Views from the puppy pool:
I decided against doing the thumbs (dewclaws if you prefer) last night as I was so tired I probably would have cut a wrong part off. That odious task is now accomplished. It’s interesting: some litters it looks like carnage in the pool after but this time there was very little bleeding. We also had no rear dewclaws, which makes the task go quicker. Gwendy in AZ asks about two-tone eyes, finding them very cute. Any of the merles could have eyes of two different colors or mixed; we won’t know until a while after the eyes open. The eyes will open at around two weeks of age, but all puppy eyes are blue to start with. It’s not until around 4 weeks that we can see what color they will turn out. Blue eyes in the blacks is a different issue as it’s controlled by a different gene, or combination of genes. Both parents must carry the recessive(s) for a puppy to inherit the right combination. We had no blue-eyed blacks in the first litter, nor in either the litters either Wally or Hannah came from, so I find the possibility unlikely. As cute as it is, we can’t show colors other than blue merle who have blue eyes or partially blue eyes, so I hope that we don’t have them.