The Transitional Period

This information is from an article written by Kathryn Lanam

Transitional Period (14-21 days)

This period starts when the eyes are open and ends when the puppy first "startles" on hearing a noise. This week is characterized by the rapid development of motor skills, the ability to eliminate on its own, the onset of usable vision (by 18-21 days), the initial emergence of teeth, and the development of hearing - first evidenced by the startle response - although still unable to locate the source of the sound. The puppies move around a lot more, can now move backwards as well as forward and begin to walk instead of crawl, may start to lap liquids, and will begin to leave the nest to eliminate. Tail wagging begins even before developing functional sight and hearing ability, the first teeth erupt around 20 days and vocalizations become more specialized. They begin to show interest in their littermates - pawing at each other's face and chewing on each other.

This is the time to begin increased individual attention by the breeder. Toys and other visual objects should be added to the box and puppies could be moved to the kitchen or other busy part of the house. Puppies should be placed on a new surface for a minute once a day. In this short week of life, the puppy rapidly changes from the inability to hear, see and walk or eliminate without stimulation into a puppy that can now do all of these things - enormous steps in the puppy's life.