March 23, 2015 3 Weeks Old!

March 23, 2015 3 Weeks Old!
The puppies celebrated their 3 week with assorted bursts of puppy activity and a lot of sleeping. They had a few bar crawls, their mama keeps moving the bar around, sometimes in the middle of a feeding.
They intereact with very definite intentions, even if their chosen playmate is still asleep. Sometimes, the other puppy will awaken, sometimes not. As I type, Bizzy barked and walked across the pen (with her tail up and wagging) to her brother Green Hornet. He wasn't awake so she did some growly biting and actually got a pretty decent grip on his ear with her gums which she followed with a wallowing. He woke up and they are playing a lying on their side wrestling, paw slapping, bitey mouth game. After about 2 minutes, they and one of their nearby siblings have piled up for a nap. And yes, the poor puppies do get to play some when I am not touching them but if I want to know exactly what's going on, I have to stick my hand in there.
I plan to introduce the alfalfa pellet litter area tomorrow night or Wed. (It depends on when I get an appropriate box lid) Let the puppy brainwashing begin! I've already been giving them an area without the fleece where I plan to put the potty pan and they often (but not always) make an effort to go there to potty. It was on 3 sides of the pen (I never do it in the front because I don't want them to get used to standing where they potty and the front is where they come to see people) and now it is just on the back and the side away from the door Bela will use when they are too big for the ferret ex pen to contain them. The alfalfa pellets smell more like grass (the brainwashing) and since they are rabbit food, it won't hurt if they ingest some (they are puppies and PWDs at that, it's a given they will ingest some so I feel better using something food grade)
Mama Bela is absolutely bound and determined to create a den for them under the deck. I blocked off her previous attempt with a planter and she spent some time today working on the area beside it. She likes to go outside and bark at things that may or may not be in the area, including the MSU when he is working outside so I gave her a few minutes (she could come in the dog door at any time, she wasn't locked outside). She tracked dirt all over my floor so I went to see what she'd been doing and found the new hole. I'll have to find something to cover that area since she can obviously move the river rocks that were already there. She seems very proud of her resourcefulness.
Mayor Bumble is currently streaking. His collar was too tight and when I was trying to fix it, his mother decided that she'd 'help.' In ture PWD fashion, she put her big ol head right in the way which got him way too excited to cooperate with me.
In honor of National Puppy Day, we are sending puppy breath to all and saying Nighty, nighty, nighty!