If you’ve been trying to contact me, first, let me apologize for being so slow about getting back to you, between puppies and work and personal stuff it’s been crazy!
If you have sent me an application, I will be going through them in the next few days and contacting you to set up a Zoom meeting to get to know each other a bit better.
If you have sent me an application or email or otherwise reached out and you now don’t wish to be on the list for this litter after all, please drop me an email and let me know!
Finally, please keep in mind that I don’t yet know what these puppies are like, but if they take after their parents (as I hope they will), they will be working dogs. That doesn’t mean they won’t be great pets, but it DOES mean they will need a job to keep their brains exercised. Put it this way: I’ve had Vallhunds since 2003, I do a lot of stuff with my dogs, and there were times when Alice was a puppy where I had to grit my teeth and remind myself that I WANTED a working dog. Not everyone wants that, and there’s no shame in admitting it!
Tonight the puppies listened to: agility, fireworks, NWA, Public Enemy and The Beastie Boys. Because we don’t want to influence how they feel about the whole East Coast/West Coast thing yet, they need to make up their own minds (also because loud male voices and sirens, but mostly because they need a solid introduction to hip hop).
The puppies are right at the start of the socialization period, so they had their first visitor! Melanie, who owns their half brother Enzo, came to see them!
Second, the power went out at 1 AM, and it started to get cold in here shortly after, so I bundled the puppies and Alice up and headed into work, where there was power (and where there’s a generator even if the power is out). Power came back on about 2:30 and we headed back home once it started to warm up here. Alice was a trooper, hopefully it wasn’t too stressful for the puppies.
I usually start offering food around three weeks of age. They’re 20 days old today and everyone except Green Boy tasted some Royal Canin Puppy Mousse today! Green Boy said no thank you today. I will start offering them a little food every day, gradually increasing it as they get older. Eventually I will start offering them food before Alice goes in with them, but that will be after they move to The Big House. Right now Alice can come and go as she pleases.
They went on a field trip to the living room too! And listened to agility sounds from my videos (one heard Zhora barking on the video and barked back!?) as well as some thunderstorm sounds. We also dropped some things and slammed a door.
They are growing and changing quickly now! Today I will try offering them some real food for the first time (Royal Canin Puppy Mousse). Everyone got a dose of probiotics this morning (BeneBac). They are taking turns coming out into the living room one at a time for individual snuggle time, and we have started making loud noises. Alice has started interacting with their faces instead of just their bottoms now, and they have started approaching her head and face instead of just the milk bar – she’s now more than just a meal ticket to them.
Orange Girl with Jim and Grandma ZhoraNot just lunchCuddles are all well and good, but need to stay on top of toileting too!The expression! Day 20 – the first time I’ve seen Alice nursing them standing up, this means they’re getting big and efficient
They continue to get something new in the box every day, and this will continue until they leave. I don’t leave toys in there for more than a couple of hours, since they are learning how to walk and they don’t need more obstacles than absolutely necessary. The pink bunny was yesterday’s victim:
And the blue ball was back today (it’s ok to recycle the same things since after a couple of days, it’s new again!):
The puppies have a startle reflex as of this morning! So now they are listening to Mozart on Spotify, and we will start the Puppy Culture sound desensitizing protocol! They’ll also be getting something new in the box for a while every day! Now the fun (and work) really starts! You spend the first couple of weeks just making sure they stay alive and grow, but the dam does all the work. Now it’s my turn!
They change SO QUICKLY now! Just as of today they are able to see well enough to really interact, play bitey face, walrus over to see new fuzzy shapes like my hand in the box. They’ve been trying to move away from the sleeping area to urinate and defecate to some extent, so today I added a litter pan even though they really won’t be able to use it yet. They’re getting better at almost-walking. They’re basically drunk toddlers right now, moving in slow motion.
Today was the last day of Early Neurological Stimulation already! It’s always like this: the first two weeks you worry about keeping them alive, but they’re really just fuzzy jellybeans, then all of a sudden they’re puppies!
