Tommy as a puppy-sitter

Paika has not had any contact with the pups for the last three days as we got serious about weaning them. Next weekend there is a field trial in New Jersey, and I would like to take her along. She is not happy about not being able to be with them but we have no choice. At this age pups certainly are able to be weaned completely. Now they get three meals a day - for breakfast it is raw meat mix, afternoon it is a canned food and in the evening they eat dry kibble. This way they will be able to handle a variety of foods.

Yesterday I asked Tommy (FC Tom vom Linteler-Forst) to spend some time with Paika's puppies. Even though he is three and a half years old, he is still very playful and puppy-like. He was really good with the pups and they had a ball. There was a lot of running, chasing, digging and jumping!

Paika's puppies turn seven weeks old

Anybody who knows John and me well also knows that we don't go gaga over puppies. We both love the process of breeding and raising puppies, but as I said many times "being a cute and pretty puppy" is not good enough for our pups. 

Well... I have to admit that I have fallen completely in love with Paika and Moose's puppies. This is a good looking bunch - all their coats are perfect and it looks like our plan of mating Paika (who is homozygous for the F gene) to Moose (who is smooth out of wires and homozygous recessive ff) has worked very well. This is one of the most uniform litters we have ever had and all five puppies will have perfect wirehaired coats. Pups' heads are very nice and strong with good pigmentation of eyes. They have all their teeth, and the males have their testicles. No umbilical hernias. There is a range of dispositions here with the female being probably most feisty and yellow male most easy going. We will be learning a lot about the pups in the next few weeks. Today they went for an hour long ride  in the country.

Blue male won this standoff over the deer tail.

Blue male is the smallest and weighs 4 3/4 lbs at seven weeks.

Green male is 6 lbs.

Red male is 6 lbs too.

Red male

Pink female is 5 lbs

Green male

Yellow male is 5.5 lbs

Puppies' first walk to the pond

Today is warm but wet - a perfect weather to get puppies run through wet grass and get them to the pond. It was a fun experience for everybody.

Puppies are moved outside

Puppies have outgrown the old lodging arrangement (my den), so for the first time they spent a night outside, on their own. We have a good setup for them, which was described here. When I was preparing the shed for them, I was really surprised how resourceful they were. They were not concerned at all. Very curious and uninhibited  they investigated without showing any fear - climbed into new dog houses, and they also crawled under them. Then they settled in a large house, where I put their blanket and toys. This morning when I went to check on them and opened the shed so they could go into adjacent pen, they were fine. Today it is going to rain so it is a good thing that they can be in a dry shed (if they want to) on wood shavings. Now I'll have a chance to reclaim my working space! Today pups are turning 6 weeks old.

Puppies are learning how to relate to other dogs and people

I have not had time to post in the last few days. I am taking Suzanne Clothier's course CARAT and underestimated amount of time that I had to spend working on the last assignment. So on Monday night I stayed up until 4 AM! It reminded me of how it used to be when I was a graduate student.

We continue to socialize puppies and started to work with them on liver drags. The below pics show their rich social life. So far we could not be happier with the pups!

Puppies met other members of our canine family. I think Tommy was the one who was the happiest playing with them. The picture shows Bella with the pups. She can be rough so when she plays with them, it needs to be done under our supervision.

When the weather is good pups spend a lot of time outside, but we bring them inside when we have meals. They need to be accustomed to the noises of every day life. Here they take a snooze in our kitchen/dining area.

Paika is a very good mom and still spends a lot of time with the pups.

Our neighbors Kevin and Paula brought their kids to play with the pups.

Logan was a big hit with Blue boy.

Mackenzie is high-spirited and the pups loved her.

I have some really good shots of Paula, which show a nurturing side of her character.

Red boy took a liking to Alicia's flip flops.

Puppies at five weeks

Yesterday was a first sunny day in  a long time, and puppies had a chance to be in the sunshine outside. They really enjoyed it. It is important now to spend some time on one-to-one basis with pups. It takes time but this way you can learn much more about the individual pups than when you watch them in a group.
Our neighbors' kids came to visit so puppies had a chance to socialize with them too. Every day pups get exposed to new items to play with - yesterday they got  fresh deer legs, a big cardboard box, and a brick (various textures, smells). They like to investigate and are drawn to new objects. To get more insights about it, I highly recommend Temple Grandin's book "Animal Makes Us Human: Creating the Best Life for Animals". You can read the first chapter online by clicking here.

When I look at these pups it strikes me how uniform this litter is as the pups are very alike in their conformation and body type. Their coats are almost identical. I don't recall having ever had such a litter. Pups' personalities will be different, and I can see the differences emerging now.

When the going gets tough, the tough get going.

In the last few days the weather has not cooperated. We have been getting a lot of rain again, and yesterday we had water in the house...again. I have never seen anything like it in my whole life. Roads are closed in many directions. Two miles from us, the Rte 443 (a major road here) is missing - 6 miles of it got washed away.

Yesterday we were looking forward to Suzanne Clothier's visit as she wanted to come and see the pups. On her way here she got trapped in a parking lot in Cobleskill where a major flooding took place, and she was stuck there for seven hours. Never made it see us. How disappointing and frustrating.

In spite of the poor weather the pups have been expanding their territory. They sleep in my office, but during the day they can move freely downstairs through the hall to the downstairs bathroom and mudroom. They really like running and playing there. Today they had a nice playing session with Bella in the mudroom, and at the same time I had a washing machine and a dryer going there. It was pretty noisy but they did not seem concerned. When they get tired they go on their own back to my office and pile up to sleep in a crate. Pretty amazing that they do that. Paika is not sleeping with them any more, but in the morning she is very anxious to see them. She lets them nurse occasionally, but I also give them solid food about twice a day. Actually they like to crunch her dry food and now their teeth are up to the task.

Playing in the mudroom

Plastic bottles make good toys. Pups thrive on novelty!

Bella was pretty good with pups, and the playing session was beneficial to her and to them.

Bella is a retrieving fanatic.

The process of weaning has started.

Pups are four and a half weeks old and they change with every day. When the weather is good they are outside, and we move them from one pen to another. When inside, they are either in my office or in our kitchen/dining area, where they are being exposed to the sound of tv, dishwasher, fridge etc. They are getting more mobile and now can walk really well. My office is divided with a board so Paika could get away from them if she wanted. Though it is not easy for them, now they can climb over the board, and every morning I find them on the other side than they were left for the night.


This morning they had their first solid meal - raw 'diet" mix of meat, organs, bone and veggies, which we get from Omas Pride. They were very enthusiastic about it! Paika is reluctant to let them nurse as their teeth are sharp and they have no mercy  :) So now the gradual process of weaning have begun.

Pups have been exposed to a deer hide and deer leg, and they liked to munch on them very much. All in all things are progressing very well.

Puppies are having their first solid meal.

Munching on a deer leg

Thinking about joining Paika on the other side of the baord

Doing it!

Water bowl - what the heck is this?

Active and playful!

At the age of four weeks puppies' weights were:
Blue pup 285 grams when born, now 1335
Green pup 295 then, now 1710
Yellow pup 275 then, now 1560
Red pup 315 then, now 1705
Pink pup 300 then, now 1655
Blue male is the smallest and probably the most active pup.

We have not started to wean the pups yet - thank you Paika for all that you do! Pups live in a rich environment and discover new sounds, smells, textures etc every day. We move them around all day long and rearrange things so they have to figure things out on their own. Today they spent several hours at three different sites, and now they are back in my den, loose. They have a crate that they use for sleeping and a couple of dog beds. Young pups like these ones have  a very old and strong instinct to avoid predators so they like to sleep in a den-like environment. When outside and ready to go to sleep, they crawl to the crate or under a wooden platform we built for them.

It looks like they all will have wirehair coat of excellent quality (this is what we have been aiming for). I checked the males' testicles and they all seem to be down. The pups don't have all their teeth yet, but it looks like they all will have full dentition. So far so good!

 

More pictures of the four-week-old pups