Progress for Hokkaido Club: 1st Litter Born in North America

Each of the Nihon Ken are now represented in North America with in home birth statistics following the delivery of 6 healthy Hokkaido puppies last night to Genko (Washington) and Yezo (BC, Canada). The breakdown was 6 puppies total: 2 brindles (boy/girl), 2 white boys, and 2 very black, black and tan girls. It’s a nice litter and has effectively doubled the population of potentially breed-able Hokkaido in North America.

The plan after this includes placing these puppies in cooperative homes, and health screenings on the litter for eyes and MyDogDNA, with some added tests for each parent, and translations for the database and breed club. I would also like to breed Genko one additional time...I'm undecided as to who, but I am glad there are so many males to chose from (they are just none of them closer than 3 hours away). I plan to put profits from the puppies towards these goals.

Anyways, exciting times. Genko is a champ, delivering two smaller puppies first with ease after giving very minimal signs of impending labor in comparison to my Shibas. The first two puppies were both 7 oz, where my Shiba puppies are all around 9-10 at birth.

The rest of Genko's puppies were 11ish ounces. She did need some help for the third puppy which was quite large, which required me holding onto the pup and pushing her skin over his head. Otherwise she was a pretty good whelper and wouldn't set her 1st puppy down initially, and is good about collecting them to her by carrying them where they are supposed to be, and lining them up.

I used a larger ground level whelp box this time vs a smaller waist height Shiba delivery station as she was quite large at 37#. I have a heating pad underneath them in the middle so they can chose to be on it or not, and an infrared heat lamp pointed away from mom. She reminds me all the time "Hey, I like it cold! I'm a northern breed." I also did 4 full loads of laundry during and right after delivery (it's a juicy process and Genko puked a couple times on the clean bed, which is normal).

I wish I could say that I held up as well as she did...I spent the first night sleeping next to them on a cot waking up every 20-30 minutes when she had cramping to expel the last placenta after the oxytocin injection, and to make sure everyone was warm, dry, nursing and toileting ok. I'm thankful my whelper helpers were all present in shifts to take care of my other dogs and puppies while I stayed with Genko.

This after only 2 hours of sleep the previous day following a night shift...the first 24 is always the most dramatic and precarious time, so going without the sleep and "on call" is all apart of good care as these babies are precious. Definitely not glamorous, and boy is my back sore, but I'm glad to be sleeping in a real bed on night #2.

I do still set my alarm for every 1-2 hours on the second night to check, feed mom some meat soup and ice cream or ProBloom (probiotics in goat milk to help stave off the diarrhea from eating placentas). I'm also weighing the babies every morning and two are getting weighed twice a day. I'm extremely glad I invested in a Nest Camera, as this was literally how I knew she had actually begun having puppies, and I can easily check them now on my smart device over wifi from my own bed.

I do want to do a write up on the differences with raising each breed. I plan to socialize and raise these guys as I would my Shibas and I am happy to share the progress and hurdles as they occur. I think raising them this way will help make the transition to new homes easier.

Blog: https://hokkaidousa.wordpress.com/2015/09/07/hokkaido-litter-born-9615-1st-us-litter/

Like and share about the Hokkaido Project on FB: https://www.facebook.com/HokkaidoANA/timeline

My favorite puppy so far is the brindle girl with the star on her chest :)

I also need help coming up with names for them all!

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Comments

  • Congrats!!! Glad to hear everything went well.
  • Congrats!!! Name to brindle boy: Tora :x
  • Krisz, good name, he is now Tora. I was calling him Yezo Jr lol. Tora was the first puppy born :)
  • Congratulations! :D Glad they are doing well.
  • Ooh, yay! Genko had her puppies! That's so exciting. And wow....six of them? What an overachiever, lol. Good job, Genko!

    Just let me know if you want people to come play with puppies. I know several people who would love to play with puppies (including me). ;)
  • Well, I guess I could manage to host a fabulous puppy party...
  • I need to be there.
  • I wish I could come to the puppy party, I miss puppy breath! :( Congrats to you and genko, this is an awesome milestone, hoping for healthy development in all the puppies.. way to go you guys!
  • Puppy party! I like that idea.

    I know you mentioned that Tora was born first, and that made me wonder...what was the birth order of the pups?
  • Oh, puppies!

    Name for the little brindle girl with the "star": Hoshi (star)

    Shared this discussion with one of the key Shiba breeders here in NorCal.
  • Ooo, good name!
  • Birth order:

    Small brindle boy
    Small black/tan/brindle girl
    Big black/tan/brindle girl
    Red tinge white boy
    Brindle girl
    Very white male
  • Awesome! I look forward to your further write-ups. Very interesting.

    More pictures please! ;)
  • @lindsayt what does co-owning a pup involve?
  • For the very white male, I suggest the name Otou (short for Otousan) :)
  • Good name @zandrame ! 3 more to go:

    Red tinged white male
    Small black/tan/brindle girl
    Larger black/tan/brindle girl
  • edited September 2015
    The size difference in the two smallest puppies next to one of the medium sized girls.

    https://hokkaidousa.wordpress.com/2015/09/08/hokkaido-puppies-2-days-old/

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  • @jtaylor

    In summation, I want a male and female aside from what I keep, placed into separate cooperative homes fairly close to me (neighboring states or over the boarder) who agree to not spay/neuter until the puppies mature into adults for evaluation for breeding fitness/health/type. I would like the people involved to agree to some health testing when old enough, and to make the dogs available to me to use for breeding if needed on a temporary basis (ie, to bring the dog to me for a weekend to breed, or bring the female to me to whelp and place a litter). It wouldn't be a co-ownership, but an agreement for the owner to make with me.
  • More name options!

    I didn't want to go too far off the deep end with popular culture (unless you have a theme), so I thought place names from Hokkaido were good ~

    Asahi (Asahikawa)
    Sapporo
    Sora (Sorachi)

    also Taiga (sounds like tiger, but also the name for the biome of northern Hokkaido)
  • I like ginko for the red tinged white male.
  • I almost named Meitou Yukar (the Ainu sagas). That might work for a puppy name?
  • "Yukar" huh? That's different!
  • Congrats! The puppies look great. It must be adorable to watch them grow day to day.
  • haha, yeah, Meitou's name was pretty much decided on a mental coin toss. Yukar is on my short list if I ever own another Hokkaido. So is Cikap (which according to the internet means bird or is in reference to the owl god: http://www.translationdirectory.com/dictionaries/dictionary036.php#C).
  • So I think I will be going with Ainu names for this litter..so one of the white boys is gonna be Yukar and the other Cikap (for now anyways lol)
  • Good names. :)
  • I got some better puppy photos https://hokkaidousa.wordpress.com/2015/09/10/puppy-pictures/

    Puppy 1, brindle boy:

    image

    Puppy 2, small black/tan/brindle girl:

    image

    Puppy 3, larger black/tan/brindle girl:

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    Puppy 4, red tinged white male:

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    Puppy 5, brindle girl:

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    Puppy 6, large very white male:

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  • Do I spy brindle on Puppy 3's cheeks? :-)
  • @ayk

    There are more white/brown hairs coming in little lines, still very dark though. These are not at all like any Shiba black and tan I have ever seen, even though they are also very dark as puppies, but you can always see something in the right places...not with these babies though. I have Genko's 4 week old photos, and they were all clearly black and tan, so it will be interesting to see this develop.
  • @ayk, are you thinking the dark girls are likely kurotora like in Kai Ken?
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