The puppies turned 4 weeks old yesterday and boy are they getting to be full of it. I got a tug game yesterday with Fig and Peanut during our little one on one play sessions and Raisin is a little imp....she just dotes on me, she just acts like it is the best thing in the world just to hang with me-I hate that she does that and love it at the same time. MUST STAY STRONG!!!! A puppy is not in the plan yet.
Today I woke up to a very sweet, happy, bouncy proud of herself little Raisin prancing around the living room with the big dogs. WHAT?????? HOW COULD THAT BE?
I scooped up the little princess and put her in her pen. The pen is fairly tall and does not have good footholds. I had rigged up a PVC doorway for Cherry that is 16 inches tall so she could go in and out and doesn't get stuck with the pups when they get to be too much but I want her to be with them when she wants. I lined the inside of my door with vinyl pet screen thinking the little darlings would not be able to use it like a ladder that way and thought between the screening and the height we would get no first out of the box puppies.
I love the naughty, CHEEKY puppy and the first out of the box is generally my pick. ;-). Hummm, I knew when I saw Raisin dancing around so happy with herself we had had a first out of the box puppy, LOL, but hoped it was not true! I put Raisin back in the box and she was SOOOOOOO MAD! She had a screaming fit but then was happy to repeat her performance. She has not yet learned that you should wait until everyone is gone so you can go undetected!
IF YOU LOOK REALLY CAREFULLY THROUGH THE BLACK NETTING YOU CAN SEE HOW RAISIN ACCOMPLISHES HER GREAT NEW TRICK, I'M SO PROUD OF HER, HAHAHA!
CRICKET CANT BELIEVE HOW NAUGHTY THIS ONE IS!
SHE MAKES IT OVER
Once out Raisin had a hiddey ho time running with her mom and Cricket. She liked being one of the big dogs and sure did not seem to mind being in the big house by herself. What a nut.
A PRIVATE STOP AT THE MILK BAR IS WAY COOL FOR A PUP
RAISIN WAS READY TO GO OUTSIDE WITH THE BIG DOGS, PRETTY BOLD CONSIDERING THEY HAVE NOT BEEN OUTSIDE YET-I DID HAVE TO DRAW THE LINE AT THAT, ONE ADVENTURE PER DAY PLEASE!
Guess we all know my day now includes another trip to the hardware store for some more PVC parts to improve my little gate.....sigh....I knew I bought extra pipe last time for some reason!
I have to apologize, I want so much to get around to everyones blog and catch up on what has been going on with everyone, sorry it is taking so long! I really am so excited to sit and be able to catch up. Soon I am going to have a lot of time on my hands I think!
Since the pups have been staying with me and Karen their owner was nice enough to let me continue to keep/play with the puppies after she got back from her trip...I have got a golden opportunity to try all the things I have been reading about to raise puppies that I have previously only been able to read about.
One of the best DVDs and books I have found is Jerry Hopes "The Breeders Guide to Raising Superstar Dogs". I think it would be a cool book or DVDs for anyone considering getting a dog to read so you know what you should look for if you are getting a puppy for your next dog.
Research shows that with a few simple things you can increase the neural pathways and the intelligence of a puppy and you can make their immune system stronger and make them able to withstand more stress and recover more easily in later life. I personally think the first eight weeks of a puppies life is very important. Of course genetics of the parents, how the parents are cared for, the stress the mom is under, the diet of the parents and of the pups, all those things play a big part in determining all a puppy is able to become too.
So with Cherry's pups I started when they were 3 days old and did the ENS, early neuro stimulation for 14 days. The ENS program is only done once a day and for only 14 days. It is surprisingly easy to do....the first step is just taking a Q tip and rubbing in between the dogs toes for three to five seconds. Right after that you securely hold the pup with their head straight up in the air for three to five seconds, then you securely hold the pup and put their head down for three to five seconds, then you put the pup on their back for three to five seconds and then put them down on a cloth that has been in the fridge a few hours, you leave them on it but they can wiggle or move all they want for three to five seconds. I did the ENS with the daily weight at the same time each morning then gave the pups to Cherry to nurse so the minimal stress of the ENS was followed by something great.
Pups are born not being able to see or hear. About the same time the eyes are opening-around 2 weeks the pups are also starting to hear. When the pups could start hearing I started playing classical music which has been shown to increase neural pathways in the brain. Any music works but classical seems to work best probably because of the nature of the different instruments and the tunes. As time went on I added DVDs with sounds, vacuums, babies, kids, fireworks, gunshots, dogs. I also had the pups moved to the living room where they would be surrounded by the household dogs, the kids, and all the noises of a home.
So that is basically the starting point of raising puppies to be superstars ;-). Another HUGE thing is spending time with the whole litter, talking to the pups, and playing with them and cuddling them, touching them so they are used to being touched and handled. That is one of the funnest parts and it is important to spend some time with each puppy individually.
OF COURSE the biggest thing to keep in mind with early learning in my opinion is just spending time with the pup and having fun. The goal is not that the dog can compete in obedience at 2 months, LOL, it is that the dog has fun with people and wants to learn more and looks to their person for fun! You accomplish that and you are so far ahead of the game. These pups have taught me they have their own agendas and they are very tiny THREE WEEK old babies with baby attention spans! Ya gotta not pressure and go with what the puppy wants to do, a good lesson to remember when working with my adults too!
KRISP:
I took some video of the early learning of each of the puppies, and of course I had to video. It does not look that impressive and mostly I am luring the pups to sit, down, touch the target stick, and they do naturally come pretty well when placed away from you. I just basically hope it is laying the foundation for the pups to be figuring out what people want, figuring out it is fun to work with your human partner and hopefully making it fun to play with me so they will look to their new human owners for those things when they go to their new homes. :-). PLEASE do not feel obligated to look at them all, I just posted so you could look at what you want ;-).
DOODLES:
WE ARE HERE-
Hey,....so sorry, it has been a long time since my life got turned upside down and boy, what a summer and Autumn. First off I have to say I love my blogger life and my blogging friends have been so much a part of my life, following what they are doing and talking about what we are up to but when I hurt my leg and doing agility was out of the question and it got hard to even do most training with my dogs...it felt funny talking about the dogs, not much was going on....and it was a little easier to stay away I guess. SOOOO I hope I can keep what has been going on short, but still catch everyone who has wondered where we were up.
After Spring agility camp...way back when ....I had injured my leg, I know I tore my meniscus- the cushioning behind the knee cap, and torn some tendons or ligaments -who knows what because the doctors don't seem concerned about that, because of injuries I had when I was a kid and when I broke my knee a few years ago the knee is in such bad shape they say fixing anything is out of the question, the only thing to do is to do a knee replacement. Well, when I finally got to see a specialist he agreed my knee NEEDS a knee replacement and there is nothing else to do but he said he highly recommended I not get one because I was too young and it could potentially need to be redone twice more at least in my life time. That was devastating news because I really cant walk much and it impacts not just agility but my daily life a LOT! So the first specialist injected some hyalurine acid into the knee, OUCH, which after a few weeks worked well enough that I did not have to use a cane but it only lasted a few weeks. I was referred to a specialist specialist, hahahaha, because the specialist said my case was too complicated for him. It took 2 months to get into the specialist, specialist, but I have an appointment next Friday! I have come to the point where I have really decided living now is what I have to insist on, and I will worry about the future when I have to, so I just wonder how long it will take to schedule the knee replacements if it takes two months to even see this surgeon.
Along with hobbling around I started water aerobics, which has been heaven and I really enjoy-it has helped me lose 25 lbs as of this morning!!!! yippie!!!
As far as the dogs we all had a full summer of just hanging out and being dogs ;0! It has been hard on Cricket, the lack of exercise but she has been a trooper. A thousand things I could have trained or done to keep them active but...I just needed to shift gears a little for awhile ;-)
At the end of the summer a great opportunity came up. A friend of mine, Breezes breeder who owns Cherry...the same Cherry that lived her for quite awhile a few years back....had to be out of town when Cherry was going to whelp a litter. She asked if I would take care of Cherry and her pups. It has been great, and has kept me very busy and having a lot of fun. Cherry had her six pups 3 weeks ago.
These are the babies at 3 weeks old:
Newton Blue Merle Boy-the biggest guy:
Raisin-black tri girl
Fig-black tri girl who LOVES me, LOL!
Doodles-black tri girl-an explorer
Krisp-black tri female-always the first up playing and the last to go to sleep, very playful right now
Peanut-about half the size of the other guys but sooo cute and playful-he holds his own!
I have been trying to do all the fun stuff I have read about to enhance early learning with the pups. I did the early neuro stimulation to increase their brain power, played classical music which increases neuro pathways, let them watch the flickering lights from the TV which increases their neural pathways in the brain and spend a lot of time talking to them and changing their environment around, I make sure each gets some alone time with me/us and I spend a lot of time with them as a group. It is soooo much fun to watch them. Here is their pen, I have it set up so they are in the middle of the living room and in the middle of life in the home, there is a little bedding area, then a potty area--and at three weeks they are doing great going in the potty area...then there is an area with toys, and perfect for play.
Here are the puppies playing from yesterday morning:
HERE IS THE CRICK STAR-she is awesome with everyone, small puppies to big dogs, to any people she meets, can not say how much I love this girlie! LOL!
ANYWAY, so that is what we have been up to in a nutshell, hope to catch up on everyone as quickly as i can, thanks to everyone for wading through this long post and thanks for everyone who has always been out there for me and gave me so much support over the years!!!!!!!!!!!!! Just checking in with everyone always means a lot!
