SoftMaple 2002 litter

Week Four (Days 22-28)
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUPPIES

+ Begin to eat food
+ Begin to bark, wag tails, bite, paw, bare teeth, growl and chase
+ Use legs well
+ Tire easily
+ Depth perception starts

5/2/2002 7am Boy are the pups active now! I always put them in the vari kennel half when we clean. It has the open side facing out, and up to this point the pups would maybe put one or two feet out, then climb back in to safety. Well, they have passed a certain point, and they all decided to bail out of the nest. Of course this makes it hard to mop and clean! So I scooped them back in and turned around the crate.


The great escape!


The pups contained again. If they were any help cleaning... I would leave them out!


Here you can see Orange Girl escaping from the box.


Up Up and away! . . . free at last!

Some of her brothers are not as smart.....

I have to keep this short, as I have been having internet server problems the last few days. I can't get or send email either! (So If Im worse than usual at getting back to your mail.... that's the reason!)

I'll probably do a lot of pictures, and keep the rambling to a minimum until my server gets straightened around. (Im connecting through a long distance phone line right now... don't tell my husband!) ;-)

5:00 pm. I wormed the pups again tonight, and changed everyone's collar. The collars they wear now are the paper litter ones that stick on. Pretty soon I can change some to the nylon adjustable ones. When that happens some of the colors will change. (since I don't have a white nylon collar... it would get dirty and stained) White usually goes to pink during the switch.

The Yellow collar black girl has escaped from the box a couple of times now. Orange girl when she gets out just hangs out in the Vari Kennel. Yellow girl wanders around hollering.

I'm introducing more sounds to the pups. If its a loud sound, I start it far away outside the puppy room, and slowly bring it closer. (like the Shop vac, or banging on Seger's food pan) If its a particularly loud sound, I like to introduce it first while the pups are nursing. Eating is a pleasant thing for the pups, so it makes it less traumatic. This is also a good way to introduce louder sounds later on. (like gun fire if your going to use your pup for hunting)


5/3/2002 Day 23

To SoftMaple Curlies

All the pups grow up!