Our Litter Of Golden Retriever Pups – Week 3
This post may contain affiliate links. We may earn money or products from the companies mentioned in this post.
If you’ve been following along then you probably already know that our Golden, Raven had six beautiful Golden Retriever pups a few months back.
Today we’re recapping WEEK 3 of the pups.
If you missed a post or two then take a look back at our litter of Golden puppies Week 1 and Week 2.
So, what happened during week 3?
Without further adieu…
QUICK RECOMMENDATION: If you’re thinking about getting a puppy first check out Puppies for Dummies. It’s a great book that will give you a good foundation on raising and training a puppy.
Golden Retriever Pups Week 3
Our movie quote for the week is “THEY’RE SO FLUFFY!”
Hint: Think animated and super villain.
I probably mentioned it multiple times, but I was nervous as heck the days leading up to Raven’s due date.
I had no idea what was going to happen, what I was supposed to do, or when it was going to happen!?
Luckily Raven had everything under control.
Honestly, after going through the entire experience I found I was much better prepared than I thought, but then again experiencing something like whelping a litter of puppies for the first time can be very stressful.
By the way, if you found us because you’re prepping whelp a litter of puppies you might want to take a look at our whelping checklist and make sure you have all the supplies you’ll need for the day your puppies arrive.
At least when my daughter Emma was born we were surrounded by doctors and nurses who I’m sure experienced childbirth thousands of times.
One of the most important things is to make sure everyone is gaining weight.
For 8 weeks I weighed all 6 puppies once a day.
Here’s the Day 15 weight chart:
| Puppy | Shave Mark | Color | Weight (Day 15) |
| Liberty (Berlin) | Right Back Leg | Green | 2 lb 11.5 oz |
| Tank (Bear) | Left Back Leg | Black | 3 lb 1.5 oz |
| Trooper (Buster) | Right Shoulder | Red | 2 lb 11 oz |
| Patriot | Left Shoulder | Blue | 3 lb 1 oz |
| Spirit | Lower Back | Pink | 2 lb 11.5 oz |
| Gunner | Upper Back | Brown | 2 lb 10.5 oz |
The good news about week 3 is it was the first time I feel like I had a sigh of relief.
The puppies were doing great as their eyes were wide open, they were sobering up (the drunk man waddle was becoming more stable), and a few other major landmarks.
Day 16 – Let’s Hear Some Noise!
Yep, I heard the first real bark from one of the pups.
The first bark was cute, but not so sure 6 barking puppies is much fun (I can tell you from experience…it isn’t).
Day 17 – Puppy Socialization
We had a few friends stop by early on to see the puppies, but we started seeing more visitors during week 3 including family and several of our fellow GDA puppy raisers.
From children to adults to seniors our pups got to meet and greet many a visitor.
Day 18 – Puppy Play
YAY! Puppies are becoming active!
They are finally starting to interact with each other in a playful manner!
Every step in their journey seems monumental and the first signs of playing together is no different.
Week 3 marked the time when puppies started looking and acting like puppies.
A couple of other notes from week 3:
- Our Golden pups are becoming little fur balls as their coats grow in.
- Mom still cleans up most of their messes and keeps their whelping box fairly clean. Although from day 1 we regularly change out the whelping mat.
Alright, guys and gals if anyone else out there has ever raised a litter of puppies tell us about your experiences during week 3.
Were your puppies hitting all of the same milestones as this Golden litter?
Tell us your story in the comment section below.
That’ll do it for our third week with our Golden pups! Check out our other Golden Retriever puppy growth week-by-week blog posts:
- Week 1 – Six Golden Retriever puppies are born!
- Week 2 – Pups eyes are opening starting to waddle.
- Week 3 – This is Week 3!
- Week 4 – Little guys are starting to eat solid foods.
- Week 5 – Puppies love car rides…in the laundry basket 🙂
- Week 6 – Fluffy, cute, adorable…that’s a 6 week old puppy!
- Week 7 – The great puppy escape artists!
- Week 8 – Our golden puppies head to their new homes.
FYI, Weeks 3-5 were some of my favorite weeks.
Raven still takes care of a lot of the messy puppy stuff while we got to play with little 3 lb fur balls!
Is your Golden about to have a litter of puppies? Check out Puppy Culture Bundle to get you started.
Or are you just searching for “adorable” Golden Retriever puppies because you’re about to get a Golden of your own? Puppies for Dummies will give you the basics on how to raise and train your new puppy.
Top Picks For Our Puppies
- BEST DOG CHEW
We Like: Beef Collagen Sticks - All of our pups love to bite, nip, and chew. We love using Collagen Sticks to help divert these unwanted behaviors. - BEST PUPPY TOY
We Like: Calmeroos Puppy Toy w/ Heartbeat and Heat Packs - Perfect for new puppies. Helps ease anxiety in their new home. - BEST DOG TREATS
We Like: Crazy Dog Train-Me Treats - We use these as our high-value treats for our guide dog puppies. - BEST FRESH DOG FOOD
We Like: The Farmer's Dog - A couple months ago we started feeding Raven fresh dog food and she loves it! Get 50% off your first order of The Farmer's Dog.
Check out more of our favorites on our New Puppy Checklist.
Our first litter of goldens is currently 15 days old. Ginger had 7 puppies and they are so darn cute! Just wanted to give Gina some feedback that responsible breeders will do genetic testing and hips, elbows, eyes, at a minimum, to make sure the dog is clear of genetic defects. They will train the dog, and have them do something fun, that proves they are trainable as well (we have been involved in AKC Hunt Tests). All this testing is expensive, and reflects in the price of the puppy. This is not a profitable endeavor, but sure is a lot of fun!
I haven’t posted a weight chart, but I’ll see about getting that up on the website in the next few days. We’ve had three Golden Retriever litters and the weights have varied between the litters. The most important thing for us is making sure each puppy is gaining weight every day. I hope everything is going well with your litter. Let me know if you have any other questions.
Do you by chance have a weight chart by day? Ours were born the 23rd and we just want to make sure they’re gaining the right amount of weight!
Love your blog, thanks!
Where are you located? Is he up for adoption or a forever home? I have had for Golden Retriever’s I lost my last one couple years ago and I want one so bad but I just want to spend more than $400-500 . As much as I love Golden Retriever’s and all dogs, I think it’s ridiculous that people are asking $1000-$2000For a Home pet!I give unconditional love to all my pants that I have had, to the point that my friends want to be reincarnated as one of my dogs! I am interested in your 9 week old puppy
Awesome! Congratulations on your litter! I’m glad you are finding the posts helpful. I love 3 week old puppies! I may have mentioned it already, 3-5 weeks are my favorite times with the pups. We’re planning for another litter probably in the summer. A litter of 10 sound daunting. Raven’s first litter (the one you read about) was only 6, but her second litter was 8 and it was exponentially more difficult compared to the 6.
Thank you so much for sharing this week-by-week journal. I am 3 weeks into raising my first litter. We have 10 golden retriever puppies at our house and they are adorable! We never expected to have that many puppies (female was small to begin with and just did not look that pregnant, even vet was surprised) but we are enjoying them and are so thankful all survived and are doing well. We are having lots of fun and many of the same experiences you had. It has been great to follow/compare your notes on behavior and weight with our puppies.
I feel like we always have puppies at the house. They are adorable, but I love how easy it is to take care of our senior dogs. Speaking of puppies we have a 9 week old Golden/Lab cross right now that’s training to be a guide dog. He’s definitely wearing me and the older dogs out…but he’s a cute, adorable fur ball!
The 3-5 week range is great because they aren’t too mouthy yet, but they were very mouthy by the time they went to their homes at 8 weeks old and I’m sure as you know it only gets worse. We’ve noticed the bitey pups don’t get better until their adult teeth come in at around 5 months old.
Believe me I don’t have energy. I’m only able to do one thing at a time. If I had more energy I would have had these blog posts up months ago.
It was awesome when Raven took care of all the puppies needs. As the pups start getting older Raven still took care of things, but as they started eating solid foods it got a little messy. 🙁
So cute!!! Even better that Raven takes care of them!!
Three weeks was just about the time we met Honey for the first time. Hard to believe that by the time she hit 8 weeks, she was a toothy terror!
Cute. But a terror.
Gotta figure out where you get your energy from and bottle it. The profits would put Emma through college.
Oh gosh…if I could, I would have a million puppies. They are just the best.