August 2011 Litter
Show-Offs
The pups are back to their daily schedule here at our house and apparently, they learned a few new tricks while we were gone. If you close the door to the crate, you gain more access to the food bowl and Peanut has the skill mastered. This is something I would expect to see from Gator, who is a full month older. At 9 weeks old, Ginny’s puppies have shown us that they are very smart and advanced for their age. I do truly believe that Gator and his antics have rubbed off. Since we are trying to keep up with his conformation training, keeping him in the puppy pen while we still have little ones under foot has paid off in more ways than...
Read MoreAwake Now
Ginny and all of the pups were fast asleep in the puppy pen when our family dove into this weekend’s house project – Steam cleaning the carpet and furniture. This of course began with a methodical vacuuming, much longer than our normal daily runs. One by one, they all woke and then crawled into the crate – the furthest spot away from the loud noise. We did move the pen and all the pups for the second phase but in the meantime, this litter definitely received desensitization to the...
Read MoreMy New Addition
And I am not just talking about holding onto him for our program! My two nighttime nap buddies, Dewey and Ace, are accustomed to my late nights and the quite calm of countless evenings on the couch. Gator (yes, I am changing the spelling now that I have an official name picked out for his registration) has come to enjoy the benefits of evening couch life and then turning in for his deep slumber back in the pen with Ginny and her pups. I actually have many similar photos of his daddy sleeping in the exact same position on the couch. Total, like father like...
Read MoreGater Is Growing So Fast
Gater is 10 weeks old today and it seems like only yesterday he was a tiny fluff ball romping around our living room. He really has shown just how very smart he is, mastering the doggy steps up to the couch, learned all about how to whine just enough to be let out of the pen and of course, how no matter where he is while playing, he will jump back onto the pen to use the potty pad. Yahoo! We need to remind ourselves that he is still a little dude. When next to one of the puppies from Ginny’s litter (his current roommates), he looks so much bigger. Thing is, he is a whole month older than them, and he also is only a few ounces heavier than the larger ones in the...
Read MoreNew Roommate
With his sister gone, Gater was left in a quandary. His mom was no longer sleeping with her litter and he is way too small to sleep in bed with us humans. In the puppy pen he must stay for a while but he is over a month older than Ginny’s litter. So we did a bit of rearranging and now all of the puppies are together in a much larger pen. Ginny will not let him nurse but cuddles she will allow. Cuddles with her and her puppies actually. He has adjusted to the changes rather quickly and seems to enjoy the “big brother” position he is now in. Teaching puppies that are technically his half aunt and uncles, how to play, make it onto the potty pad and now,...
Read MoreCalypso Piddles
Normally we have our 4 week old puppies downstairs and in our Puppy Kindergarten. With Frisco and Diva being a bit too rambunctious for our little pudger here, I thought is best to keep her alone with her mommy for a few more days to gain some strength in her walking skills. She has begun to walk to more remote area in her whelping box to go potty when she wakes up – The tell-tale sign that she is ready for her pee pad training. I rearranged the whelping box and our “den” bin so that she would have to crawl over and out to get to the pad, which I placed on the bottom of the kiddie pool so that she had a harder surface to walk upon. To help her build up...
Read MoreCalypso at 4 Weeks
Our little wobble walker Calypso is 4 weeks old today and quite the day it has been so far! She got her first taste of puppy food mush, she pottied on a pee pad and she played with some toys. Ok, she pawed at it and then fell over, but it is still a major first! We will see about bringing her downstairs to begin her puppy kindergarten over the weekend. Until then, I can’t help but watch her in wonder – Her adorable way of discovering her new...
Read MoreDouble Duty
Both of our mommies have been spending more and more time downstairs with us now that their pups are able to sustain their own body heats and not require such constant supervision. A surprising turn of events has been how fantastic of a mom Rane is. Putting her own wants aside, she often chooses to check in on Colada’s puppies before coming down the steps to be with us. Today, when Rane did her check in, she struggled with the urge to take care of all three puppies since they were in separate whelping boxes. To ease her nerves, I brought Calypso into the other whelping box. From that point on, Rane was the most content. She could take care of all three pups with...
Read MoreA Move First For Us
So, if you follow our blog you know the first four weeks or so for our moms and pups are spent upstairs, away from the rest of our dogs. They usually stay in our guest bedroom and if we have a second litter at the same time, they stay in our bedroom. Once the puppies are up and walking, we move them with their mom to our Puppy Kindergarten downstairs for their socialization. This is usually when our moms have to accept each other and to lighten up on their protective urges. It’s their own natural instincts kicking into gear so we are patient for that first week – Their time to adjust. We have guests in our home arriving and, well, we need our “guest...
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