One, two, three… 15! Fifteen Bernedoodle puppies are now taking up residence in Laurie Jansen’s house in Taber, Alta.
Laurie and her husband woke up to the oodles of doodles just a day before moving into their new home.
“I think I finally went to bed at four in the morning with 15,” she said.
Laurie’s three-year-old Bernese Mountain dog, Freya, eventually gave birth to 17 puppies on Dec. 29, 2022, although two didn’t make it.
Her 15 surviving bundles of joy, which are a cross between a Bernese Mountain dog and a poodle, are now walking and whining.
“The first two weeks were just a lot of — what do I call them — dumplings,” Laurie said. “I put them in a little blankie and I would pick them up like a little dumpling and I’d move them to the whelping box back to the playpen.
“And then they started to hear, and when that happened about five days ago, six days ago — well the minute one wakes up, they all wake up, and then they were all hungry.”
Laurie splits the workload into two teams of seven girls and eight boys.
“These puppies have been handled since day one like they are just true little gems,” she said.
It’s no 101 Dalmatians but the litter still is quite the feat.
Seventeen puppies don’t break the world record for litter size — that belongs to 24 Neapolitan Mastiffs, born in the UK in 2004.
In Canada, it does beat out a litter of 14 Boxer pups born in B.C. last summer.
This isn’t Laurie’s first time breeding pups, but it is her first time dealing with social media attention.
She now has more than 800 followers on the Facebook page Freya’s Furbabies 2023, showing their love for the litter and helping with names inspired by classic cartoon characters.
“Rosie, the robot from the Jetsons, Pebbles,” Laurie said are some of the names the community has voted for.
Four of the puppies are already spoken for and people who are interested in adopting will have to fill out an application form.
At eight weeks, these pups will be ready for their furever homes.