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!

Eight-week-old puppies get examined by a vet

The last week was very busy as our friends from Wisconsin, Larry Gohlke and Cheri Faust, visited us here. They stayed with us from Thursday to Monday, and puppies benefited from the visit enormously. Larry and Cheri believe, just like we do, in early conditioning and training, so every day puppies tracked, swam, played and socialized. It was a lot of fun!

All the pups got accustomed to the water but some like to swim more than the others. This is Uncas.

Puppies played a lot on our dock.

Cheri is very good with puppies and it was great to have her here.

It is so easy to fall in love with a puppy.

"Hot" dogs were dipped by Larry

On Monday Dr. Rebecca Kryzak from Cottonwood Creek Veterinary Services came to examine puppies. It is great to have access to a vet who makes house calls. The picture shows puppies waiting for their turn.

First walk in the woods for Mielikki's puppies

This is a short video shot yesterday during puppies' first walk in the woods. They did very well. Their motivation to follow Mielikki was very high as they wanted to get a drink of her milk. On purpose we took them through some difficult terrain so they had to do some physical and mental work. As you see, we don't baby our puppies. We expect them to be resourceful and resilient. Even Uta, who is still the smallest puppy in the litter, showed how tough and smart she is.



How we raise puppies to be successful blood tracking dogs

We have been so busy working with puppies that we have not had much time for posting reports about all the activities. Puppies turned seven weeks old on Friday, and they are a lot of fun. We usually manage to post individual pictures and videos on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/borntotrack

Puppies have been exploring a lot. They are showing interest in holes created by other dogs and they do some digging on their own.

The dachshund breed was first developed to hunt foxes and badgers in their dens under ground. This meant that they had to be psychologically comfortable in tight, dark  places. The video suggests that our little tracking dogs still think that it's fun to run though a dark tunnel.

We take pups on walks to the pond, but we have had a lot of rain and the water is deep. It is fine for Mielikki but pups have second thoughts about swimming.

We have been working pups on deer liver drags and we will post about it on our main blog at http://borntotracknews.blogspot.com/. Make sure you check it out.

The picture shows Ursula at the end of the track. We use large pieces of liver that cannot be swallowed. Liver contains a lot of vitamin A, which in excess is toxic, so while we use deer liver for training purposes we actually do not let pups ingest too much of it.

Puppies continue to be socialized with people. Our friend Dan dropped by on Sunday to play with them. This week pups are going to meet new people as our friends are coming over for the July 4 celebrations and are going to stay for a couple of days..

Today pups went to the woods for the first time, and they were learning how to navigate obstacles and difficult cover. We want them to be accustomed to the outdoors and be comfortable in the woods. After all they are going to be tracking dogs!

Pups get a veterinary checkup

Just like last year, we arranged for a home visit by Cottonwood Creek Veterinary Services to examine the pups. So far the pups ahve been dewormed three times. Yesterday we vaccinated puppies  with Proguard 5, but we also wanted their hearts to be checked out.

Tuesday and Thor

Thor and Theo

Tarah

Tarah being examined by Dr. Kryzak

Puppies continue their intro to tracking by following liver drags.

Play fighting and learning bite inhibition

I will not be posting puppy updates until Tuesday as I will be away at field trials in New Jersey. Hence so many pictures being posted on Friday.

Puppies are doing great, and it is going to be hard to decide who is going where as this litter is so uniform. Right now there is a lot of play fighting going on in the pack, and it is a completely normal process.

Blue male

Green male

 

Green male