SoftMaple 2002 litter

Jet and Seger's litter

A day to day puppy diary

This litter whelped 4/10/2002 out of CH SoftMaple's International Fling CGC Cardiac Clear, CERF CR-640G26F-PI, CR-640G26F-PI sired by CH SoftMaple's O' Dark Thirty JH SH CD WC WCX CGC CR-536G27M-T cardiac, CERF

Week Five (Days 29-35)
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUPPIES

+ Group activities and sexual play will begin
+ Dominance order starts
+ Rapid growth/development

5/9/2002 4:00am. Feeding pictures. I feed the pups right in the puppy room, since Im not going to change everything right now. I noticed the pups ended up in the Classified adds this morning. ;-) Well, eating on the Classified section is the only way they would end up there!

A bit about the Classified adds....

While there is no question that some people find exactly the dog they are looking for from classified ads, many more encounter problems. Using newspaper classified ads to locate a breeder is a gamble. Few responsible breeders advertise in local classified ads because they have no trouble placing their dogs, sometimes years in advance. Therefore most breeders who advertise in these sections are amateurs who know little about their breeds. People with accidental litters, or back yard breeders. Sometimes rescue groups advertise dogs but their ads are a small percentage of the total number. If you must enter the classified sweepstakes at least learn the terminology of classified ads.

"Needs room to run." Read He ran away from us one too many times, and we are sick of bailing him out of the shelter! Don't even consider this one unless you have a securely fenced yard and intend to do some obedience training.

"Friendly." Could also be overbearing, untrained, undisciplined, obnoxious, destructive. You know the type... your all dressed up, go to a friends house and get knocked down by their "Friendly" dog

"Protective." Read "overprotective." Or the condition of the lawsuit was we get rid of the dog before he bit someone else..... Otherwise the appropriate words would be "good watchdog."

"Free to a good home." Could mean "get him out of here before he drives me crazy."

7:00am. Feeding time again. When I went down this morning, I found Green Collar black boy totally out of the puppy area. He climbed over the barricade and was sleeping in an open crate with Seger. Needless to say, he wasn't hungry for breakfast!

This time I move them to the Shark Cage, so I can clean up and mop the puppy room. Yesterday I did take the whelping box out and scrubbed it down for storage. Since they aren't going to use it, I gave them the extra room. I'll show pictures of the puppy room later when it is cleaned up and dry. I have started to add some things to it. I don't put everything in at once. The idea is to introduce new things all the time. You will see some non toy items that become toys. Plastic soda jugs, plastic containers. An Oatmeal cylinder. (no shoes though!)

A lot of people make the mistake of giving a pup old shoes to play with. Well, a pup is not going to notice the difference between the old tennis shoe you gave him, and your $400 Prada pumps. Same goes for socks. Yea, Socks are much cheaper, but imagine your walking to the kitchen late at night in your sock feet.... young puppy sees his favorite toy moving across the kitchen floor, and ambushes your poor feet with those sharp puppy teeth! Hey, you gave him socks to play with remember!

Teach it what is and isn't chewable. The single most effective way to do this is by having a ready supply of chewable items and toys on hand. When the puppy starts to chew on an unacceptable item (be it a chair, rug, or human hand), remove the item from the puppy's mouth with a stern, "NO!" and replace it with a chew toy and praise the puppy for playing with the toy. If you are consistent about this, the puppy will get the idea that only the things you give it are to be chewed on! Don't stint on the praise, and keep the "No!" to a single calm, sharp noise -- don't yell or scream the word.