Arne was born on the 30th of July 2022, two years ago today!
His mother is Elsa ‘Orical Written In The Stars (AI)’, or, Queen Elsa as she has been crowned. Elsa is such a special girl, her wonderful guardian owners Kim and Maria give her the most amazing life.
And Arne's father is 'Expected Patkis', whose frozen semen we imported from Finland a number of years ago. A glorious brown boy.
Arne was the only puppy in his litter, and due to this Elsa had a c section (which is the safest option for mum and pup when it's a singleton litter).
Unfortunately Elsa's milk didn't come in, despite our best efforts. So we took on the role of bottle feeding Arne- every 90 mins to 3 hours, 24 hours a day. And because he was so little, we had to continue this regime until he was 7 weeks of age.
Here is Harri (3 years old) helping out ❤️
It was a mammoth effort, with each feeding session being 15 mins to 1 hour in duration, and needing to keep him warm, clean him and toilet him (mums toilet young puppies by licking their genitals, we use a moist towel to simulate).
4 weeks old and finally 1KG! 5 weeks old having a play. Photos with mum❤️
It was difficult at times, with a birth weight of 240g, he dipped to 200g a few days after being born, and at 2 weeks old he was just 400g; to compare, a 2 week old puppy is usually 900-1200 grams in weight.
Photos of his growth from birth to 8 weeks ❤️
We were getting up every 2-3 hours during the night to feed him, but to see him strong, full of energy, and putting on weight, made it all worthwhile.
Some more growing puppy photos ❤️
Arne has blossomed into a wonderful young man. He is always so joyful and looking to make you laugh with his antics. It has been so interesting to see his markings develop overtime. Despite his small stature at the start he has grown into such a big masculine boy with a big gorgeous coat.
And now here he is now, as a new father himself, passing on his special genes to his kids.
Some more recent photos of the handsome guy!
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