The pups have really started to play with each other, which will come in many different forms, but for now, they are pretty much using their mouths! After this video was taken, Sky started to chew on Tipsy’s foot! The game that Brooke and Sky are playing is referred to as Bitey Face, but it almost looks like Sky is playing her own version of the game that I think she would call it “Sky Puts Her Mouth in Brooke’s Mouth”.
We had a slight shift or change in the layout of the whelping box yesterday, so we didn’t have too many adjustments. We swapped out some of the super small toys, but left the large Caterpillar because he is a huge hit! We often find someone napping, playing, and crawling on it.
Something that is new to the puppies is my puppy call. I will use this when we are calling the puppies for food until they are in their new homes. It can easily be transfered into a recall for when they are much older and ready for obedience too!
All I do is take a super small piece (maybe the size of a pea) of raw organic ground beef and hold it in front of their nose while making the sound of my puppy call. Right now they are not putting two and two together, and likely will not for a few more days, but once they do they will start to swarm me for their very delicious treat!
Now that the puppies ears are open enough, they are starting to startle at abrupt noises. These noises could be a cabinet door closing, the shaking of a trash bag, or dropping something somewhat close by to them. That is all normal and expected around this time. Once this happens, we start something that is called Startle and Recovery. The concept of this is very simple. A few times a day, we drop something or make a loud noise in the vicinity of the puppies but not too close them. We typically start this on the other side fo the room and inch closer to them over the next week or so. A perk of them being raised in our kitchen is that they get all of the basic household noises in addition to the ones that we make specifically for them.
While working on Startle and Recovery, we are not trying to scare the puppies. In fact, if we experience any if the puppies having a true fear response that lasts longer than a few seconds, we stop until further notice. We have never experienced any true fear during this practice, but we are alway watching to make sure that we are moving forward properly. The purpose of doing this is not to make sure that the puppies are never scared of anything, that is inevitable. It is to show them the proper way to respond to fear by conditioning their emotional response. This practice is something that we will use for the rest of the time that they are with us. It is called Conditioned Emotional Response (CER).
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