V-puppies are nine weeks old

The last two weeks went by so quickly! Puppies continue to do really well. 

During the day they stay in a much larger pen where they have several dog houses, dog beds and a lot of toys. The pen is attached to a shed, where pups can go to when the weather is bad. During thunderstorms we bring them to the house, and they spend their nights downstairs in their whelping box and pen filled with wood chips.

This PVC  pipe has been a great hit with puppies. Pups play a hide-and-seek there, run through it and sometimes take a nap inside.

Vincent loves the pipe!

We started to take pups for longer walks to the pond. They are not too eager to go to the water but they have no fear to run onto the dock.

Their diet is varied. They eat four times a day, dry kibble, canned food and raw diet.

Pups spend quite a bit of time with us, in the kitchen, when we have meals. They are really people-oriented, sweet creatures.

At eight weeks puppies were examined by Dr. Rebecca Kryzak of Cottonwood Veterinary Services.

We try to give puppies many opportunities to be exposed to new situations and be handled by people. These pictures show Janice and her husband Butch.

Dan and Debbie came to play with the puppies as well. There are no shy or timid puppies in this litter.

Yesterday, June 12, we worked with pups on fresh liver drags. Today we had a lot of rain and were surprised to see that when puppies were let out on the lawn this evening they reworked the liver drag from 24 hours ago. We thought they would not be able to smell it. The flags were still in the ground so we could see they they followed the line, made a check and got to the end of the line. All this was in a good working style. Oh, how we underestimate our dogs' noses!

Pups continue to be exposed to other dogs. Here Tuesday and Tommy have s pousal disagreement in front of their offspring :-)

Kunox is a good playmate. Run Vonnie, run!

The seventh week in puppies' life

Tommy and Tuesday's puppies continue to develop well. They have had a very busy week. In the house they continue to sleep in their whelping box, which now is their bed. They go to bathroom in the large pen filled with wood chips. This setup males for easy cleaning. Tuesday decided that their teeth are too sharp now and stopped jumping into their pen. She loves her puppies and  she craves a close contact with them. She always wants to know where they are. But for now we are keeping them pretty much separated so she stops producing milk. 

The two pictures above show Tuesday watching her puppies while they are in their pen. The next one shows her trying to get away from the pups who still try to get a sip of milk.

During the day, when the weather allows, pups stay in a large pen outdoors. They have a variety of beds, a crate and a lot of toys there. We try to change them all the time so they do not get bored. Of course, they have each other and now they play hard.

We filled this shallow plastic and let the pups wet their feet in the water. Only Vonnie figured out quickly that if she grabs the string, she actually does not have to go all the way to get the ball. This is a the most adventurous and enterprising puppy.

We hang several toys from the tree branch above the pen, and the duck was the biggest hit.

The sweetest puppy in the litter is Vincent, who is very cuddly and affectionate.

Pups started to go for walks, and the picture below shows John who is trying to be very careful and not to step on any of them. They do have a real talent to get under our feet.

We also started to take pups for short rides. This picture was taken during their first short trip, and the pups were not impressed. Today (May 30) they were much better and more relaxed.

We also let pups regular contact with our adult dogs. This picture shows Tommy, who met them for the first time almost a week ago. He was very good with them. Even though he is a high energy dog, he adjusted his behavior and was very gentle with the pups.

Pups also met other males, Kunox and Bernie.

Puppies have learned recently about stairs and steps, and you can see a short video here.

During our meals pups are with us in the kitchen, and this picture shows them snoozing after their mid-morning snack of apples. Their diet is very diversified and includes raw mix of meat and veggies, goat milk, canned food and dry kibble.

They are agile and fast, and the next three weeks will be a lot of fun for us while we will continue working with them.

Puppies are weaned almost completely

Unfortunately it has been a while since my last post on puppies. I left for the United Blood Trackers Trackfest in North Carolina a week ago and got back home on Tuesday. 

So let's go back to the time when puppies turned 4 weeks old. In wirehaired dachshunds there is a correlation between the timing of teeth emergence and texture of coat. Usually the pups who get their teeth first will have a shorter coat. The once who get their teeth as last ones will have softer and fuller coats. The pictures below show teeth of three pups. Vivica and Vonnie will have shorter, harsher coats than Volt. Viola and Vincent will have rather soft and full coats.

Pups spend part of their day outside in a pen, where we put a crate and plenty of toys to keep them occupied. They started to use the crate right away, and it is a good start to crate training. A crate is the best tool for housebreaking puppies, but this task will be left to the pups' new owners.

In the fifth week puppies were making a gradual transition to solid food, but occasionally Tuesday would let them nurse. Now this is not a pleasant experience for her as pups' teeth are sharp like needles.

During the night and when the weather is rainy puppies stay in the house in this pen. The whelping bed serves as their bed now, which they avoid to soil. There is a large pen attached to the whelping box, which is filled with wood chips. Puppies figured out pretty quickly that this is their bathroom now. This is a great start to their housebreaking as instinctively they choose to go to bathroom as far from their bed as possible.

Puppies started to meet new people now and when I was away they had a nice play session with our friends Dan and Faith. Yesterday we had visitors from Florida, Joanna and Lorin. Joanna, who is a vet, fell in love with our dachshunds (she knew them from our website) and really wanted to see them. It was very good for the pups to be handled by strangers, and after half an hour of playing they just fell asleep in the people's laps. Vonnie and Vivica lost their collars so it is not obvious from the pics who is who but we know.

It is always a great relief for a breeder to see both testicles down in male puppies. This is the case with Volt and Vincent  BTW, Vonnie started to get out of the pen, but we have not figured out how she does it. She is a smart cookie.