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!

Puppies' personalities start to emerge

We have been spending a lot of time with puppies. Watching them is good for my soul. In this world filled with tragedy and sad news, this is the best therapy you can have!

Yesterday puppies went for their first car drive. Also they spent their first night outside in our shed. They basically outgrew my den, and this time we have avoided setting up a pen filled with wood chips. Now, almost at six weeks they are ready for a more advanced set up, which was described here. One of the dog houses in the shed is heated and we turned the heat on as last night temperature dipped to low 40s. Around midnight Mielikki insisted that she needed to be with them so we let her do it. As it turned out she chewed off one of the puppy collars so I don't think we will let her spend another night with them. She continues to be just an extraordinary mom and still insists on cleaning them. Their diet now is part solid food and part Mielikki.

Another day, another playmate.

Uschi is an adorable puppy with a really easy going and quiet personality (at least so far). She is going to have the softest coat of all the pups.

Uma seems to be the most enterprising puppy in this litter and has a knack for getting into trouble! Some of her adventures are a little scary but she does not seem to be affected by any of it.

Uta is the smallest pup but she might be the biggest bully, at least this is what I have been told by some people who have played with the pups. Yesterday she had Urho, the largest pup, on his back and was not letting go. When she wants to be picked up she just comes to you and lets you know - pick me up NOW! What a character!

Playing on the tarp was fun. Pups did not hesitate to explore.

Coming back from a walk. Tired puppies are good puppies.

New experiences for the rapidly developing puppies

We are in the middle of puppies' 6th week of life. This is when they experience many situations and things for the first time. Actually they crave new experiences and we are happy to oblige.

Puppies now have "regular" collars and these are their colors:
Urho blue
Uncas red
Ursula dark green
Uta lime
Uma beige
Uschi pink
Utah orange

Now they are very mobile and can move pretty fast. They love to explore outside their pen.

We make sure that they are handled by various people and have a busy social life. In the last three days they played with three different people. The two pics show our friend Steve, who lives 20 minutes from us. He has mini wires and knows very well how to talk to dogs.

To release puppies' prey drive we started them on a drag of old deer hide. It was a very stinky piece and puppies loved the smell. They followed it with gusto, licked and bit it and tried to shake it. So far they have showed good instincts.

Puppies were also exposed to the shallow water. They were curious about it and investigated it.

We really like what we see in the pups. They are outgoing and intelligent, nose oriented. They will be staying here for five more weeks and will get to know them better on the individual basis. Their personalities start to emerge, that's for sure.

Video of Mielikki's five-week-old puppies

Apparently we have gotten ten inches of rain in the last couple of weeks. Well, it was raining today again. As you can see in the video puppies had a lot of fun in our kitchen/dining area. The background music was entertaining and included some rain forest birds.

We started to supplement pups with some extra food, but Mielikki still insists on cleaning them. I have never seen such a clean freak canine mom! Also, she loves to play with her pups, and she started to let them know that some toys such as her ball are off-limits. But she does it gently and never growls or snaps at the pups.

Enriched environment is very important for the development of young puppies

When weather allows it puppies spend part of their days in a pen on our front lawn. We try to provide enriched environment for them so they are exposed to new smells, sounds and objects. When you look what is inside the pen, you'll see in addition to regular toys and beds a cardboard box, aluminium tray with water, rubber mat, apple, cast iron and rubber boot scrapers, crate etc. But the puppies are still very young babies so they spend most of their time just sleeping. On Sunday our friends dropped by to play with the pups but pups were asleep for almost the whole duration of the visit!