June 2

How quickly Confetti has stopped cleaning up after this brood!  One meal with meat, and she is finished! I was hoping to eke out a little reprieve on being the primary caretaker for eleven growing, exploring and HUNGRY puppies, but alas! my time has come!

I took them outside this morning for their breakfast.  They dove into it without hesitation, but oh! what a mess they make now.  And Confetti is more interested in cleaning the dish when they are done than in washing their little faces.  There is a goat farm a couple blocks away, and I'll have to make a trip today as we are out of fresh goat milk. Goat milk is more nutritious for puppies than cow milk.

I picked up two puppies who were laying near the Xpen fence, and took them inside with me. I put down a fleece bed and a rug for them on the hardwood floor. One male (with the spot by his butt) went quickly to sleep with his full tummy, but his partner, the mostly white male, wasn't ready for a nap.  Instead he ran around and explored, bit and thrashed the edge of the dog bed and then wanted to snuggle abit. Now he is having vocal puppy dreams! He is the most adventuresome of the pups at the moment.

We have the play-fighting occurring and prey-kill, but no sexual behavior observed yet.  I recall that in the last litter, it was as if a switch was thrown and they ALL started doing it one day!

I think I will have to address them by some form of name so that the readers can understand who I am referring to. I have never mastered the rick-rack or ribbon collars well, and since they are quite individually marked I'll probably just pick a call name and use that for the time being.  For those buyers who have selected names, don't worry!  It doesn't mean your pup will be stuck with that name or respond to it, as I use "puppy, puppy, puppy" as a recall with the babies.

 

 

The beginning of Week 3 album

Enjoy this collection of photos from the afternoon foray outdoors.  Add a new surface-- grass, and a new location--outdoors.

Entering Week 3

 

The pups turned 3 weeks old on Saturday. Happy Birthday to them!  They now enter the "Awareness or Identification Period (21-28 days).  According to Kathryn Lanam in "the Behavioral Development of Puppies", sight and hearing are functioning well.  A variety of noises and sights should be part of their daily life.  The exposure to sudden loud noises must happen during the 3rd week when fear has not yet developed.  The startle response should be encouraged so that the pup will startle and then return to normal on its own-- something it must be able to do throughout its life.  Puppies must now learn that they are dogs; recognizing their mother, recognizing other species-- specifically humans that are part of their social relations-- and have experiences that mean survival of the species.

The pups spent the afternoon outside, exploring grass under their paws and sleeping under overturned crate-halves that served as tiny shelters.

 

Check out the puppy who discovered the door wasn't yet closed and thought he would strike out on his own!

 

The pups celebrated their new week of life by enjoying their first non-momma meal!  It was a mixture of goat milk, esbilac, honey and raw meat. 

 

Check out the puppy who wants to control ALL the food!

Yup.  Same one.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Visitors

The puppies had visitors today!  Our schutzhund club meets here on Saturdays and when we have puppies, the members become willing participants in our puppy socialization, visiting and playing with them after club training.  Today Lisa, Sam and Chuck were introduced to the new pups. Their little eyes are barely open and they worked hard to figure out whether their visitors were able to nurse them (they weren't!) but had a positive interaction with new human smells.

more May 22 pics

Frankly, this is how Tom ALWAYS ends up with his nose bitten when the pups have teeth! He just loves holding and cuddling with the puppies.  Their ears are open and the I can see little peepers emerging, as their eyes open.  From all the talking we do with them, they will soon discover who the voices belong to! 

The boy on the right is #6.  He is a big 'un, and you can see that he is a different shade than the pup next to him.  He is noticeably more chestnut than liver.

 

 

roan and plated pups

The puppies did get their nails trimmed after this photo, so forgive the long nails.  At this age, I can just prop them in my lap and trim using a human toenail clipper. I'm sure that soon enough I will long for these days! The wigglier ones Tom holds while I trim.  The puppy who complained the most was the almost all-white male puppy.

In these photos, you can see the differences in the changing colors of the plated and roan puppies.  Here is a plated puppy and his pink, pink pads:

and here is a roan puppy: 

A closer view of the pink feet:

 

and closer view of the roan feet:

Before these guys were born, we had only had plated puppies and I wondered how and how soon the differences would develop.  Now I know and have photographic evidence should anyone ask what to look for in the future!

 

 

New location and new surface on May 22

It's getting hard to have the pups hold still for photos; they are moving around quite abit now and either crawl out of the container or remove themselves from the frame entirely!  Several days after birth, we place rugs in the puppy box so that they can get traction and this really seems to speed up the process of motor development.  These guys are already practicing a wobbly walk, not just pulling themselves around.  It is rather like watching a baby rock itself into forward motion, with a little stagger and there it goes!

The pups all had a trip to a new location last night-- our living room!  I thought they might appreciate sharing the season finale of "Grey's Anatomy" with me,  and they also needed a nail trim, so in 3's and 4's they experienced their first new location, and a new surface, as well.  I placed a sheet on the hardwood floor, so they could move more easily and I could clean up any little accidents.  They were also recently fed and ready for a nap, so I could snap a few pictures.

This is Kia, one of our Siamese cats.  She kept laying down next to the pups, and one crawled over and started searching for a nipple. I wasn't convinced that would end well, so I tried to shoo Kia away.  Apparently she thought the puppies needed to be introduced to a kitty, though.

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