Follow along as our puppies grow!
Maya litter
(Most recent posts at top.)
(All reserved)
• • •
• • •
August 30, 2026 (8 weeks)
Ivy and Bean have proven to be very steady in their growth and development. They have never veered too far from the personalities and growth projections they started out with. They are both super loving and playful. There are a few minor differences though, and that’s where placements come in.
Ivy will be heading to the S family. Ivy is a little ball of energy. She loves everyone and everything. She will run through the house and chase the big dog with glee. She will go to a home with children with confidence. She will play as long as you want and have no fear of loud kids toys mixed with a bit of chaos. She will also give puppy kisses and sleep next to the family on the couch for downtime. She will thrive in this environment.
Bean will go to live with C and J. Bean is a love bug. She would love to just be held all day. Her energy level is a little lower than Ivy, but don’t let that deceive you. She is an ace at the zoomies. She will politely wait until it is her turn, but she does hope her turn is soon. She has a quiet confidence.
August 27, 2026 (8 weeks)
Mornings are early in my house. School has begun for my children and puppies wake up when they do. This means every puppy needs to go outside by at least 7am.
We have found the most efficient way to get them outside is in a carrying kennel. Do you know how heavy 7 puppies in a kennel are?! Technically it’s less than 20 pounds, but those pounds wiggle and rock the boat and make lots of noise.
As soon as I get them outside, they are pretty reliably going potty outside. They still hate the feel of the grass on their toes, but something about being outside is a natural trigger to empty the digestive system.
My system is slightly flawed though. It’s a user error kind of flaw. I don’t always sufficiently close the little gate and these little guys are sneaky. As soon as they sneak their way out, they have three goals: brag to me that they have escaped by licking my foot; find mom/aunt to see if there is milk available; find huge 70 pound dog because she is sooo cool.
I’m not worried about them escaping their little area too much. They always return quickly. (My big dog runs directly to me so I will save her from puppies.) My yard is fenced and they never go too far, and I’m just happy there is no fear shown and they are getting exposure to a bigger dog. My big dog is old and kinda lazy at this point and a safe first step.
Neither Bean nor Ivy have shown any great fears developing during the typical fear periods. They continue to want to held and they face new situations confidently.
August 20, 2026 (7 weeks)
Ivy and Bean got their first baths. Bean was surprisingly ok with the whole process at first. She walked right under the water and just took a sip. She got a little more apprehensive when the full body soak occurred and greatly disliked the face being washed. When the hair dryer started, she was done with the whole process. I did not fully dry her. I let her down on the ground and the zoomies commenced. She ran around at top speed with Maya who has decided puppies are old enough to play with and it was adorable.
My daughter washed Ivy. Ivy mostly just wanted to be held the whole time. She did not like water. She did not like soap. She did not like dryers. She did not like bath time, Sam-I-Am. She was washed and she will get better. She also recovered beautifully with zoomies with her sister and mother and we have been forgiven.
I introduced the kennel to their whelping box. The puppies enter and exit as the want. They often close the door on each other and then have to figure out how to open the door and get back out. Many times the puppies inside don’t really care and just fall asleep until someone opens the door for them later.
Outside trips are a mixed bag at this point. If I can manage to get them out early enough, they automatically poop on the (fake) grass. Unfortunately taking seven puppies safely down five steps and back again is a bit of a challenge. I consistently get a couple (usually Bean and Ivy), but all at once is rough. Once they have done their bit, they immediately want to go back inside. They don’t like the heat or the texture on their feet. Inside is much more comfortable…. So I clean a lot.
August 15, 2026 (6 weeks)
First of all, these puppies are going to be bomb proof when it comes the sound of dropping things. I drop things All. The. Time. They are getting to the point where they just sleep through it. My daughter is also super clumsy and falls frequently so puppies won’t be surprised by that either. My son blasts his music and screams, I mean sings, along with the music, so loud is normal.
We were able to combine both litters into one bigger whelping box. It helps considerably with me being able to pay attention to everyone. I was hoping it would make Maya happier to be in the room I typically occupy, but it didn’t work out that way. She whined most of the night because she was afraid she had left puppies behind. I kept letting her check and showing her where the puppies were, but last night was a little rough. Hopefully tonight will be better.
All puppies got to spend some time outside yesterday. There were mixed reviews. They still despise the heat, but they played and investigated and found leaves.
August 11, 2026
I need to update more often because I get a minute to sit down and write and completely forget what happened the last week.
Maya’s puppies are attention hogs. If they see you walking by and you don’t stop to pet, they will let you know that they are displeased. When my daughter sits in the whelping box to play with puppies, Maya’s puppies are in her lap or in her hands – immediately. They give tiny little kisses and settle immediately when they are loved on.
Ivy has consistently been the more playful. She tackles your toes and chomps on puppy ears. When we let the puppies explore the house on their own – walking on their own little feet – she was the most confident with exploration. She sniffed everything and so long as we were nearby, she would go anywhere.
Bean is a complete snuggle bug. She wants to be held all the time. She will definitely play and she will definitely annoy siblings, but her favorite is people. Her walk was more of a ‘stay right at my person’s feet.’
Puppies are now being fed a sampling of new foods each day and always have some water available. Sometimes they drink that water and sometimes they just jump right in and knock it over. Either way they are happy. At this age we are trying to build up that gut biome, so we have some raw food, some probiotics, some goat milk and some potatoes. I have found that I am really terrible at fermenting foods, so the raw foods I get have some of that mixed in – things like Kefir – not alcohol- no drunk puppies- unless milk drunk.
August 4, 2026
Field trip time! My son’s project for the summer is waterproofing the fence. We had to go get supplies, so we loaded up our puppy stroller with Maya’s puppies and we took a field trip.
Maya’s puppies promptly fell asleep and ignored everything. If we stopped moving, one or two might wake up and look around, but the motion from the wheels of the stroller put everyone to sleep. I’d say the most awake would have been Ivy. She likes to interact with the world and tried convincing the other puppies to play with her.
I have also taken each puppy on their own adventure so they have a little alone time. This is a little less acceptable to puppies unless copious snuggles are involved.
Bean and Ivy will both run to the side of the whelping box to greet people and they will actively play with toys. They are both super loving.
July 30, 2026
Maya’s puppies are walking around confidently and pouncing on everything. They love to play and love to snuggle. If they see a person, they run towards them looking for belly rubs and new adventures. If I had to distinguish characters at this point, I would say Bean is a little more snuggly and Ivy is a little more playful. Personalities are constantly changing and evolving at this age, so it will be fun to see where they end up.
They have had some puppy milk mixed with potatoes to thicken the texture. They loved it. It may be daily now. They have also had some raw beef frozen dog food. Also big fans. Im excited that they are liking the food options because Cotons in general can be very picky about foods and generally disinterested. These girls have shown great interest. This will make their growth and their training a lot easier.
The puppies also got to take their first stroller ride around our sidewalks outside. It’s all about socialization and getting them used to as many different situations as possible. They walked around in the stroller and took everything in stride.
July 25, 2026
Well, plot twist, I ended up in the hospital for a few days. They have decided it was viral and it is slowly getting better. Basically it has been an excessive amount of dizziness
In my absence, my kids have stepped up. They have been cleaning and interacting with all the puppies. I get videos of my daughter introducing new toys with new textures and laughing at their antics.
Maya’s puppies are fully in play mode with growling and wagging tails and attempts at the zoomies on their still unsteady legs. They attack each other and each new toy with as much vigor as a tiny dog can muster. Both Ivy and Bean play equally hard and get confused when Sky’s puppies (6 days behind in development) don’t quite understand what is happening yet.
Maya is already spending more time outside the whelping box looking for someone to come pet her and play with her. I’ll start introducing tiny bites of various foods so the weaning process can happen on time (and so we get some diversity in gut biome).
July 22, 2026
Ivy and Bean are going on tiny field trips. Anything outside the whelping box is new and can be startling so we walk around to experience the new before it can become frightening.
We have a little puppy stroller and Ivy and Bean got to sit inside and get a tour of the house. They saw the kitchen where we crushed some ice on the fridge, we saw the dog room where they could smell my other two dogs, and they saw the living room where my husband yelled at a soccer team. They were also sniffed by my 70 pound dog.
They took everything in stride and actually just fell asleep. Ivy and Bean have so far been very laid back.
Ivy continues to lead Bean in size. Bean continues to lead with noises. Her noises are not barks, but rather just talking noises. She’ll very likely have the Coton talking.
We put the pee area in the whelping box to see if they will start to use one area to eliminate. Maya is still mostly cleaning up for them, but they need to learn to use a specific area. Someone is using the pee area effectively, but I have yet to figure out who it is. They’re sneaky.
July 18, 2026
We have finally reached a calm period. All puppies are growing steadily and meeting all necessary milestones. Maya has all of her appetite back, plus bonus levels, and she is eating like a queen.
Ivy and Bean are basically already walking. It’s a little unsteady, but they can reach Maya’s milk bar in record time.
Bean is already starting to show personality. She purrs when you pick her up and growls randomly. If you put your nose in her face, she licks your nose. She will walk towards you if you enter the whelping box.
Both Bean and Ivy are super laid back. They don’t care if you pick them up and they will fall right to sleep in your arms.
I did find them starting to play fight today and put a video up on TikTok. At this point they look like they are eating each others faces, but it is in fact the beginning stages of play.
I usually take them outside at this age when Mommy dog needs to go potty (I hold them), however I’ve paused that for a bit. Our air quality is tragic outside so I’m keeping puppies inside until it clears up. Personally I’m wearing a mask outside because last time we had wildfire smoke like this, I had a migraine for a week and I’m not about to repeat that.
July 14, 2026
We continue to switch puppies around. Maya now has her two puppies plus two of Sky’s puppies. Fingers crossed that this is the perfect mix and all puppies (and mommies) will now thrive.
Names. We could refer to the puppies by the color of their collars or we could come up with more fun names. We don’t train the puppies to recognize their names. The names are just to be able to easily identify who is who and then to register their AKC names. We will think of them as their whelping box names.
My daughter chose names for this litter. Have you read the books (or seen the movies) ‘Ivy and Bean’? They are about two unlikely friends and all the shenanigans they get into. Very cute.
Maya’s litter is the ‘Ivy and Bean’ litter:
- Ivy (Female, Pink collar) Daisy Lynn’s Magical Mastermind
- Bean (Female) Daisy Lynn’s Dirt and Worms
Their eyes have opened! They are very apathetic and it hasn’t changed anything for them at the moment, but for me they are much cuter. They are at the potatoes with legs stage which is one of my favorites. Both Ivy and Bean are growing beautifully. Ivy is consistently a tiny bit bigger than Bean, but the difference is negligible at this point.
July 9, 2026
Apparently Maya’s puppies are a little too laid back. All those extra puppies took all the milk and Maya’s puppies were like ‘dude, y’all need this more than we do.’ And they just laid back and slept all day. Their growth was not great.
We gave Sky back four of her puppies and now Maya’s girls are eating and growing again. They are becoming little content potatoes.
We have been loosely working on ENS (early neurological stimulation) with Maya’s puppies. It is a tricky balance to find. When the puppies are already stressed (like maybe another litter taking all their milk and invading their space) you don’t want to stress them out more by performing ENS. At the same time, you don’t want them to miss out on that early brain stimulation. As a compromise, I’ve tickled a few toes and my daughter has handled them significantly while trying to give Mommy dogs a break. I will continue to monitor and see what we can do.
Overall, Maya’s puppies are very laissez-faire, or chill, as my kids would say. They don’t really fuss and will fall asleep anywhere and anyhow.
July 7, 2026
Maya has been busy.
First of all, my A/C is working again. Hallelujah.
Maya’s puppies are growing beautifully. Maya has matured into an amazing mother. My perpetual puppy has shown a side I never expected.
As you may have seen with Sky’s journey, Sky had a C-section and we needed to figure out how to handle her puppies.
Maya stepped up in a big way and took Sky’s puppies as her own. The litters are six days apart in age and it’s amazing to me how different they look in size. Even with the size difference they are all getting along and acting as if they belong together. Maya is getting extra food and supplements to make sure she can keep up and we will continue to keep an eye on her to make sure she doesn’t stress.
So far, so good.
July 2, 2026
The last day has been a bit miserable.
Maya has been doing fantastic. She takes such good care of her puppies. They are clean and growing right on target. She reluctantly runs to the backyard to do her business and then she’s back to take care of puppies.
This record breaking heat is another story. My a/c decided during the worst heat wave when I have newborn puppies and kids home all day to just give up. Well, the thermostat gave up. It was 87F in my house. Yuck. Opening a window would have just made it worse with 100F weather outside.
I changed every filter I could find, cleaned all the drains and charged a thermostat battery that I had no idea existed.
It didn’t work.
We bought a new thermostat around 8 pm and then went without electricity for a while figuring out how to install it.
It’s on now and fans are blowing at their highest speeds.
I could do without heatwaves.
July 1, 2026
Yesterday my son calls and says, ‘Hey, can you pick me up?’ Maya was starting to act a little restless, but nothing out of the norm. I tell my daughter to just keep an eye on her and I’ll be back in 10 minutes tops.
My poor daughter.
Maya started labor while I was on that short drive to pick up my son at the pool.
She put Maya in the whelping box and called me to tell me to hurry home – but less calm than that.
I made it home in plenty of time and Maya had two little girls. She is doing great with them and all was forgiven from my daughter when she got to hold puppies.
June 24, 2026
Maya had her X-ray for counting puppies this morning. There were just two little guys in there so fingers crossed they are healthy little ones who will be born without complications.
June 8, 2026
For Maya’s beau, I followed the advice of her breeder who has many years of experience. We used Boggart, Whispering Lanes Song and Dance Man. His parents are Whispering Lanes Unleashed Secret and Spinning Cesare. Secret is from Ozzy who was the Number One Coton for several years Multiple BIS. Spinning Cesare was bred in Norway. He was World Dog Show Winner and was featured in Brigitte Jespersen’s Grooming Book. I am told Boggart has a lovely temperament.
If you are searching for health tests on OFA, search Boggarts parents. Boggart’s breeder was going through some personal loss and Boggart tests kinda fell between the cracks. His parents however have been tested and their results can be found on the OFA site.
I am excited to see what results we get! If there is a promising male, I may keep him for our program.
May 28, 2026
Let’s spend a minute talking about Maya. Certain traits are heritable, so let’s see what you are in for if you want a Maya puppy.
Maya checks all the boxes for the breed standard. She is perpetually happy and she is a goofball. As I’m writing this, she is seriously chasing her tail.
She also has the nickname ‘crazy’ in our house. Now, she certainly isn’t Malinois crazy or any high energy breed kind of crazy. She’s Coton crazy. She will definitely sit and be calm if needed and she was very easily crate trained. But she will also watch TV and bark at all four legged characters on the screen. I have the buttons that talk and if I leave the ‘treat’ button down she will press that button repeatedly. She’ll also press the outside button when she’s bored and just wants to do something different.
She’s also a talker. If you research the Coton talk, you’ll see examples of this. My daughter says she purrs when pet, but my daughter has never had a cat.
As for intelligence, Maya can learn anything. She loves training and can excel at most anything.
She also jumps like she’s walking around on a trampoline all day. This has likely caused an elbow issue on one of her front legs. She shows no outward signs of problems or of stopping anytime soon, but just know she is a pogo stick.
While she likes to meet other people and animals, she could be called a Velcro dog. She likes exploring so long as we are right next to her. Her favorite people to meet are kids. I think she sees kindred spirits there.
May 27, 2026
Maya had her first ultrasound today! An ultrasound is done in the middle of pregnancy to see if we are expecting puppies. It’s not completely accurate for puppy counts as sometimes puppies are missed, being so small at this point, and sometimes they can be reabsorbed.
Maya is expecting puppies! The vet saw three little bubbles so our guess is three right now.
Just a month left to go!
Coton de Tulear 