Wednesday, July 1, 2009

Observations from the field - puppies are starting to hunt

We are down to four puppies - Grock, Paika, Poppy and Pushkin. It is hard to believe that just three weeks ago there were 15 of them! As you can see the last three weeks have been very, very busy meeting pups' new owners. Within next 12 days two more pups will be leaving.

Yesterday was the first time in a while when I could spend quite a bit of time with the pups. Unfortunately, the weather has not been cooperating. It was way too wet for blood tracking, but I managed to take pups to the pond. They have not been there for a while, and I was surprised at their reaction. It looks like P-pups love the water! Pushkin went in right away in a spot where water is quite deep; he swam away and after a while started to have problems. I had to get into the pond and help him some. Luckily, I did not have camera with me so there was no damage done. Pushkin did not get traumatized, but now he may have second thoughts about swimming so far on his own. Poppy and Paika were swimming too; Grock did not mind to wet his feet but I did not see him going into the deeper water.




In the afternoon we had a huge loud thunderstorm, just when puppies were snoozing in their crates. When the rain stopped and it started to dry, I took them out for a long walk. Once they hit our freshly mowed lawn in front of the house, they put their noses to the ground and started to hunt. There must have been a lot of fresh scent left there by rabbits because the pups clearly were following some scent lines. They are precocious little hunters, that's for sure. When we went to our 11-acre enclosure, it was still very wet and water was dripping. Pups did not mind running into the thick brush, where they got completely wet. Their noses were glued to the ground and if the scent let into dense cover, they were not concerned. This is a good experience for them. All in all a good day in spite of the bad weather.







After the walk we came to the house, where pups dried in the kitchen. I cut two apples for them, which they devoured, and then gave them two more to play with. Grock claimed one of them and almost ate the whole thing.

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