Video of eight-week-old puppies having fun in the pond

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.

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!

 

 

The best picture of swimming puppies

Well, some would call it a complete waste of time, but I was very curious how other puppies would respond to the water.  I took additional two groups of pups to the pond. In the first group Ranger and Quipster proved to be very good swimmers. Even though Ranger was the first who went to the water, he was also the first to come out. Quipster was a natural - the way she navigated and made turns reminded me of Paika from a year ago. Then I took a group of three - Queenie, Geiko and Rilla. They were a bit reluctant at first so I took them on a walk around the pond. When I almost completed a circle I crossed the pond where the water was pretty shallow and very warm. They followed and swam across. The picture shows Queenie in the front, then Geiko, and Rilla.

Queenie, Geiko and Rilla swimming across the pond

Puppies swim for the first time

It is hard to believe that Keena's puppies are already nine and a half weeks old. The summer days go really fast, and this coming weekend first puppy will go to her new home. Days continue to be hot so blood tracking conditioning takes place in the morning and evening. Now pups are worked one at a time.

Today I took Bernie and two groups of two pups to the pond to see whether his love of water would lure pups to wet their feet. As it turned out puppies did not pay much attention to Bernie, but they watched very closely what I was doing. When I took few steps into the pond they followed. They are very trusting at this age and are willing to try unknown things. Of the four pups, three swam on their own will - Quanta, Questa and Quint. Quella (orange) stood and watched but was not willing to join us. This was very interesting because Quella is a very curious and enterprising puppy. She is doing an outstanding job in her blood tracking training but she has an independent streak. When on walks she just does not follow us in a straight line like many other pups do, but she investigates and takes short trips to the side.