Here are the puppies “manding”, or sitting politely in order to ask for something (in this case, be picked up). This is not so much about training them to sit, but rather to teach them that they can communicate their needs (and “you give me something I want, I give you something you want”):
We videoed their barrier challenges today. This helps them with frustration and problem solving. The first video for each has the puppy and the food very close to the same end of the barrier (the puppy can see and smell through the barrier). The second video has the puppy farther away from the food. Later we will place both the puppy and the food far away from the way around the barrier.
Alfa barrier challenge 1:
Alfa barrier challenge 2:
Bravo barrier challenge 1:
Bravo barrier challenge 2:
Charlie barrier challenge 1:
Charlie barrier challenge 2:
Delta barrier challenge 1:
Delta barrier challenge 2:
Echo barrier challenge 1:
Echo barrier challenge 2:
Foxtrot barrier challenge 1:
Foxtrot barrier challenge 2:
Golf barrier challenge 1:
Golf barrier challenge 2:
This will be a bit of a photo/video dump but a lot has happened!
Their personalities are starting to emerge. They had more visitors and bombled over to see them enthusiastically.
They’ve been spending time loose (supervised) in the living room and they’re in the big pen all day now where they can see and hear TV (they are already starting to watch things moving on the screen).
They can escape from the whelping box so we have to put the panel into the door which means Alice wakes me up several times a night to go in with them to feed them. They are eating three meals of puppy mousse a day but only eating some of it at this point. They were very interested in Alice’s kibble so I will offer them some puppy kibble this week (Alice’s kibbles are too large for them right now and they didn’t like them ground up). They all have real teeth now and are chewing all kinds of different textures.
They have a big bed in the pen now so they can stretch out more.
I LOVE the fact that when one of them got a little scared of Nina being too excited to play, she bounced right back! Bounce back is one of the most important traits in a dog IMO!
They spend more and more time with the big dogs now, and are learning how to interact and “speak dog” well. They know how to invite and accept play, they bite and wrestle and play bitey face. They are ridiculously cute.
Look at how they react to the noise Caroline is making!
I am thankful for many things. I am thankful to have an amazing husband who puts up with my crazy dog obsession. I am thankful for my oldest friend still being with us despite horrific loss and serious health challenges. I am thankful for my family. I am thankful for my wonderful dogs. I am thankful for my job and my amazing work family. I am thankful for Renee the awesome repro vet tech without whose help this litter wouldn’t be here. I am also thankful for my repro vet Dr Gray and everyone at Alliance Animal Hospital whose support and knowledge is invaluable. I am thankful for the plethora of truly amazing prospective homes for these puppies, I wish I had ten more puppies to go around!
Today the big dogs celebrated with a real walk. Alice was happy to pay the price of an undercarriage bath.
The puppies celebrated by going OUTSIDE! It’s relatively mild out but still I took them out in their warming box all together. They made big sniffs and saw and smelled something different! They are starting to become interested in each others’ faces now that their eyes are open, and I actually saw the first bit of bitey face just now! They sort of waddle over to you when you are in the whelping box now, and then try to nurse on your arms and chin. They’re starting to toddle, Red girl Alfa and Blue boy Echo are the best at it so far but everyone has been up on all four feet and walked a couple of steps. We’re getting close to putting the litter pan in with them, that should happen in the next couple of days once they’re toddling well.
Their average weight is 809 grams today! And they LOOK huge. They’re starting to swarm Alice when she goes in to feed them.
I love taking them outside for the first time. Last time I did it in the first week but it was really chilly then this time around. It’s so neat to see their little world expand a bit!
The lighting the puppy room are lower than usual because as of last night everybody has two eyes open! Now the Mr Magoo period starts. They are starting to be able to almost-walk a few steps and will move towards you if you are close enough for them to make you out (their vision isn’t good yet). They try to nurse on everything and if you’re snuggling them they try to nurse on your chin.
Here are some links I think might be useful:
Puppy Culture Stories is Jane KIllion’s blog, there are some excellent articles on there. Especially this one about Socializing Puppies During The Coronavirus Pandemic
And here is the FREE course for puppy owners!
I thought green boy Delta was “looking around” sort of this morning but it didn’t look like his eyes were really opening yet, but Jim was just in visiting the puppies and THREE of them have eyes opening!
Green boy Delta has two eyes just starting to open, and purple girl Foxtrot and orange boy Bravo each have one eye opening.
Now we’re just about to start the really fun time – they’ll be Mr Magoos for a while as their eyes and brains start learning to work and work together.
The puppycam will be off or dim for a while so that we don’t overwhelm their brand new peepers!
And here is a video I took in the middle of the night last night as yellow girl Charlie tried to scale Mount Alice
I make Nova Scotia Oatcakes pretty often. I probably make them a couple of times a month at least, I certainly make them more than any other baked good. I’m Canadian originally, but I’m from Toronto and the child of English immigrant parents and I never had them growing up so it’s not like I can claim that I make them for nostalgic reasons. I make them because they’re amazing.
I usually use this recipe. And I can even make them in our toaster oven (which is also awesome and we refer to it as “the science oven”) which means I can bake these in the summer and not heat up the whole house.
And once in a while, if you don’t mind sacrilege, you can add a splash of vanilla, or dried wild blueberries, or even chocolate chips.
They’re delicious, not too sweet, a bit salty, chewy and oaty and just awesome. Filling and tasty and they have oats so they must be good for you.
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled puppy programming.
We got the maternal nomograph results from CAVIDS last night. It shows that the optimal time for these puppies’ first distemper/parvo vaccine is 9 weeks then 13 weeks. I will be sending home a copy of this test with each puppy, and the results will be included in the letter I send home for the puppy’s new veterinarian. Nomograph testing is some pretty cool science, it shows when the maternal antibodies will have waned enough to make vaccinating the puppies more effective (while Alice’s antibodies are still at a high level in the puppies’ bloodstreams a vaccine will not provoke the puppies’ own immune systems to create its own antibodies, which can leave the puppy less protected from disease if the maternal antibodies wear off before the next booster vaccine is given).
I am a believer in LESS vaccination, not NO vaccination, finding the happy medium between overvaccination and lack of protection. I’m really glad my repro vet and repro vet tech told me about maternal nomograph testing!
They are motoring around the box quite actively over the last day, this means that they’ve started getting themselves stuck in corners on occasion and squeaking until someone comes and rescues them. Once their eyes open in about a week they won’t get stuck anymore, but this next week between 1-2 weeks of age is when they really need someone watching them (the first week the big danger is mom lying or stepping on them, although Alice has been really careful), the second week is when they’re mobile but still can’t see or hear so they can get themselves into jams.
Here’s a cool little video where you can see the little pops and jerks that are signs of “activated sleep”, where the puppies’ nervous systems and muscles are coming online and getting a workout.