Morning Routine
Since I posted about the routine back when the puppies were wee, I’ll tell you how things are done now:
- get up, let big dogs out
- clean up the worst of the puppy poop while they’re out
- take last night’s load of puppy bedding out of dryer and move the puppy bedding out of washer into dryer
- let big dogs in and let Nina in to puppy pen to feed them and satisfy herself that they all survived the night without her
- while Nina is nursing, measure out food into blender and big dogs’ bowls, add warm water to puppies’ food
- get big dogs’ breakfast ready (add fish oil, spoonful of tripe, etc.), add tripe to puppies’ food and blend it up (the blending is getting less and less now and soon they will be on straight kibble or Honest Kitchen)
- feed big dogs once Nina is done nursing and has been let out of pen
- feed puppies (I call them with “pup-pup-pup” when I feed them, so they start learning to come when called)
- let big dogs outside again, let puppies out to run around and play and eat Jim’s feet (Jim plays with them while I clean the pen, a tough job but someone’s got to do it)
- remove all bedding from puppy pen and replace it (there is underpadding of recycled hospital pads, and then towels and bathmats over that)
- remove turf and take into bathroom to wash, get last night’s turf which has been drying
- throw out pee pad underneath turf and wash pan, replace with fresh pee pad and clean turf
- remove underpad from turf area and replace with clean one
- when puppies are finished playing, each one gets an individual cuddle and its collar put back on, then they go back in the pen with any leftover breakfast
- start the washer with the dirty bedding
- have coffee, start webcam, get ready for work
And then that gets repeated at lunchtime (sometimes I just change the top bedding if it’s relatively clean), and dinnertime. Right now it’s about 2 hours of just puppy care per day, not counting playtime and enrichment activities like taking them outside, time spent clicker training, Dremeling nails, handling, teaching them to play with people, etc…THAT is the fun part!