Oh Yeah, You Blend

…a great blog post.

Jack’s new mom sent us some pictures of him settling in:

He looks pretty settled in already doesn’t he?  Already sleeping in the official Vallhund “roadkill” position on his first night!  We are so lucky to have such wonderful homes for our puppies.

So this weekend the puppies started making their way out into the world to start their new lives.

Jack left yesterday, and we were so happy he was the first to go, since his new family are just wonderful and we feel so confident that they will be very happy together.  It made it so much easier to get through the wrench of seeing the first one go knowing that he is going to such a great and loving home.

Mikko (formerly Lefty) left today, and again, we felt so secure about his new home with them, that even though we cried, we were happy.  He will have a fun and fulfilling life and he will be very well-loved.

We feel very fortunate to have such incredible people who wanted one of our puppies.  It was easier to embark on this stage of their lives knowing that we didn’t have to worry about them.  They are both with people who will love them as much as we do, and who will give them the lives they deserve.  Even though we cried when they left and we already miss them terribly, we know they will do wonderfully.  The new owners were kind enough to call us when they got home, so we know both our boys are safe and sound.  We already have some pictures of Jack in his new home, looking happy and with maybe juuuust a hint of mischief in his eyes…he is getting more sleep than his new owners!

I am glad they are leaving in stages, it would be too hard to go “cold turkey” with all of them leaving at once!

So the usual old-school “Puppy Aptitude Test” has been shown to be pretty unreliable in terms of predicting the temperament of an adult dog.  It can give you a general idea about things like recovery times and forgiveness, but it’s more a snapshot of how the puppy was on that day rather than a scientific predictor of future temperament.  Plus, these tests are all very subjective.

So Miranda at Purrfect Paws came up with a test that incorporated many of the old test ideas, along with some tests used by guide and service dog trainers, and with some new ideas as well, some from Janet Robles, a long-time Malinois breeder.  Still not science, but an idea of things, and I mainly really wanted to get Miranda’s opinions of the puppies, and get a general sense of what they were like under relatively controlled conditions.

All the puppies were very people-oriented in a general sense, I was very happy overall with them, unlike just before we left, when we had a huge poop disaster here just before we were supposed to leave.  The poop disaster meant we ended up in a bit of a rush, so the first couple of puppies didn’t have as much time to settle in as the ones who went later.

The test involved general things like how quickly the puppy approached the tester and whether encouragement was needed, willingness to follow the tester away from the “safe zone” near where they entered the room, restraint (a hug), elevation (holding the puppy up off the ground), retrieving a toy, touch sensitivity (pinching an ear and then a toe), sound sensitivity (throwing a metal bowl), prey drive (chasing a moving toy), and problem solving (x-pen in a “v” shape and the puppy has to figure out how to get out to get to the tester, they have to move away from the tester to get out and then get TO the tester).

After the testing, they got to play with Miranda and two of the people who work at the Center.  They do doggie daycare there as well, so there were lots of new sounds and smells for the puppies, including cats and reptiles.

The puppies also got to meet some friendly adult dogs, including Miranda’s JRT/Bulldog (who looks exactly like you’d expect a JRT/Bulldog to look, no lie, he couldn’t be anything else!), Miranda’s female Dutch Shepherd Artemis, and a lovely black German Shepherd who loves puppies.

One thing I really liked was that every single puppy went to the nearest person to them when they were worried about the big dogs being boisterous with each other, they didn’t feel like they had to find me or Jim, any person was good and safe, they didn’t care that a person was a stranger, they just cared that it was a person.  They all seemed very secure that people in general were a good thing.

New Friends (and Tim the cat)

New Friends

Armful of Puppies

Lap Dogs

Yes, You're Also Cute

More Lap Dogs

That's a Big Dog!

A Kiss for Miranda

Big Dog Is Smaller Lying Down

Artemis Says Hi To Demi

Artemis (the Dutch Shepherd) Again

Artemis and Demi Again

Koooooooonnngggggg!

Before we left for temperament testing, they had a good play outside on the deck.

Triangle Boy

Triangle Boy

Lefty

Puppies!

Watching The Big Dogs Play

Watching The Big Dogs Play Some More

One Day...

Lefty

Kinetic Puppies

Jack With Weave Poles

Demi

Attack Mom!

Attack Mom!

Attack Mom!

Attack Mom!

Attack Mom!

…once the puppies got a taste of the outside world, they want to be out and about all the time! They come out and run around numerous times a day, plus they go outside and run around as well…but they want to be out getting into mischief 24 hours a day now. They are very boisterous now, always wrestling and playing and biting each other, us, Nina, Rakki and anything else they can get their little teeth on.  They have all been on the baby teeter, and they will get the puppy tunnel this week to eat run through.

Clicker training is going well, they all pretty much have “sit” working for them now.  Triangle Boy doesn’t like cheese much, but he loves chicken, and he is so happy to work with you that he doesn’t care if there’s a reward or not, what a good boy!

Tomorrow is temperament testing day!  They will have a whole host of new experiences thrown at them, so we will hope they handle it all well.

Today the puppies went for a ride in the car, two at a time.  Everyone was pretty good (there was cheese, everything is better with cheese!), a couple were complainy because they had to sit still for, like, ten whole minutes and when does THAT get fun?  A couple were a bit worried at first but got over it quickly, and everyone ended up taking it very well all things considered (Lefty practically napped).

Yesterday they had visitors and everyone had a turn sitting on the couch watching the gold medal hockey game (go Canada go!…ahem) with Molly and Josh.

Individual pictures taken Saturday (almost stacked) are up here.

We’re expecting a huge snowstorm here, and there is some snow already falling.  We decided to let the puppies out onto the deck to check it out:

What the heck?

Immy and Uncle Rakki check out the snow

Outside is big!

I haven't smelled THIS before

I dunno about this...

No, YOU go first!

SNIFF!

They complained about the baby jail at first, but now they are a-ok.  Kate visited again last night and they got to meet some Cardigan Corgis.  Clicker training is continuing, they are all sitting now (although they don’t know the word yet), and they are starting to learn “down”.  I am also working on mouth handling to check teeth and that sort of thing – they say it’s not so bad if there is a bit of cheese to eat along with it!  I will try to get better pictures this weekend.  They turn SIX WEEKS OLD tomorrow!  Where has the time gone?  They are all using the litterbox pretty reliably for poop at least, which makes cleaning up much easier than it could be, although a couple of them won’t poop in the litterbox if there is poop in there already (because that’s icky), so they’d rather poop out in the box, where everyone can step in it (because that’s less icky?).

Baby Jail Day 2

Next Thursday at 10 am, we all go to see Miranda at Purrfect Paws for a temperament assessment.  Keeping in mind that the old-school temperament tests are really not all that predictive of future behavior, it should at least give us an idea of what they’re like.  I have a ton of respect for Miranda’s dog sense, so even just getting her opinions on the puppies will help me and their new owners with trying to make good decisions.  And after, they get to meet all kinds of new people while they’re there!