Naper Doodles Current Miniature Labradoodle Puppies

Everlasting Joy had a fabulous litter of F1b Mini Labradoodles in September, sired by Signature Armani.
These puppies will mature to 16-18" and 20-40 lbs. Color range is apricot to dark red, both fleece and wool coats.
The Fall 2007 litter were all promised before they were born, and went home in November.
You may visit Puppy Praises for current photos of these dogs and notes from their owners.
(photos below can be enlarged by clicking on them)

11/18/07 Eight weeks old: Six puppies went home this weekend and the other three are going soon. They are all between 5-7 pounds and cuddly, wiggly, soft bundles of fur with puppy breath. Each of the pups are so ready for a family to dote on them, but I will miss them very much. This has been a fantastic litter and I plan to duplicate the parents in the spring (Joy & Armani).

All photos © Naper Doodles.

11/12/07: Three of our pups are having ESN performed right now, the last three are on Wednesday. The pups are cuddly and playful and it's hard to get anything done around here because I just want to love on them! They are sleeping 7 hours per night in their crates and eating well. We are really looking forward to the shared joy of this coming week when we place your warm bundle of love in your arms.

11/7/07 Six weeks + three days old: We are getting closer to your bundle coming home! Your pups slept through the night in two closed crates last night, from 10pm - 5am, with no crying and no pottying in the crate. There were 5 pups in one crate and 4 in the other. I will do this for a few nights then start to parcel them out two to a crate. Our first three boys get their ESN performed tomorrow, then three girls on Monday and the final three boys one week from today. Our pups are getting named by their families! We now have Wrigley, Toby, Sophie, Riggi Rigatoni, Teddy and Ginger. We are assembling your puppy kits and photo CDs this week.

11/6/07 Six weeks old: It's been a busy weekend here! We had all eight families for our current litter, plus two families from the Spring '08 waiting list, into our house to play with the puppies. What a rare and wonderful experience -- it's a joy to see the delight on my customers' faces as they are loved up by nine squirming puppies. Each family told me their top picks and I completed all of the assignments last night. I have ID'd the photos from last week with their collar-color, and with their names as they are designated by their families.

10/29/07 Five weeks old: Oh, my, have I had a fabulous puppy-centric day. My Doodle-loving friend, Carol, spent the day with me. She brought photographic expertise, a genuine love of puppies and a ton of equipment! She took lots of great pictures and I can't wait for you to see them. All photos in thumbnails below can also be seen on their own special page. Carol also took many, many artistic shots with props, and I will have the best of those posted here later tonight. We are greatly anticipating the 6-week visits of our customer families next weekend! Please bring your crate if you would like us to introduce crate training. All photos © Naper Doodles. Thanks Carol!!!

10/23/07 Four weeks old: What is lacking in photographic expertise this week will be made up for next week-- a Doodle-loving friend has offered to bring over her professional equipment for their 5 week pictures! We'll also update Bella's photo (maybe even Joy's!) for the Parent page. Thanks Carol!

The pups are moving so quickly that I had to have them held for these photos-- even a full belly of kibble and milk won't diminish their curiosity if they are lifted from their pen! They are now eating dry kibble after having it wet down for about 5 days. I have added more photos, including some endearing pictures of Joy nursing, to the Photos page. It's hard work for Joy to nurse at this point because everybody has sharp nails and teeth coming in. The pups are pretty consistently using their pee-pad. They are enjoying our baby toys (actually pass-downs from my human pack). We look forward to our families visiting in 2 weeks!

All of the contracts went out last week. We had one family decide to wait for the spring litter because of medical issues with their child, so we are in the process of placing our little "spare puppy" from this litter-- two families are very interested.

10/15/07 Three weeks old: I'm amazed at how consistently calm and sweet this litter is. They love to be cuddled! They are walking fairly well and going over to the pee-pad to potty about 70% of the time. They are still within the walls of the whelping pen, but are almost ready to expand to new territories (ie. the baby gated pen). The bigger their space, the less consistent they are in going potty in one spot, and this will continue until they are fully potty trained. They wake up when I say "Good morning!" and they mew, cry, and yelp when Joy comes into the room. She's still nursing 10-12 times per day. The pups are experimenting with their first bowl of water today and they'll start on softened dog kibble next week. Joy will continue to nurse until 5.5-6 weeks and the pups will be solidly on kibble before they come home. I have heard the first couple playful growls, but when they bend down into the 'pounce' position they usually fall over! They are very entertaining!

Bella has introduced herself and is even allowed (by Joy) into the pen to nuzzle and lick the pups. Everyone had their first worming yesterday and I clipped 162 little toenails (weekly). They will get their Parvo immunizations next week. Their first Puppy Shot comes at 6 weeks and they are scheduled for Early Spay/Neuters on November 8, 12 and 14 (three each day).

We are setting up family visits for the 6 week mark-- once the customers for this litter are scheduled then I will invite others on the waiting lists (you have to be on a waiting list to visit when we have puppies in the house). I invite you to bring your puppy's crate during your visit-- I will begin crate training before they leave, easing them into it by starting with 3-4 pups per crate for short times. Please visit our Bringing Home Puppy page for more details. I am mailing out the contracts this week and they are due back with your balance when the pups turn 6 weeks old. We can establish your November pickup date/time during your visit! I can't wait for you all to meet this wonderful litter of Labradoodles. :)

10/9/07 Photos! Sorry they are late this week. They are all trying to walk, I captured this the best I could in these photos. Their eyes are all partially open. I also added three Photos of the pups trying to walk to the Milk Bar. Joy steps into the whelping box, nuzzles the pups to get their attention, then walks to the far corner to encourage them to walk toward her. Very soon she will stop laying down to feed them-- nature dictates that she sits, and then later even stands while they nurse, to encourage the pups' muscle development. The pups are each about 2 pounds now (I keep detailed records of the weight gain of each puppy!).

10/8/07 Two weeks old: Please forgive the delay in new photos-- today was Columbus Day, which means my (human) boys took my full attention. I will get photos posted tomorrow. Three pups are opening their eyes... another good reason to wait a bit.

10/5/07 Twelve days old: I watched two pups walk on all fours today, with their bellies up off the ground!! I alternate which puppy gets snuggled every night after my children go to bed. We can't wait to see their eyes!

10/1/07 One week old:

All nine pups are gaining about 2 ounces per day. Our two biggest weigh 1lb 8 oz and the two smallest weigh 1lb 1oz. I have included a photo of these two with a tennis ball to help you gauge their sizes. I can still hold a puppy curled in one palm, but I have fairly large hands. :) They still eat and sleep 100% of the time, and Joy does such a great job keeping them clean that I haven't seen poop yet! The physical changes we saw this week were the flopping over of most ears, hair growth on the outside of the ears, and blackening of their little paw pads and noses. They love to be cuddled and quiet immediately after you pick them up. Please visit the Photos page, too, for more new pictures of this litter.

9/24/07 Introducing Joy & Armani's Fall 2007 litter of F1B Mini Labradoodles!

Joy is a fantastic Mama as always, licking and nursing 99.6% of the time. I couldn't bear to separate them, so I just took close shots of each pup in their little pile. The coloring is very pretty for this litter. We think the coats of the two lightest look like "frosted apricot". I have added some more photos of Joy with her litter to the Photos page. We are thrilled to place these puppies with the first nine families on our Waiting List.

9/23/07 NINE PUPPIES!! Delivered Sunday morning from 3:50 to 7:50am. They are beautiful! We have 6 boys, 3 girls. Color-wise we have 1 dark apricot, 2 that are very light apricot almost chalky, 1 apricot with lighter shoulders and hips, and the remaining 5 are medium apricot. Mama and puppies are all doing great! I will post photos later.

9/19/07 Seven weeks pregnant, puppies are due in one week:

Joy's belly is huge and she's doing a good bit of laying about. She enjoys hard boiled eggs morning and night. Joy's tummy seems as big as it was for the last litter although her ultrasound (which is only used for pregnancy confirmation!) showed five heartbeats. I will begin taking her temperature four times per day tomorrow so we can watch for it to drop-- that will be our signal that she will deliver within 24 hours. We have 13 families on the waiting list, but the ones toward the end will be waiting till Spring 2008 for their puppy.

8/6/07 One week pregnant (we hope!):
Joy was bred on July 27th during a 3-week driving trip to the Pacific NW. These will be well-traveled puppies! We didn't manage to AI her a second time, as is standard, because Fed Ex wouldn't deliver the 'goods' to our remote location (the Oregon beach) on a Saturday. Based on her progesterone testing the week before I feel sure that our timing was perfect and I'm praying for at least 9 puppies to satisfy our current wait list families! An ultrasound is scheduled for August 21st to get a feel for the quantity, but numbers aren't certain till delivery. The due date for this litter is September 26th, 2007.

June 2007:
We are waiting for Everlasting Joy to come into season. The sire is all lined up, for this litter we have chosen Signature Armani of Tuscan Ridge Labradoodles. We are pleased to have a great relationship with Teresa of Tuscan Ridge and that she will allow us to use Armani -- he's proven himself with terrific litters in the past! Please visit our Meet the Parents page for all of the details on Armani. As for schedule, we are on Nature's Timeline, so the pups will be born about 9-10 weeks after Joy comes into season.

We have families on the waiting list for the next litter, but there are a few open spots. We will continue to add updates to this page (Current Puppies) as we have news-- please visit the page we updated weekly for Joy's first litter to see an example. Our FAQ page will answer a bunch of your questions! Feel free to contact us if you have any questions that aren't answered on the website.

God...sat down for a moment when the dog was finished in order to watch it...
and to know that it was good, that nothing was lacking,
that it could not have been made better.
~Rainer Maria Rilke, Austro-German lyric poet