Puppies in a Pool

My mother and I played the role of the main care givers when it came to, food, medicine, hygiene, and upkeep, of both the puppies and Iris, but without the beautiful handiwork of my father and both my brothers, we would have been in bad shape, when it came to where the dogs sleeping quarters were.

~

'My brothers are really photogenic' 

In our mudroom the boys had built a 6ft wall from plywood with a sliding door where we could enter.  Inside, taking up half of the space, was a blue kiddy pool where Iris could lay down and feed her pups and the puppies could sleep.  The pool served as a small corral that was to tall for the puppies to escape and Iris was able to come and go as she pleased, as it is not healthy for the mother to spend all her time with her pups.

The other great thing about the pool was that it made cleaning easy!  What many people don't know about raising puppies, is that for the first 4 week the mother does the majority of the work, feeding and cleaning.  Puppies in the first few weeks of their life, are unable to excrete waste on their own due to lack of muscle, therefore the mother must caress the pups bottoms with her tongue in order to excrete the waste for them.  Therefore the pool made cleaning easy not only for myself to spray it down with cleaning products but also for Iris to clean up her pups and her acting 'den' as well.