Snow Dog

Pocket went dashing in the snow in December!  Woohoo!

Winter Holidays

 The winter holidays break up the gloomy, wet winter days and remind us to be thankful of the important things in life.

5-generation photo

For Thanksgiving, we traveled north to share a few days with Sandy and Jim (Grannie and Gandpa to the dogs).  We enjoyed a few restful days, some yummy meals and shared time working on a jigsaw puzzle.  We also got a 5-generation photo of the dogs.

Front row left to right: Sabrina, Delta, Beatle
Back row left to right: Ready, Chili, Stoker and Ecko

15-1/2 year old Sabrina is mother to Chili and Beatle (they are half-sisters).  Ready is Beatle's grandson.  Chili is mother to Stoker, who is mother to Ecko, who is mother to Delta...

What fun to get them all in one photo.  Thanks Jim for the great photo.

Delta, Stoker, Ecko and Chili wish you a Merry Christmas!

After leaving "Camp", we headed north for a quick photo session with Nancy Gaffney.  Nancy does a fabulous job and managed to get some great shots despite the fact that Delta would not stay, Stoker insisted on barking the entire time and Ecko was getting worried by the chaos and kept exiting the scene.  We got some pics with us in them too, but think the dogs are more photogenic than their humans.

Tis the Season

Atlas oversees the holiday decorations.

Weekend in Florence

Delta blasting with Uncle Cooper.

 Delta and I went to Florence for the weekend with my friend Julie and her dogs Cooper (Delta's Uncle) and Tsuzi.  

We stopped by a lake on the way south to see if it might work as a water trial site.  The dogs had fun blasting around while we took photos and walked the shore of the lake.

We arrived at our friend Ginny's house in the early afternoon.  Delta's Uncle Reef lives with Ginny.  After a quick break, we drove to the "Old Town" area of Florence where we walked around on the docks a little and did some window shopping.  We got lucky with a bit of sunny weather and it was good socialization for the puppy.

Now that's a BIG anchor!

We headed back to the house and spent a couple of hours Saturday night and Sunday morning inventorying and re-boxing the PWDCA Club archives before reluctantly leaving Ginny and Dick's hospitality for the drive home.

Cooper thinks this buoy ball is a bit large for PWDCA water trial work.

Is this what they mean by "dock dogs"?

A visit from Pocket

Pocket is staying with us for a week and he settled right in and has been a delightful guest.
I added these photos and some others to the "rockets launched" album on the sidebar too...

Pocket 6.5 months - Look at that face...

I asked him to sit.  He felt the need to talk back.

Pocket posing.

Pocket

Delta in the foreground and Pocket on the right.

The counter-surfing gene...

...clearly Pocket has inherited it!

My brother my friend

Redstone and Pocket

A brother is a friend given by Nature.  ~ Jean Baptiste Legouve

Well, brothers may not always be friends, but fortunately Pocket and Redstone are.  Their families are friends also and "the boys" get together to wrestle and play frequently.  This moment was captured when "they finally wore down for a photo".

Siblings enjoy summer

Redstone

Redstone is visiting with us for a few days and I've been trying to get some cute pics of the puppies playing in the back yard.  They are not cooperating...  There are the best I've gotten so far.

Redstone

Delta

Double Trouble (Redstone and Delta)

 

 

 

 

Pups out and about...

Lani loves her older "sister" Squid

Atlas being naughty

Atlas mugging for the camera

Delta asks: "Does the camera-man have cookies?"

Delta leaping branches along the river bank.

Lani

Nancy sent this cute photo of Lani (Juno).  She looks so self-contained sitting in the greenery.

Bratty puppy!

Building Them Up

I saw a quote on Facebook a while ago that I really liked. It was a quote about raising children, but I thought it applied nicely to raising puppies too!  The quote is:

 "It's easier to build up a child than to repair an adult. Your words and actions have power in your child's life, use them wisely.” 

I imagine the quote might have been based on this one:

“It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.” 

― Frederick Douglass 

I think and hope that all of Ecko's puppies are off to a strong and supportive start.

Delta's First Swim

Rocket Launch - Success

Other than some lost sleep as the pups got used to sleeping in crates during the night and few comments regarding those deadly teeth (ouch!), the Rocket pups are all getting great reports.

I've added an album link titled "The Rockets - Launched" to the sidebar of the blog and I'll continue to add photos to it as you send them.

Here is a belated photo of the last puppy launching for her new home.

Loki heads off to her new home with David and Sharon and their daughter Justine

Justine giving Loki (now Luna) a quick brushing at the park

Carver and Redstone taking a nap

Two "puppies" exploring the tide pools - Atlas

Rocket Launch

The rockets are all launching to their forever destinations with their new families.  Juno and Redstone went home on Friday.

Yesterday, Titan and Scout left for home.  Loki and Atlas' families came for a visit and are taking their babies home today.  I posted a few more photos in the album this morning.

Titan with his new family.  Titan is now "Pocket"

Scout with her new family.  Scout is now "Skipper"

Atlas with his new family.  No they are not taking me with them...

And then there were two.  Loki and Delta taking a nap together.

Heading Home...

I posted a few new pics this morning in a new album on the sidebar.

The first two pups went home last night.  I wonder how much sleep Juno and Redstone's new families got?  It's bittersweet letting them go, but we know they will be loved in their new homes and it was time for them to move on....

We are overflowing our little beds...

We want to explore the world outside our window...

 We are heading home with our new families...

Juno heads home with Nancy and Jerry

Redstone heads home with Chad, Tricia and Carver

Eventful Weeks

Seems like every minute is full of things to do these days and last week was a blur of activity.

Learning to go up...

On Monday (14th), I loaded the boy puppies in the car when Stoker and I went to agility class.  I set a pen up for them alongside the arena and they got to visit with my agility classmates.  This was good practice for car rides and, other than a small amount of howling in the car, everyone did well (no pooping or vomit during the car ride).

On Tuesday afternoon (15th), Maquah's "Mom", Elaine, flew in from California.  She spent the day at the house Wednesday getting to know the puppies while Jan and I were at work.

On Thursday (17th), we loaded the pups up and headed for Pat Hasting's house in Aloha.  Pat is renowned for her "puppy puzzle" litter evaluation techniques and evaluated the pups for structure.  We were pleased with the results from Pat and always learn a lot when we visit her.  Elaine got an autographed copy of one of Pat's books and we put the pups back in the car and took them home for lunch and a romp on the patio.

In the afternoon, we loaded the babies up again and took them to the vet for their first vaccination and microchipping.  Everyone checked out well at the vet and we got comments on how social the pups are.  They REALLY like people!

Learning to go down...

Elaine left to head back to California on Thursday evening.

Friday was uneventful, but the puppies had lots of visitors again over the weekend.

This Monday (21st) Great-Granny Chili and I took the girl puppies with us to agility class.

Yesterday (Thursday the 24th) all the pups went to the eye vet for an eye exam.  They checked out just fine, as expected.  

It's really fun to share the puppies with everyone and it is extremely good socialization for them.  They are getting stronger, more confident and more active seemingly by the minute and it is harder to keep up with them.  It's a good thing they are heading for their new homes this weekend!


We've continued to load pics on the flickr albums linked on the sidebar of the blog, although we do have some we haven't uploaded yet.  We'll post "going home" pics as the pups leave this weekend.

New Pics and Favorite Pups

Balancing Act

We added pics to the two most recent albums today.  Links to the albums are on the sidebar to the right.

You'll see the pups balancing on and walking along a plank in several of the photos (including the one to the right).  This was something Scott and Jan made to stand on when they were working on the siding for the house, but I thought the pups would like to climb around on it.  They did.  They enjoy and explore almost any new object you put in with them.  I bought them several new toys the other day and they already "killed" the squeaker in the little squeaky pig toy.

Do we have "favorite" pups?  You might think so based on the photos.    We don't consciously focus on any puppy in particular but just look for cute photo opportunities.  Maybe these are the pups that are most active during the time the camera is in our hands?  Maybe they are going through behavioral phases at a slightly different rate with ebbs and surges in how busy and active they are?

Ecko Playing with and Schooling the pups

Outdoor Dining

What 6.5 week old puppies can do to a chicken wing.

The Rule of Sevens

~~ The Rule of Sevens ~~
By the time a puppy is 7 weeks old it should have....

..

• Been on 7 different surfaces.

The Rocket pups have been on carpet, tile, newspaper, concrete, dirt, barkdust, grass, laminate, wood...

• Played with 7 different types of objects.

They have played with fabric toys, rope toys, water bottle, milk jug, plastic ball, ricotta cheese container...

• Been in 7 different locations.

Living room, family room, kitchen, dining room, patio, grassy yard...

• Been exposed to 7 challenges.

They been on the tippy board, in the tunnel, gone in/out a doorway with a step, played with water in a shallow tray...

• Eaten from 7 different containers.

Pie pans, metal bowls, metal muffin pan. paper bowls, glass bowl, glass plate...

• Eaten in 7 different locations.

Whelping box, pen, patio...  (need to add more here this week)

• Met and played with 7 new people.

They have met WAY more than 7 new people!  

When your puppy goes home with you taking him to new locations, and exposing him to new challenges and new people will be extremely important for the first year or so you have him.  You will need to continue what we have started.

Temper, Temper!

The puppies all have good lungs and strong opinions.  When they want something, they think either Mama Ecko or whatever human is handy should deliver it immediately.  It is very tempting to scoop the little devils up and entertain them when they are screaming because they want out of the pen to visit with us but we have been refraining in an effort to teach them that such behavior does NOT get rewarded and have the desired results.  Be sure your volume is on when you view this clip.  BTW, while Atlas stars in this little video, all the pups know how to howl.

Socialization Period

I am too lazy (and too busy sniffling and sneezing with allergies) to re-type my previous blog entry from 4 years ago on this, so here is a link to the entry from the litter Ecko was born into:
http://lookoutpwd.blogspot.com/2008/01/socialization-period-5-16-weeks.html

I'll be adding more pics to the last album and adding a new 36 - 42 days album sometime later today.

The Bumble Ball

The puppies were quite brave when introduced to the Bumble Ball, especially Titan and Atlas.

In other news, Jan is watching NOVA and they just showed footage of the Atlas 5 Solar Satellite blasting off.

Rocket Fuel

 An army marches on its stomach.
This quote from Napoleon Bonaparte also applies to puppies!

The rocket pups would still prefer to get all their fuel from Mama Ecko, but they need to branch out and start eating other things.  Ecko is getting quite svelte despite feeding her every 3 hours or so around the clock.  She still wants to clean the pups pen and feed them, but makes her visits at much longer intervals than before.  Those teeth have to hurt when they nurse.

Our first effort in feeding them some semi-solid food was to soften and blend some grain free dog kibble with puppy formula.  They ate some, but obviously weren't excited about it.  I can't say I blame them - it doesn't even smell terribly appetizing and it looks downright yucky.

Titan (left) was especially interested in the chicken wing.

We feed our dogs a raw diet (raw meat and veggies), so we next gave them some raw chicken wings to investigate.  While they are too little to actually eat the wings that our adult dogs crunch up with ease, they were quite excited about the smell and taste of the chicken and actually managed to eat a bit of it.  Yum!  Chewing on meaty bones is great for helping to cut puppy teeth and also develop solid jaw and neck muscles.

The pups favorite gourmet meal so far is chicken (whole chicken cooked in pressure cooker) blended in the blender with chicken broth and mixed with some canned pumpkin.  This still looks pretty yucky to me, but smells quite good.  The pups are very enthusiastic about it and have good stools eating it.

They'll gradually transition to solid food in the next few weeks.

One of the pups sleeping in their little fabric house.

Sunny Sunday Pupdate

Great-Granny Chili is still the cutest retriever ever!

The puppies had their 4th week birthday on Friday and officially entered the "Second Awareness/Identification Period" (28-35 days)
Information from "Behavioral Development of Puppies" an article by Kathryn Lanam:
During this week, play behavior becomes much more sophisticated including growling, chasing and "kill" games. Distance perception is much improved. Puppies need physical and mental challenges--things to move, chew on, climb on and carry and tug toys to share with littermates. Play helps develop strength, agility, coordination and skills to function as an adult. Puppies raised in environments lacking challenges are more likely to develop into fearful, less successful adults.
More time should be spent individually with each puppy, observing the puppy's behavior when taken to a strange place. Behavioral characteristics will begin to be very different when the puppy is with its littermates than when it is by itself. Separating each puppy from the litter for increasingly longer periods of time will teach the puppy independence, prevent separation anxiety problems later in life and will encourage bonding and acceptance of humans.

So what's new?

Scout and Titan safe at Jan's feet

• The puppies moved to a bigger pen on Friday night. They are now in the dining room and have about twice as much space as before.
• The puppies have experienced a new interactive toy in the form of a child's keyboard that either plays a tune or makes farm animal noises when stepped on.  They have a footstool in their area at the moment and have crawled under and put their paws up on it to explore it.  They have a small kennel in their area with the door removed and have explored it and sometimes sleep in it.  We are adding a cardboard tunnel for them to climb through this afternoon and will add a "tippy board" in the next few days.
• The are playing with and noticing toys more now.
• The pups had two sets of visitors on Saturday and are expecting more today.
• They spent about an hour on the patio in the sunshine today.



Granny Stoker makes her opinions known.



The puppies liked the Chair Cave

• They ate their first "real" food - grain-free kibble blended into mush with the formula we have been supplementing them with. 

Never a dull moment with these little guys!