June 17 Pupdate

The babydogs are 6 weeks old tonight. Right now they are sleeping really hard. I still cannot get over how much difference there is between asleep and awake. They were such live wires out in the dog yard this evening. I think we have some definite potential as agility dogs and for water work. We haven’t worked on obedience yet ;-)

Indy’s Cindi and Frances came over to help socialize the puppies and play, play, play. The pupadoos had had dinner and a little snooze so they were happy to play. Up and down off of the decking at full speed – they do not always bother going over to the edge where it is not much of a drop. They played with each other, the people, the toys, the big dogs and everything else they encountered. There is an area in toward the back edge of the yard that is pretty steep where the pool addition is. They really enjoy going up and down that section. Since the yard gradually slopes up to the dam, it is not all steep there but they really enjoy going up and down as steep as they can manage even though it takes some work.

And all 6 puppies took the outside time as an opportunity to poop out in the grass. Indiy’s Cindi was flinging the puppy poop (I don’t bag it, I use disposable gloves and fling it up on the hillside where only the wildlife generally goes) and reported that it was all good poop. To dog people, such things matter and are a source of much conversation. So far, none of them seem to be walking poopers like the last litter. This is a source of great joy to us.

After one of their daytime meals, Green Bela was pitching an absolute hissy fit - standing on her hind legs at the gate, crying and fussing like they occasionally do when you walk by and they want to be picked up or otherwise played with but nobody was near her. She kept it up for a few moments so I went over and picked her up and took her outside just in case. Sure enough, the little bitch wanted to go outside to potty. She immediately did an abbreviated potty dance and pooped. I can’t believe puppies this young are already doing that. They aren’t nearly as fastidious about peeing yet but that happens a lot more often.

The change in puppy breath has definitely brought on some lessons in how to interact from Jill and Doodlebug. SammieDoodle is more likely to play with them (sometimes under Jill’s supervision but not always as Jill seems to trust her – and me - to know what to do) but she does require a new minimum level of behavior from them. They respond immediately by dropping to the ground and sometimes rolling over but the Doodlebug isn’t asking for that as much as Jill does. Of course, they aren’t really trying to nurse on Sammie like they are Jill.

Bruce did some calling of the magic word with me while they ate this evening. I want them to hear it from a lot of different voices so it helps to imprint on them. Unfortunately, I think it is breaking the magic word for SammieDoodle a little. Jack still tries to come running whenever he hears it but Sammie has decided she’s not being called. I’ll have to reinforce it for her by herself some and definitely after she leaves. Let this be a lesson to any of you future puppy owners reading this not to use it without heavy reinforcement unless in an emergency (and then reinforce it as soon as possible and work on it more before the next emergency.) Fortunately, we haven’t had any emergencies with the Doodlebug lately.

If we have a weight watchers meeting, it will be after the blog is already posted. It may not happen until tomorrow. Another day has flown by and they are another day closer to leaving me. Where are those fudgesicles? I am going to need a lot of them, I can already tell. It’s a little early to cry myself to sleep about it so I’ll just go take care of puppy bedtime prep and sleep puppy breath dreams. Puppy breath dreams to all of you as well.