June 6, 2024
Happy 6 Week Birthday to the pups!
Of course we took our weekly headshots and stacked photos. They are finally at the age where evaluations for show potential start to take place. We have had a few breeders over the past week come to let us know what they think of the Wonkonators, and everyone seems to be in the same boat.
The puppies also saw something that a late friend made a while back. Some people call it the adventure box. It is filled with toys and ropes and all sorts of fun things. The puppies loved it!
June 7, 2024
Today the puppies went for their first car ride. We went to a vet office about 20 minute away and they met a great amount of people. The puppies were vaccinated, had an exam, and donated their blood for canine research. Boy were they a hit! And everyone has clean bill of health too!
The Dalmatian club of America Foundation (DCAF) sponsors a blood draw in conjunction with the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (OFA). Their blood will be kept on file for canine research in the future. It is a wonderful program that helps all breeds of dog in the end.
We are prepping for them to explore the grass now that they are inoculated later this weekend!
June 8, 2024
Today was the first time that the puppies took an adventure in the grass. They have been waiting at the gate to explore out there for a while now and today was the day! We turned them loose with us by their side to watch them explore and run. Having them try to eat leaves, pick up grass, and do countless other things that they shouldn’t be was inevitable, but it was time for them to be let loose in a big area.
We saw that some of them have already connected the potty patch to the real grass, because a few of them ran out, hit the grass for the first time, and released their bladders. This is not really something that we expect until they are around 8-10 weeks to want to do, so this was really cool to us!
Other than puppy play time outside, we just relaxed because we had had a busy few days. Isn’t that what Saturdays are for anyway??
June 9, 2024
What?? Sundays aren’t for relaxing too?? Not this Sunday! Today was hearing test day around here. We had an audiologist come to our house and test the puppies hearing. As we had suspected, we have 6 bilateral hearing puppies and one unilateral hearing puppy. Charlie is our unilateral hearing pup (uni for short). There is nothing that will stop her from living a perfectly happy and 99% normal lifestyle. There may be some factors that could be very minimally life altering such as if you are calling her, she may not know where the sound is coming from or if she is sleeping on her good ear, she may not wake up right away to noise. She will make the perfect pet for someone as she is quite the sweet girl, she will just not be used in a breeding program.
A little more about how they test for hearing of a dog versus our at home test. Our at home test is done by holding the puppy in front of us while looking the opposite direction. We suck air in making a squeaking noise to not blow air on their ear which can make them twitch. Along with our noise testing, we watch when we are calling them to see their behavior. Both of those things together are used to predict what the official test results will be. The Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response (BAER) test uses electrodes that are placed in on their forehead and close to each ear each ear to see a clear pass or fail response.
Here are some of the candid photos and videos from the morning that we had our hearing test!
Just 10, 2024
No resting for these puppies today! Well, I mean that nothing was planned today. We had some more visitors. Payton and Calder who have been here many times before to see puppies, but they are at a fun age now where they can play and run around. Calder is the puppy wrangler and had them all sitting and watching him. They also went outside for play time with him. He was more interested in putting pea gravel in his cup that the puppies that were practically running circles around him.
In the next few days we will have some individual crate time for the puppies to lay a foundation of being in a crate. These crates will be small for their size, but they will grow out of them quickly. I would suggest that anyone that is offered a puppy from this litter purchases, borrows, or uses a full size crate when the time comes. I will explain a bit more of that on the day that we introduce them to individual crates!
June 11, 2024
Today the puppies had some special visitors. Uncle Tim and Aunt Bootsie stopped on their way home from their getaway house. Wow did the puppies have fun with them! Here is Bootsie sitting in the puppy pen enjoying her 7 new friends!
June 12, 2024
Today the puppies had a base of crate training. We use small crate for this because they take up less space, which is hard to come by these days as our puppy rearing materials seem to have exploded all of the house. For these small crates, we smeared some Peanut butter in them end and added each puppy.
Some people suggest getting a small crate for the puppies to grow in and upgrading when they become older, but we don’t particularly suggest that. We have had success with using a medium – large size crate connected to an exercise pen and then slowly removing the space that the exercise pen provides. We use one side as a sleeping area (crate) and the other side for moving around, potty, and play.
Crate training any dog is very important. It allows for them to know where their area is. It is never to be used as a punishment and always to be used as a safe place. That is what we are providing is a foundation for them to learn that it is a safe place for them and their place. All of our dogs are crate trained and spend time in the crate everyday even if we are home. By crating our dogs from puppies, especially when we are home, they learn that it is ok to be away from us and the other dogs. None of our dogs have separation anxiety which is much due to the fact that they are trained to know that it is ok if we are not around.
Here they are before, during, and after their first individual crate experience!
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