4 Weeks Old!

Now that the puppies are bigger and exploring more of their environment, Candy has been introducing more items for them to interact with. She has a cat tunnel for them to crawl through and built a very tiny ramp for them to climb. These dogs are well on their way to becoming agility champions!

Miss Pink thought the ramp was a great place to rest.

Yesterday we visited the puppies. Even though Candy has been sending pictures almost every day, I was still amazed at how much they have grown. Mr Yellow is around 7 pounds (at 4 weeks) and to put them into perspective Indigo was just over 3 pounds when we brought her home at 8 weeks of age. They have their baby teeth now but luckily are not chomping down too hard. Although they do love to really bite down on each other which results in much squealing. This is a really good thing though since it will help them learn bite inhibition which is critical.

The puppies were napping when we went over but woke up a little bit to try out the wobble board I brought over. They also loved chewing on the milk inflation (rubber milker) and a few were fascinated with the raccoon tail. They were pretty beat though so they mostly slept. If they are active next time I'll get some cute videos.

Here are the pictures I was able to take. Most of the ones I post are Candy's pictures.

Training Plan

In addition to my socialization plan I need to have a clear training plan for my puppy.

In terms of just general training I think I will start with Sue Ailsby's Training Level program. It's nicely laid out, spiraling into more difficult commands and proofing. While I *love* clicker training, I've done a lot more luring with Indigo than shaping. In the beginning I didn't click with Indi at all, so luring is second nature. Sue's instructions are geared for clicker trainers and I'd like to see the results of clicker training a pup from day 1. I don't think I need to be a clicker purist. Luring has it's place and can be very useful but I will try to capture and free shape more commands this time around. Sue's Level program contains all the commands needed for a nice family dog and the higher levels are perfect for a performance dog.

Day 26 & 27

Anyone sick of puppy pictures yet?  No, of course not.  How could you be?!  These are just the cutest little things ever.  And it's only going to get worse once our pup comes home :)

House training and crate training already?  Woohoo!

More sibling rivalry

Day 27

Yesterday, Day 27, the puppies were taken outside for the first time.

Day 24 & 25

Candy reports that the puppies figured out to hop out of the whelping box (their sleeping room) to pee in the weaning box.  Woohooo! House training is already on it's way.

They are really starting to look like little dogs now!

Day 24

Agility ramp introduction

Day 25

It'll be our little secret *wink*

Three Weeks Old and Counting!

Mr. Yellow being introduced to a pheasant wing

First taste of watered down and mashed up puppy food. Yum! Mr. Yellow, of course, ate more than his fair share.

Brotherly Love. Mr. Lime and Miss Pink

The puppies are now eating in the weaning box and sleeping in the whelping box and starting to wag their tails.

Day 22

Day 22

Pet Edge & Puppy Peaks

Today I placed my order with Pet Edge. I tried buying some things a month ago but several items were back ordered and you can't order them unless you buy at least $15 worth of that one item. Finally the main thing I wanted to get was in (the cooling adapter for the crate fan).

In addition to the crate fan, another ex-pen and an elevated cool bed I purchased a variety of puppy items (kongs, nylabones, teething toys, stuffed toys, toys for Indi, and so on). There's still some things I need to get, like the Nature's Miracle made for wood floors and a trimmer for clipping the fur between the puppy's toes, but I should have most of my puppy gear now, plus some.

My friend is giving me an extra wire crate so I now have one for the bedroom for sleeping, one for downstairs in the puppy play pen, and one dedicated for the car. It will be nice to not have to fold and lug crates up and down the stairs and in and out of the car.

I still have to catch up on the puppy pictures since we were out of town for a week.  We'll also be seeing them on Saturday and I'll try to take some video is they are in a playful mood.

On Saturday I'd like to bring over some items for the puppies to explore.  Candy has already introduced them to some things.  he husband made an agility ramp and an agility friend came over to help introduce the pups to it. I need to find a tiny wobbly surface for them. Indi's wobble board is 4 feet x 4 feet, so that will not work and her agility ramp is 6 feet long. I do have a play tunnel at least. Bubble wrap should be easy to bring over and I need some noise making toy.

Speaking of preparing a puppy for agility, Susan Garret recently started a new program called Puppy Peaks.  It's a series of videos showing the training she did with her new pup Swagger. Every week for a year several new videos are posted. This is perfect timing! Her dogs are amazing, as is her training. Every dog of her has his/her MACH. I love her training videos so I can't wait to see what she does with her own puppy to give me more ideas to get my pup ready for agility.

Bigger and Bigger

Keeping cool on Day 15

The puppies are moving a lot more and are starting to play with each other.  Today (Day 17) the breeder (Candy) introduced a few novel items for the pups to explore.

Day 18- Miss Lilac thought about being the first to hop out but hesitated too long and Mr. Yellow jumped over.

Day 18

On Day 19 the puppies' world doubled in size.  Hannah jumped into the weaning box side and laid down to nurse any pups who wanted to brave hopping over the pig rail and the side of the whelping box to get to her. Mr. Brown, Miss Aqua and Mr. Yellow rose to the challenged and made it.  Mr. Navy tried his best, but being the smallest had a lot of difficultly.  Candy took pity on him and helped him over.  The rest of the litter decided they were not hungry and didn't try.

Day 19

Miss Aqua giving Mr. Yellow a piece of her mind on Day 19