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!

3 Week Birthday

The pups are beginning the Awareness or Identification Period (21-28 days)
Information from "Behavioral Development of Puppies" an article by Kathryn Lanam:

"By this age sight and hearing is functioning well. A variety of noises (music, radio, bells, vacuums, etc) and sights (change in light level, moving objects and vibrations) should be part of their daily life. This might be the time to move the puppies into the kitchen or other busy part of the house. The puppy must now learn that he is a dog; recognizing its mother, recognizing other species (humans). The puppies will begin "play-fighting" during this week with a loose pecking order starting to form. Barking increases. Puppies still need a very stable environment during this time. Their humans should do a lot of handling, cuddling and pick up the puppies regularly."

The pups are starting to get more vocal. They make little growling and yodeling sounds and little barks.

They are starting to play just a little.

We have a CD with a variety of noises on it (fireworks, kids screaming, traffic noises, machines and tools etc) and will begin playing that to get the pups used to all kinds of sounds.

Here is a short video clip of the pups playing.  Juno (purple) pairs off with Loki, and Atlas (blue) with Redstone (orange).  Atlas gets Delta (yellow) in the game briefly too.

Pups as pillows

Delta using Titan as a pillow

I got several pics today of the pups using each other as pillows.  I've updated the Week 3 album with these and several others.

The puppies can pee on their own now, so tonight we will probably open the whelping box out a bit and put a newspaper area on one side to encourage them to potty away from their bed area.

And I fear it is time for another toenail trim, sigh....

Atlas using Redstone as a pillow

Lazy Sunday

The Easter Bunny seems to have left some eggs for the puppies...

Yesterday was a busy day with yard work, cleaning the house, errands to run, two dogs (Chili and Stoker) bathed and groomed, and a visit from a friend.  Today will be a lazy day, I hope.

A friend of mine mentioned that Walgreens had dog beds on sale for $5, so I got two for the puppies.  They wont really use them for another week or so, but the beds worked well to hold them in while we put a fresh blanket in the bottom of the whelping box.

All the pups eyes are open (first one starting on Thursday), and we will be keeping the lights a bit lower than we had been for the next week or so until they are fully open and responsive. 
They have progressed from crawling to doing a hurky-jerky kind of monster walk.

Next developmental milestone will be ears becoming functional at around 3 weeks.

112 Teeny Tiny Toenails...

That is how many we trimmed tonight when the pups got their first toenail trim.  Two adult humans, bright lighting, tiny human nail trimmers, Jan's reading glasses and some patience were needed to get the wee beasties to cooperate.  Their little dagger toenails were starting to get caught in the carpet in their box and scratch Mama Ecko's tummy.  This will be a weekly occurrence from now until the puppies go home.  Makes my eyes hurt just thinking about it...

While we were trimming nails we noticed that Delta's eyes have just barely started to open.

More Pics Added

Week 2 Pics

Hard working Mama takes a nap.

Puppies (minus Titan) and the rick-rack box

Ecko and Scout share a quiet moment

We'll add more throughout the week and have added a link for the Week 2 pics to the sidebar.

We're starting to settle into a routine.  Jan and I both go to work in the morning leaving Chili, Stoker, Mama Ecko and the pups all penned in the living room.

Fortunately, I have a desk job, work less than 10 minutes from home and work for an awesome company.  I work for a couple of hours in the morning, monitoring Ecko and the pups on the "nanny cam", then I run home to feed Ecko and let her out to potty and check on the pups.  I head back to work for a few more hours in the afternoon...

Ecko spends lots of time with the pups during the day and all through the night, but when her humans are home, she relaxes her vigilance a little and naps on the couch or joins us in the family room if we are watching TV.

In the evenings, we weigh the pups.  They are gaining so consistently now that we will probably cut back on how often we weigh them to just a couple times a week.