Golden Retriever pups 2026 – Nessie/Woody
Our wonderful Nessie has whelped a litter of 8 pups, 5 girls and 3 boys, on the 12th of June. This is Nessie’s first litter and she’s took to motherhood well, she’s doing a great job keeping them all clean, well fed and now that they’re mobile she’s starting to gently play with them as well.
Nessie is a loyal companion, very affectionate and eager to please with us. She loves her daily walks around the farm with the other goldens and gets excited for car rides. She enjoys the basic gundog training we do with her, but she’s equally happy curled up on her dog bed with her chin resting on her favourite toy.
Woody is a playful, friendly dog who’s favourite activity is meeting new people and having a belly rub. He’s a pretty chilled out dog, he’s been quick to learn but he’s not a very motivated student as he’d much rather receive some fuss instead of chasing balls and training dummy’s around! He’s sired a few litters now and he tends to produce affectionate and playful pups.
Both parents are DNA clear of GR_PRA1 and 2, and Woody is clear of others such as ICT_A and ICT-A2, prcd-PRA and others. Both have Clear and up to date BVA eye checks and their Gonioscopy’s are both Grade 0. Nessie’s hips are 3/3=6 and Woodys are 3/4=7, both really good hips scores. Both have Elbow scores of 0, which is perfect. There are also loads of excellent hip and elbow scores in the line, which reduces the risk of Hip and Elbow dysplasia.
The beginning – days 0-21
Nessie whelped without any drama on Friday evening, it was a nice easy whelp, pups all a good even size and healthy. Our goal for the 1st week of their lives is to keep them clean and check them over daily for any health problems , but mostly our job is to support Nessie in anyway possible to aid her recovery and help her care for the pups.
The pups are born blind, deaf and unable to walk for the first 3 weeks, their only way of finding their mum is through their heat sensors and their sense of smell. So we keep the floor as flat as possible at this stage, and we try not to use very strong smells near them so as to not confuse them.
7-14 days old is an interesting time for the pups, they begin to develop in several different ways. They’re more mobile, able to (for a very brief time) stand on wobbly legs, and they can really shift around the pen when they want to! They’re eyes start to open this week and the ear canal starts to develop, though they can’t hear or see much at all currently. They had their 1st nail clip this week and they are handled and checked over everyday. Nessie is doing really well, in fact I think she’s rather enjoying the extra attention!
14-21 days old they’re able to walk around the pen and are reacting to noises, for example they have a startle response when something loud is dropped. We occasionally drop things at a distance from them to get them used to random loud noises, and they’re all recovering from the surprise very quickly which is a good sign of a confident pup.
3 Weeks old
Now that the pups are 3 weeks old we began to wean them onto puppy food. At this age they do have teeth but they can’t chew much at all so their puppy kibble is soaked in water or puppy milk to soften it into a mush. This was a roaring success, they ate it all and licked the bowl clean after. They had their first course of Panacur wormer this week, and of course the weekly nail trim. They didn’t fidget much this time, they’re getting used to it now thankfully.
We’ve noticed that when they wake up they walk away from where they’ve been sleeping to go to the toilet, which is the sign we’ve been waiting for to start the very first step of toilet training. We’ve split the whelping box in half, so half is the vet fleece and half is the toilet area. When we see a pup getting in position to toilet, we move the pup to the toilet area so it does it’s business there. After a while hopefully the pups will start to use the right side to toilet and sleep on the bed area, but that will take a few weeks at least.
4 Weeks old
This week we’ve expanded the pups area, so the Whelping box is now their bed area, and outside of that is the toilet. The toilet area is comprised of newspaper, reusable pee mats and tissue paper. This usually works quite well, they have a totally different texture/feel to the bed area so its easier for them to tell the two areas apart. It’s early days but so far all the poos are in the right area and most of the wees as well, so we’re off to a great start! We’ve added toys to the pen this week, and they’ve enjoyed some strawberry’s as well.
Nessie having a well earned nap with her favourite toy
5 Weeks old
This week the pups have had their 2nd round of Wormer and another nail trim, their food is semi firm now and they have daily sessions running around the office. We open a hatch to the side of their pen and encourage them to come out, this encourages problem solving skills as they have to break eye contact and find the exit. Some needed a little encouragement to find the exit but they all found their way out quite quickly really.
As they approached the 6 week mark the heatwave finally ended and we had a few days with reasonable weather, so we took the pups outside on our astroturf area. The pups showed no fear or hesitation, they loved exploring and having zoomies outside despite the loud farm machinery in the yard just a short distance away.
6 Weeks old
So far this week we’ve been hand feeding the pups wet puppy food and bits of apple. Hand feeding at this age can encourage the pups to be softer mouthed and to take treats gently, which seems to be working so far. we’ve been giving them these bits of food when they’re sitting down nicely and not jumping up, to teach them good manners. They’ve only had a few sessions so far but we can already see an improvement, and even when there is no food out they’re starting to sit down when they want fuss now. Taking their age into account, we’re thrilled with how quickly they’re learning!
We’ve put collars on them this week so it’s easier to identify them. The girls are Green, Orange, Pink, Red, and Purple, while the boys are Grey, Light Blue and Dark Blue.
We’ve also applied for the Kennel Club name registration, so hopefully by the end of the week they’ll all be KC registered.
Russbaca Retrievers 