!

Momma Milly is still giving them milk all day and all night long, and with fewer siblings to share the milky wealth these pups are staying considerably larger than their older cousins in Maisy’s litter. 

We already see the beginnings of ability to separate sleep area from potty area, so their whelping box set up has been adjusted to accommodate their early start to potty training. 

Saco, black parti male, 3.15 lbs
​Handsome Saco is the biggest of this litter, and he knows it! He seems to be the leader of this tiny pack and is always the first to reach us when we come to the whelping box.

Cocheco, chocolate parti male, 2.75 lbs
​Soft, chocolate Cocheco is the most quiet and docile of the litter. He makes a perfect lap companion for a kid’s tough math lesson. 

Pemi (Pemigewasset), black parti female, 2.65 lbs
​For whatever sweet Pemi lacks in size to Saco she makes up for in assertiveness and self-defense when Saco is out to take her down! Still, she is as gentle as they come and welcomes being carried around the house by all of us. 

Welcome little ones, August 22, 2019

Milly’s litter of parti-colored pups started many, many hours before their actual birthdate. She kept us up all night with her heavy panting and other labor signs which looked like the pups would appear at any moment, so we dared not leave her or catch any sleep ourselves! Finally, around 3am, the first puppy arrived, feet-first, and we instantly noticed his hearty size. Against all normal pup-birth percentages, the next 2 puppies also came feet first, and of nearly the same above-average size! Post-birth, Milly got the bounce back in her step, along with her lean, athletic figure. Her focus is now all on her pups. She’ll go outside to do her business, but she practically races back inside to be with her puppies!

Name Theme is N.H. Rivers we like: We named the pups for several rivers we’ve enjoyed this year. 

The Cocheco River runs right through Dover and Rochester, NH, places the Dutch Haven families frequent or live in! 
The Saco River has a campground that’s a favorite summer destination for us (if only it were dog-friendly before September!). This river is also a tubing-favorite. 
The “Pemi” River (short for Pemigewasset) starts in the White Mountains and although we haven’t used it in the warm seasons, we like the snowmobile trails lining it. 

First born: Cocheco, male, chocolate and white parti, 10.7 oz.
Second born: Saco, male, black and white parti, 10.5 oz.
Third born: Pemi, female, black and white parti, 10.7 oz. 

Since all the pups have some strong genetic tendencies to like water (Mama Milly is fearless and very agile on the paddle board and kayak, and Daddy Anton loves playing in the lake as well as kayaking), if your travels take you to waterways such as these, may your pups enjoy their birth-namesakes.