This is a repeat post from the past, but the subject invariably arises with every litter of puppies. 

“How will you be able to tell them apart?”  or  “Are you sure you will be able to tell which one is mine when we pick him/her up?”  The answer is yes we can, but it is not easy.

Some litters are easy to distinguish.  An example of this is Rose’s litter from early 2013.  Six puppies, four different color combinations and the ones that were the same were 1 male and 1 female.

There are times however, when it’s not very easy, or sometimes seemingly impossible.  An example in the past is Daisie’s litter from January 2012.  There were seven ALL WHITE puppies!  Five of them were males! 

Holly’s most recent litter posed the same issue.  She had a very large litter (10).  The two females, no problem.  One black and white, the other gray and white.  But Holly had 8 males!!  Three of them were gray and white, 5 were black and white.  And to top that off, they had very similar markings.  Over time, the masks and other markings tend to change just a little, so if the differences are subtle, confusion can set in.

So…What to do??

We’ve heard suggestions of what others have done.  Such as:

·         Chosen puppies wear different color collars.

·         Chosen puppies wear different color ankle bracelets

·         Chosen puppies get toenail polish of different colors

The problem:  Mama doesn’t like any of them.  The mother will have them removed by the next morning.  We’ve tried them all.  Same result every time!

We have finally come up with a method that is very reliable.  The paw pads.  In the pictures below, you see examples of different combinations of paw pad colors.  Generally speaking, paws are all pink.  Almost invariably, they all have splotches of black in various locations.  These paw markings are almost like a fingerprint.  We have never seen two identical.  We have had paws with no black whatsoever, but it’s rare and we’ve never had two from the same litter.  Hopefully it never comes to that!

This method has proven very reliable.  I have to admit that it has not been totally foolproof.  Only once in the past have we accidentally switched pups and given them to the wrong people.  It was more a case of mishandled records than same markings.  We feel we have corrected the issue, and feel it won’t happen again.  Both parties are very happy with the puppy they received, and all is well.