The puppies are now six weeks old! They are all doing wonderful and yesterday was our chance to take six week old stacked photos. This allows for everyone to really see what the puppies are looking like conformationally. I am really pleased with how this litter is looking and I think it is very consistent in terms of conformation. Here are some photos of a few of the pups:
Zoey has now decided that she is mostly done with being a mom! All she really cares about is food, food, food! Because she has lost interest in being a mom (i.e. not really nursing or spending time with pups anymore, and also has stopped cleaning up after them) she is now back home with me.
We plan on decreasing her food intake, taking her out in the pasture more to exercise her, and start hot packing her to help dry up her milk (she still has a lot left!), in order to prevent possible mastitis.
Anyone else have advice on how to dry up a bitch once she’s done with nursing? 
Lauren Chen 
Mint is said to help dry up a bitch. There are also some homeopathic remedies. Just be sure to keep her calcium levels up for the same length of time she nursed. I made the mistake of cutting Gwyn’s diet back too fast
Great, thanks for the advice!
Monica is it fresh mint ground up? Thanks for the info! Great blog Lauren!
Thanks for the pupdate, Lauren! My medical opinoin is that there is no real need to speed up the natural drying process unless there is a medical reason, right?
Thanks for the input Darin! That makes sense! Hopefully everything goes smoothly and she dries up okay.
> There are also some homeopathic remedies.
The very best you can say about such “remedies” is that they’re harmless. Look it up. There’s no THERE there in those dilutions.
I use mint for drying up lactating bitches. I start with fresh mint (homegrown is best, but fresh from the farmers market is good too). Dehydrate it in the oven or a dehydrator. Put the dried mint in the blender to make mint powder. I use 1 heaping teaspoon of mint powder per day mixed in with the regular food ration. Duration 2 to 3 weeks. Any kind of mint seems to work, but I stick to the mints you can brew into tea.
Thanks for the advice! Blending it into a powder will probably work great for her.