4-18-20
DAY 22
We had our biggest change today. We opened up the extension to the whelping box by using na ex-pen. Once the puppies are bigger and their heads don’t fir through the bars, we will switch to the big play yard.
All of the pups now know how to get in an out of the box.
We are also making great progress with the pups using the potty area! Many of them seem to have caught onto it very quickly. We are not only seeing more puppies make it to the patches, but there is more pee in the trays when we clean them. The potty patches aren’t only a good place to go potty, but they are also a top contender for naps and play time. I don’t know why they seem to love it in there so much.
Tripp is a big fan of the puppies and can’t wait for them to be bigger so that he can play with them. Right now he is just play bowing and letting out a few playful barks. He finds these small yet quickly growing creatures very interesting and would like to learn more about them.
We are officially taking applicants for the most uncomfortable sleeping position! Here are the top contenders.
Here are today’s candids followed by a few videos.
4-19-20
DAY 23
Not much new other than another session of the noise of the Dremel and the vacuum. We did integrate a mop into the works too. Nothing seems to phase these puppies yet.
The pups seem to be a little advanced in everything that they do such as opening their eyes/ears, walking, speaking, and now using the potty patches. They make it to them about 70% of the time, so we are hoping that when actual housebreaking starts that it will be a breeze.
Now the HARDEST part of having the pups in our house, we will be starting to work on manding in a few days once the pups have a better attention span. Manding is when you don’t pick up a puppy, pet a puppy, or give a treat to a puppy, until the are sitting. It is used to start to tech them that good things come to those who wait and it is the beginning of manners. We will also be integrating a clicker soon as well.
Partners in Crime!
4-20-20
DAY 24
Today the puppies had their first meal. It really wasn’t as messy as we had anticipated. Nonetheless, we still had a clean up crew. Kimber and Tripp were happy to jump in and clean up afterwards.
Here is the aftermath of their first meal:
Nothing new today other than changing the configuration for the pen a little bit.
4-21-20
DAY 25
Although we had started to work with the clicker, we decided to push that back a day since it seemed like it would be in the best interest of the puppies. We took the whelping box down because this litter was born in the spring, so we didn’t need it for as long this time. We figured that that change was enough for them for one day. The puppies seem to be very accustomed to rapid changes since we have been working with them using the puppy culture protocol, which I must say I am very happy about!!
Other than that, we just took a lot of pictures today!
Colt decided that after their meal that he wanted to try some agility with the food saucer.
We are also seeing them use the potty patches about 90% of the time now! Very happy to see them using the patches as much as they do!!!
4-22-20
DAY 26
As planned we started to power up the clicker and our first session went well. All of the pups got at least three clicks and treats and some got four. They caught on a little but not well enough to use the clicker for Manding yet as they are not sure of the concept just yet. Here are two videos from our first session today. We plan to do two tomorrow, with at least one being outside of their play pen in twos or threes, and then jump into pairing the clicker with the treat.
No huge change today but we did swap out some toys for other ones that are new to the pups late this evening. They seemed to really like them, which is a good thing because we will start to do that every day or every other day now that they are pretty mobile.
One thing that I saw today that blew my mind was after Raven pooped, she started to kick her feet up like she was covering her business. Kimber does this from time to time, but I have never seen it in a puppy this young. They say that this is a sign that dogs like to have clean surroundings, but I never knew if that was a true statement or not. Since we used the instinct that they like to release away from the nest to keep clean as a tactic to teach them to use the potty patches, I would suspect that this may be true about the covering of their pee and poop.
4-23-20
DAY 27
Today we did our last session of powering up the clicker, this time both individually and outside of the play pen. Everyone did well. We saw a few pups that I could tell were looking for the food as soon as they heard the click.
Now that they understand the concept of the clicker, we have started to work on manding. Have I mentioned that this is the hardest part of having the puppies for us??? Colt, Smith, Ruger and Tula are often sitting, waiting for us to reach down and pet them or pick them up, but they have short attention spans so that only lasts for about a second or two if we are lucky.
We had some helpers, Payton and her boyfriend Colton, who are great puppy sitters for when we decide to let the pups have the run of the kitchen. This was their first real chance to get to see the outside world other than their play yard and whelping box. Everyone did spectacular and adjusted very well to their new surroundings. Although it wasn’t a long change, it was a big change.
A few photos before bedtime:
4-24-20
DAY 28
Happy Four week Birthday Puppies!
Today’s change was upgrading to a much larger play yard. The pups seem to really like the space to play and run, even though they were getting periodic play sessions, or field-trips as we were calling them, in other parts of the kitchen.
Here is a birds-eye view:
I thought that some of you might be wandering why we have a sheet hanging on one side of the play pen. It is to keep the draft from opening the door away from the puppies. They are at an age where we don’t have to worry about that too much anymore, but sometimes we have really cold nights, so every little bit helps.
Since we rearranged the entire world for the pups, nothing other than manding and adding some new toys was done today even though we didn’t see any signs of stress or worry from anyone.
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