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!

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' socialization with other dogs

Puppies get some raw chicken necks now as part of their diet. Most of the pups have well developed teeth and given time they can crunch the necks up.

The pic below shows puppies with our Bernie. He is a 7.5 year-old neutered male, who helped raise a lot of litters. Bernie is perfect for this job and it is his role in the family. He is not as permissive as Mielikki (she lets pups get away with murder), but is also very stable and reliable. 

Pups had a really nice day today: socialization with adult dogs, a long walk in the field and individual work on a deer liver drag. We were really pleased with what we saw.

Puppies' first taste of deer liver

Puppies interact with their older brother Sky

Tomorrow pups will be seven weeks old so we will weigh them. We started to feed them individually as some of them were getting too heavy. I suspect that especially Thor was getting more than his share of food. We feed them in crates, to which they need to get used to, but they are not too happy about it.

They met Sky today, who was very gentle with them. I was very impressed by Sky's manners around the pups. Well, after all he is the pup's older brother.

Pups spend their nights in the whelping box, which is attached to the pen with wood chips. During the day they come to the kitchen and dining area, when we are there. They also spend part of their day outside - in a puppy yard, which is attached to a shed. They go for walks, they socialize with visitors and our older dogs. And of course, we started them on liver drags.

Tarah is still the smallest. She is an extremely social puppy; quite vocal. She needs a lot of attention and interaction.

Sky is inspecting Thor, who submits completely.



Tuesday with Sky

Summer working a liver drag

It has been a while since we had time for puppy training. So today while John was tracking, I had Summer on a liver drag, which was probably 150 yard long and aged an hour and a half. Summer is a high-spirited, fast working puppy, and we still don't know whether we are going to keep her in a long run. But today she has showed her best work yet. Actually it looks like she is ready for an older line. Also it is time to start working her on a leash!

Dubya goes for a first swim

When Matt and Jenny were here they asked whether pups had started to swim. This August and September we got so much rain that our pond was overflowing. There was no easy entry into the water so even though pups were going for frequent walks around the pond they never really got to swim the way pups from 2010 did.

Yesterday Matt sent us this nice update on Strut aka Dubya:

Dubya had a busy weekend. He spent time at two of our family's farms and a family get together that served as a send off for Jenny's cousin to an overseas posting. Dubya saw lots of people including some kids of all ages at the gathering. He was excited to see the kids. He also did liver drags and went for his first swim!

The first two pics are of Dubya on a liver drag this weekend. The first is of Dubya on the track and the second is of Dubya with his "prize" at the end. The conditions were very dry and windy with blowing leaves, this line was 1 hr old and about 50 yards with three gentle curves. He ran it with an incredible amount of precision and stayed very focused despite the blowing leaves, they usually provide a distraction he has trouble overcoming.

 

The next couple pictures are of Dubya's trip to the water. He was very hesitant at first which you will see in the the third photo. All of the sudden he jumped in and started swimming. It scared the heck out of me, I had to compose myself to get a photo! His head never went underwater and he looked like a natural, the fourth picture is of him swimming. He seemed to really enjoy the water!

 

 

Pups turn eight weeks old

Today it was raining almost all day  so pups spent some time indoors. We introduced them to raw turkey necks, and oh boy, they acted like little piranhas.

Tomorrow pups are going to be eight weeks old. Yesterday they worked a fresh liver drag and all of them were really good.We are very happy with this litter.