12-20-18
DAY 50
HAPPY SEVEN WEEK BIRTHDAY!
I forgot to add to yesterday’s blog post that we did another round of resource guarding. We were working with food again. We have done some work with lap guarding and place (Sleeping Area) guarding as well. Once again, I didn’t see anything that I didn’t like. Some of the pups were very enthusiastic about the food, but I will take enthusiasm over snapping any day. In the morning they are still eating all together in the saucer dish as it is much easier for Elaine to feed them before work. Every other meal is fed in separate dishes in sets of threes. We are always rubbing, petting, and touching their tails when they eat and have been since they had their first meal away from the milk bar. The puppies will need this type of attention as problems down the road with food, and other types of guarding as well, can still develop inside of their new homes.
Speaking of food, we use a lot of food or treat toys for Brady and Kimber to exercise their brains as well as exercising their bodies. Dals are thinkers, so it didn’t take them too long to figure out that food come out when you whack those things across the floor. We have four treat toys, not including the traditional KONG toys. In these two videos they have the satellite toy and the blue ball. We have one that is a blue ball, one that is a yellow cube, one that is a satellite, and one KONG wobbler.
Some puppies sleep, some play, and some just watch
12-19-18
DAY 49
The puppies had their last vet visit with us today. Everyone was very cal, cool, and collected. This time it was just a 15 minute trip there and back to our normal vet. I am happy to announce that everyone has a clean bill of health. He checked their palates, ears, heart, lungs, kidneys and made sure that they were all sound. No one has a hearth murmur and everyones joints, lungs, and kidney’s are working great. From birth, we knew that none of the pups had a cleft palate, but it was part of the exam. He also checked the boys equipment, and told us that all four of them have both testes. We had also known this before hand but like the palate check, it was part of the exam.
We put the crate on a flat dolly so that it was easy to pull. The vet was surprised at how well it worked.
A whole bunch of vet techs also came into the room just to see the pups. I had their attention to the point where they didn’t even know that someone knew was in the room. (We were working on sit at the time) Once they said Awww, the puppies ran over to them to say hi.
When we got home, everyone was exhausted. Snick went into the corner for a nap and some alone time while some others were passed out in the bumper bed and sleeping and some others posed for a quick picture.
12-18-18
DAY 48
As we are slowly coming to an end of week 6, we are entering into our second stage of resource guarding work. It is very important for us to be petting, sticking our hands in, and removing their food bowls for a treat, so that they do not become upset if this were to happen in the normal everyday routine. We will also be working on lap guarding and other types of resource guarding as well.
I have noticed a couple of times that the puppies would rather sleep in the soccer net like a hammock rather than use it for other puppy things, like chewing on it or standing on their hind legs to be able to see higher. Here is the picture of Biscotti that I took today.
12-17-18
DAY 47
After yesterday’s long trip, Elaine took the day off from work to recoup from the drive. Who wouldn’t love to spend all that time with puppies anyways?
I finally got a good picture of the puppies. They are all sitting here after hearing the verbal command sit and seeing her hand motion for sit. Cannoli was looking for a piece of food that dropped on the floor and Biscotti was out of frame.
Macaroon likes to make sure that Colton can’t see her patch so she pulls his hoodie stings so that he can’t see her.
And of course, we can always find Biscotti tucked up close to Payton.
12-16-18
DAY 46
9 bilateral normal hearing puppies!
We had the puppies BAER tested today. BAER stands for Brainstem Auditory Evoked Response. All the vet does is place 4 small needles in the head and neck. They are connected to wires that tell the machine if that ear can hear or not.
Here is Tassie getting her hearing test done.
The drive wasn’t as bad as we expected. The puppies slept for most of it and were not too messy when we got to the hearing test. We managed to connect two crates together, one for sleeping and one for going potty. It ended up being an extra sleeping place for them since most of them were able to hold it until we got there.
12-15-18
DAY 45
The puppies were microchipped today. The process went so quickly that we didn’t have time to take pictures.
We also had them evaluated by some long time breeders, but they will be evaluated by some other long time breeders tomorrow at their hearing test. They are evaluating their structure, for the conformation show ring.
During the hearing test tomorrow we will be able to take pictures and hold the puppies during the process. I will explain more about the BAER Hearing Tests and why we have them done on tomorrow’s blog.
We will be driving 3.5 hours with 9 puppies tomorrow to get there. We will send an email with the results after all of the tests are complete.
Tassie being cute!
12-14-18
DAY 44
Alrighty, I made time to organize the blog, so everything is where it should be now. All of the days are in the correct weeks and labeled with their dates.
We didn’t make too many new changed today because we had one huge change instead. It was finally the right temperature for the puppies to have an outside adventure, and it wasn’t too mushy to boot! I walked the fence line to cover any big gaps that puppies could fit out of. I didn’t want to make them come outside, but rather encourage them and let them make the decision themselves. I wasn’t sure if Biscotti was going to join the others because he was spectating a lot, but he thought it looked like too much fun and came out to play too. After they had time to get acquainted with the new surrounding, they had a blast! There were crunch leaves everywhere and lots of fun stuff to climb under and on top of!
Macaroon seemed to have the most fun with the big open space and wishes for another warm day to be able to play outside.
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