Pupdate

Diver needs a tummy rub.

Miscellaneous goings on:

We intended to trim toenails a few days ago, but did not get to it until last night.  Just trimming puppy nails, that comes to 142 toenails trimmed.  Jan cups them upside down in his hands and shines the headlamp on them, while I trim them with a tiny pair of human nail trimmers while wearing high-powered reading glasses.  Kodi and Delta will get their nail trims today.

There are pros and cons to removing front dewclaws (you can do a search on the internet for this and also a search for what the removal entails).  We usually remove them, but opted not to for this litter, as we didn't want to haul Mom and pups to the vet through the hazarous air conditions resulting from the forest fires.  Yesterday, I suddenly noticed that one of the pups had rear dewclaws.  We've not had rear dewclaws on pups in previous litters, but they are not uncommon in some lines.  In PWDs, these are removed.  After rechecking and determining that only one pup had them, we were able to get a last minute appointment for Reggie to go have her dewclaws removed yesterday.  It is a simple and easy procedure and Reggie was home and back to her usual eating/sleeping routine in under 2 hours.

On their morning weigh-in yesterday, all the pups had achieved or passed the one pound weight mark.

Proprioception is the perception or awareness of the position and movement of the body.  Newborn pups have good proprioception and will readily right themselves if they tumble onto or are placed on their backs.  They cannot back up, see hear or control their body temperature during their first week to ten days.

We are rotating different large soft toys through the box to stimulate the pups.

Reggie snuggles with the Holstein

We are adding early scent introduction to the things we do with our pups.  ESI is said to contribute to a dogs’ successes in hunt tests and field trials, nosework, search and rescue work, obedience, tracking and more.  Pups are introduced to a new scent daily, ideally beginning on Day 3 and ending on Day 16. We're a little behind on beginning this, but will start today.

We maytook some "mug shots" of the puppies yesterday.  We'll try to get one of each of them to upload to the Flickr alnum.

Reggie

Minnie