Aiko and Dash at 9 Weeks Old!

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Babies Living With Dogs Get Sick Less!

Dogs and cats help babies' health, study finds Researchers say infants in houses with dogs and cats get fewer runny noses, coughs and ear infections. New research adds to evidence of dogs, cats helping babies' health The dirt and bugs that dogs and cats introduce to human babies can be beneficial -- a sort of cross-training for an infant immune system. And new research suggests that babies in homes with dogs and cats get fewer ear infections and runny noses. (Mel Melcon, Los Angeles Times / July 9, 2012) July 9, 2012, 5:00 a.m. Fido the dog and Ginger the cat need not worry about being replaced by a new baby — in fact, they could be helping parents raise healthier children. A new study finds that children who lived with dogs or cats during their first year of life got sick less frequently than kids from pet-free zones. The study, published in Monday's edition of the journal Pediatrics, provides fresh evidence for the counterintuitive notion that an overly clean environment may not be ideal for babies. Sharing a home with a pet may be an early form of cross-training for the body's defense systems. Previous research has shown that owning a cat or dog was associated with less risk of gastroenteritis in young children. Studies also suggest that the dirt — and microbes — brought indoors by pets could bolster the communities of helpful bacteria, yeast and other microscopic creatures that live in a developing child's body. For instance, a paper presented last month at a meeting of the American Society for Microbiology showed that mice fed dust from homes with dogs were less likely than other mice to contract respiratory syncytial virus, which is thought to play a role in the development of childhood asthma. In addition, the composition of microbes in their guts was significantly different from that of mice that were not exposed to doggy dust. For the new study, European researchers tracked the health of 397 Finnish children born between September 2002 and May 2005. When the infants were 9 weeks old, parents began keeping weekly diaries to document a number of indicators of their children's health, including runny noses, coughs and ear infections. Parents also noted when their babies were given antibiotics. When the children celebrated their first birthdays, the parents were asked to complete a questionnaire. Overall, the researchers found that cats and dogs were linked to a reduced incidence of various types of illness. The effect was stronger for dogs than for cats: Babies who lived with dogs were 31% more likely to be in good health than their counterparts who didn't, and babies with cats had a 6% advantage over those without feline family members. The children with pet dogs were 44% less likely to develop ear infections and 29% less likely to have used antibiotics during their first year, the report said. Here's where the plot thickened: Although living with a cat or dog was correlated with good health, the benefit was biggest when those pets weren't around the house very much. In cat-owning households, babies whose cats were indoors more than 16 hours a day were healthy 70.8% of the time. But in homes where the cat was inside for less than six hours a day, babies were healthy 78.2% of the time. For the sake of comparison, young children who lived in cat-free zones were healthy 66.1% of the time. A similar pattern held for dogs: Kids with homebody canines were healthy 72.2% of the time, and that figure rose to 75.7% for children whose dogs spent fewer than six hours indoors each day. In dogless households, babies were healthy 64.8% of the time. The researchers offered a possible explanation for the puzzling pattern: Pets that spent more time outdoors brought more dirt into their homes, giving babies more opportunities to encounter it. That exposure could have caused their immune systems to mature faster than they would have otherwise, they wrote. Until now, studies on the ways pets influence human health have largely focused on allergies, not illness, said Dr. Danelle Fisher, vice chair of pediatrics atSt. John's Health Center in Santa Monica, who wasn't involved in the study. "It's more support in a growing body of evidence that exposure to pets early in life can stimulate the immune system to do a better job of fighting off infection," Fisher said. The new findings could help assuage parents-to-be who worry about the health consequences of exposing their infant to a pet. "What I always tell them is this: It's actually very helpful to have a cat or dog around because we tend to see less allergies," Fisher said. "And now I can tell them we've even seen less chance of upper respiratory infection in the first year of life."

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Kali's Puppies at 6.5 Weeks Old!

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Kali and Apolo's Puppies at 6 Weeks Old!

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Kali and Apolo's Puppies at 4.5 Weeks Old, Playing Outside!

Kali's Puppies Explore Outside at 26 Days Old!

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Kali and Apolo's Puppies at 3.5 Weeks Old!

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Kali's Puppies at 17 Days Old!

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Kali's Puppies at 2 Weeks Old!

Piper and Teko's Puppies at 7 Weeks Old!

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Almost 7 weeks old already!

Wow, the time has flown by with this litter! I can't believe that some of them are going home already next week! Piper did such a good job at cleaning up after the puppies that it made my life so much easier!
All of the puppies got their first bath today and they did great! I put the heater over them and they dried very quickly. Our weather has been very rainy and cold so the puppies have not gotten to play outside much at all. I did let them go out in the rain yesterday and run around for awbile. Let's hope for some sunshine this weekend so they can go out and play!
The puppies have gotten their first vaccination, 4 wormings, their microchips, and they go to the vet this weekend for their exams. They have gotten their toe nails trimmed a few times and they have been brushed and played with by different adults, teens, and young children. They have been exposed to loud noises like the vacuum, the washer and dryer, the garage door opening, cars, motorcycles, hair dryers, etc. They have walked and run on different surfaces such as carpet, tile, concrete, grass, asphalt, vinyl, bark chips and wood flooring. They are visited often by our other dogs and cat.
I usually make lots of videos outside, but since the weather has been so lousy, I haven't been able to do that. Hopefully, this weekend...

Tubby time for Piper's Puppies at 6 weeks old!

Piper's puppies at 6 weeks old!

Piper's puppies play outside at 6 weeks old

Piper's Puppies Go Outside For the First Time at 5.5 Weeks Old!

Piper's girls at 5.5 weeks old!!

Piper's Puppies at 3.5 Weeks Old!

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Piper's puppies at 16 days old!

LIttle Sally Brown at 12 days old all cuddled in her mama's arms...

Piper's Puppies at 11 Days Old! at OneTrueMedia.com

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Piper's Puppies at 4 days old!

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2-Day Old Pictures of Piper's Kids!

Marcie sleeping
Girls
Peggy Jean
Schroeder
Sweet Piper
Girls
Boys
Baby Girls!

Boys
Boys

Baby Boys!

Piper's puppies at 2 days old!

Piper is due soon!

Piper and Teko are expecting med. Australian Labradoodle puppies in 8-10 days! It's been several months since we have had puppies here at Tualatin River so I am just so excited! Piper will be coming here from her wonderful guardian home on Sunday, the 22nd of January. She will have an xray next week to see how many puppies she has inside. The vet thinks she will have a large litter...! She should have a wide variety of colors in this litter. We will have parti and solid colors in black, red and chocolate.
I have the puppy room all cleaned up and I will put down the waterproof liner on the flooring this weekend. Then up goes the whelping box and we will be ready to go!
Kali is due to be in heat any day and she will be bred to Apolo for some parti and solid standard multigeneration labradoodles this spring. Maile will be in heat within a few months and she will be bred to Brodie for standard F1b English goldendoodles, if he has finished his testing. If he is not ready, I will breed Maile to a smaller poodle for med. F1b English goldendoodles. We expect parti and solid colors with either sire.
I am finishing up testing on Zoe, Panchita and Kersey. Zoe and Panchita may have puppies later this year. Lani will be in heat in late summer and she will be bred to Brodie for some gorgeous F1 English goldendoodles.
That's whats happening at Tualatin River Labradoodles! Stay tuned for puppies very soon!