Our first Outdoor Adventure with the puppies is one of the highlights of puppy raising. From five weeks on, the puppies will have outdoor play as weather permits. This is exciting for puppies, mama’s, and our other dogs. It is so fun to watch the puppies experience new smells, new walking surfaces, descending steps, and lots of room to run.
At first the puppies were a little timid staying close to the ground and smelling as they moved around. When they felt more at ease they started to relax, explore, run and play.
My husband Tom enclosed our deck with fencing making the outdoor puppy enclosure. This keeps our other dogs out while giving our mama room to teach their puppies without interference. Maui the nanny, doesn’t let the fence stop her. She jumps over with ease and comes and goes as she pleases. In the video’s watch as the mama’s along with Maui teach puppies to submit.
Ellie’s Puppies First Outdoor Adventure
1st taste of the outdoors – Watch the puppies descend the steps.
Fun time of learning and play – Ellie and Maui are teaching the puppies to submit
Willow’s Puppies First Outdoor Adventure
1st taste of the outdoors Willow’s puppies were a little more cautious than Ellie’s puppies to go down the steps. (Ellie is not too please to be excluded LOL)
Fun time of learning and play – Near the end of the video, Grandma Ruska came in for a little training. The puppies were quick to listen!
Grandma Ruska Teaches puppies
Grandma Ruska wanted in on the puppy teaching. She loved being a mama and raised some amazing puppies. Ruska is now retired but still loves puppies. She wanted into the puppy enclosure to get in on the teaching. Watch as she calmed the puppies right down. They listen well!
How quickly time passes and how quickly puppies grow! Ellie and Willow’s sweet puppies are now five weeks old. The puppies have developed from helpless newborns to “mini dogs”. They have learned so much over the past five weeks. This past week we have been working hard on training the puppies to use the potty box. They still have a long way to go and some of the puppies are more consistent than others, but all are making great progress! The puppies are now awake for longer periods and enjoy playing in the exercise area. Nursing time from mama has decreased and the puppies continue to enjoy eating puppy mush and drinking from their water dish.
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK SIX
Awake will continue to increase
Food will become much thicker progressing toward the goal of eating dry kibble
Puppies will continue learning to use potty area
Puppies will continue to socialize with each other through play
Puppies balance will continue to improve.
Puppies will begin short outdoor playtime as weather permits
Puppies will continue learning from their mama as she disciplines them and teaches them to behave
As always, puppies will continue to get lots of cuddle time.
The puppies had a great adventure today in their new puppy exercise area. It is in our front hall. There is an activity centre in the middle, a potty box in the corner and lots of toys to discover and play with. The puppies were also introduced to a different floor surface. Our front hall is ceramic which is a little more slippery. This is beneficial to the puppies as they need to learn to walk on many surfaces.
1st Willow’s litter
After I set up the new area it was time to add puppies. Ellie was feeding her litter, so Willows litter were the first puppies in the exercise area. I started by putting each puppy into the potty box first to show them where to go potty. Then I stood back and watch them explore. It is so exciting to watch these little ones discover new things!
17 puppies – both litters combined
After a while I decided to add Ellie’s litter to the mix. This worked out very well as all the puppies seem to get along. With 17 puppies to care for being able to combine the litters will make my life a little easier! This also gives me the opportunity to clean out the puppies’ sleeping area which are still separate.
Maui the Nanny
Maui our 1-1/2 year-old-poodle is very agile and can jump our fences with ease. She decided to hop the fence and joined the puppies. She has had prior experience other litters and makes a great puppy nanny! Maui is gentle and loving. It is always a bonus when you have other dogs to socialize with the puppies. After the puppies realize that every dog doesn’t have milk, they had a great time playing with Maui.
The puppies soon tired out and one by one started dropping off to sleep. The end of the video shows “last puppy standing” Magenta Collar Girl from Willow’s litter had all the toys to herself and took advantage of it – LOL!
Four weeks old already – WOW, time passes by so quickly! I am a couple days late getting our four-week post out. This is because we have been busy with preparations for our daughters upcoming wedding in January, wedding invitations, and bridal showers. All these things and a little under the weather as well. Even though we have had these things added to our plate, our puppies care has not suffered, and they have had lots of love and attention.
It is hard to believe that our puppies are already four weeks old and have progressed so much. A lot has happened this past week. Such as, milk teeth have erupted, moving to the main floor, hind leg becoming stronger, better balance while walking, awake time increased, and more socializing with their littermates through play. Also, our puppies have been practicing their vocalizing and can now growl and bark as you will hear in the videos.
Weaning Under Way
Weaning is well under way. This process is achieved by reducing milk from mama, drinking water from their bowl, and getting most of their nutrition from their puppy food. The puppies are doing well on their food and are always excited for another meal!
Weaning Under Way
Potty Training Under Way
Potty training is also under way and the puppies are making great progress. Although we still have a lot of work to do in this area, I am pleased with their progress so far. This is because there have been less accidents in their whelping box and lots of success in the potty box. Because the puppies are doing so well with their potty training, yesterday we decided to give them more room by removing their whelping box and expanding their puppy area.
Socialization
As I have mentioned before, socialization is important when raising puppies. We have achieved this by introducing our puppies to different people young and old. This helps the puppies to be calm and seek out humans for companionship. The puppies love spending time with us, and it is very apparent when they all run to sit on our laps for a cuddle.
Socialization not only involves interaction with different people but includes many things. Some of these things are new noises, different walking surfaces, and the introduction of different toys as well as challenges. We will achieve these things throughout the coming weeks as we challenge the puppies with as many new experiences. It is through these new experiences that will help strengthen the puppies’ body and brain.
Listen for puppies growls and bark
Watch puppies play with littermate and new toy
Notice that the whelping boxes are gone in the puppy area. We still have the two litters separated .
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FIVE
Awake time will increase
Continued to socialize with each other through play
Balance will continue to improve and they will begin to run
Puppies will continue learning to use potty area
Daily visits to the Puppy Exercise Area where they will play and explore
Mama will now add the invaluable teaching phase to her caring & protecting responsibilities over the next weeks.
Three weeks old already – how quickly time passes! This week the puppies have been progressing rapidly. They continue to gain weight and grow bigger with each passing day. Their eyes are fully opened, and vision is improving. Their ears are open, and they can now hear. Some of our puppies’ milk teeth have started to erupt. Their hind legs have become much stronger as they have been practicing walking on all fours. The puppies are much more aware of their surroundings and have begun to play with each other. They have become quite noisy as they practice their vocalizing. It is so cute in the daytime but not so much in the middle of the night 😴LOL.
Daily Cuddles
The puppies continue to receive lots of cuddles daily. My grandchildren are great helpers with this. I love to share this learning experience with them; teaching them to love and respect animals and to be gentle. The older ones have learned this already but my one- year-old granddaughter is still learning and has to be reminded! Our puppies already love human interaction – when I enter the whelping box, it isn’t long before I have a lap full of puppies🐾😊🐾.
Nothing cuter than little boys and puppies!
Remember GENTLE!
Critical Socialization Period
Now that the puppies can hear and react to noise, they are entering the Critical Socialization Period. Socializing puppies by exposing them to as many new experiences as possible while the puppy is young is only part of the process of Socialization. Our goal is to raise dogs that have the emotional intelligence to connect with you. Emotional intelligence can be taught to young puppies. We will work with the puppies over the next five weeks on the Puppy Culture Protocols.
There are 7 key things that will nurture the emotional intelligence of a puppy:
Communication – giving a puppy his own voice i.e. Manding and attention/distraction protocols
Emotional stability – the ability to recover easily from fear as well as stress i.e., startle recovery, barrier challenges etc
Habituation – familiarity with the maximum number of things (Puppy Parties, sound protocols, household noises , meeting different people, dogs etc.)
Enrichment – teach that novelty and challenges are opportunities for enrichment not things to be feared or avoided (Ongoing introduction of new novelty items, Activity Centre, car ride, outdoors, etc.)
Health – physical wellness and motor skills that will allow the puppy to develop in a neurologically and physically sound way (daily weight checks, grooming, proper nutrition, fecal checks, and deworming, if necessary, vet health checks and vaccinations)
Skills – learned behaviors which teach the puppy to function in human society i.e. recall, manding, simple commands, potty box training, crate introduction, resource guarding, bite inhibition etc.
Love – teach puppies to seek out the company of both dogs and humans as emotionally positive experiences: i.e., Daily cuddles with humans and puppy’s mom.
Shaping emotional responses: happy and calm CER (Conditioned Emotional Responses)
Look at these cuties
This morning (Saturday 19th), we took videos of the puppies when we returned them to their clean whelping boxes. Have a look at the videos to see our adorable three-week-old puppies.
Ellie’s Puppies
Willow’s Puppies
Looking Ahead To Week Four
Puppies will still sleep much of the day/night as they continue to grow rapidly
Puppies will play with each other developing important social skills
Puppies’ hind legs will continue to become stronger as they walk more
Hearing will improve
Puppy milk teeth will erupt
Puppies will be moving to the main floor mid-week and begin potty training
Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) Exercises (day3 to day 16)
We have now finished our ENS exercises with both litters. While raising our puppies, I want to do everything possible to produce Healthy, Calm, Confident, Well-Adjusted Puppies. During the ENS exercise the puppies experience tiny struggles and stresses. These stresses in small doses are good for puppies and the benefits include greater tolerance to stress, greater resistance to disease, faster adrenal system, stronger heart rate and stronger heartbeat. This will help our puppies grow into strong, healthy, well-adjusted adults.
Transitional Period Day 14 – 21
Ellie and Willow continue to take wonderful care of their puppies and they continue to grow stronger with each passing day. The puppies are now in the Transitional Period. The transitional period begins when the puppy’s eyes open and ends when they first startle upon hearing sounds. The puppies are becoming more aware of their littermates but still sleep most of the time.
Although the puppies still spend most of their time eating and sleeping, they are now awake for short periods of time. During their awake time, they are now beginning to interact with their littermates. The puppies are also vocalizing. I was able to take the videos below during the puppies awake time. As you can hear, they are quite noisy – I was talking during the video but not loud enough (sorry) LOL!
Wow, four weeks old already – this week our singleton puppy has progressed so much. Echo continues to be an amazing mama, loving and caring for her baby. This past week has been a busy one. Echo’s puppy moved to the main floor, her milk teeth erupted, and she is beginning to learn to use the potty area. Echo’s puppy’s hind legs have become much stronger, and her walking has greatly improved. The puppy is vocalizing more and can now bark and growl . Although the puppy still sleeps much of her time, she spends longer periods awake socializing with her mama Echo, our dog nanny Maui, and her many stuffies through play. She also has lots of attention from our family – both canine and humans including my grandchildren who love to play with the puppy.
Critical Socialization Period
Echo’s puppy is now in the Critical Socialization Period. We raise our puppies using Puppy Culture protocols. Socializing puppies by exposing them to as many new experiences as possible while the puppy is young is only part of the process of Socialization. Our goal is to raise dogs that have the emotional intelligence to connect with you. Emotional intelligence can be taught to young puppies and is one of the goals of the Puppy Culture Program. (For more details, see Puppy Culture Page )
Moving To The Main Floor
Since birth the puppy has only know the cozy quiet space inside the whelping box in my bedroom. The main floor is very different so, I like to expose our puppies gradually for a few days before the big move. On Friday we took the puppy for a short period of time to the main floor for some exercise.
Basket Challenge
Just as physical exercise builds strong muscles, challenging puppies works on building the brain. This basket challenged the puppy to get out of the basket to get to her mama Echo. The puppy was a little timid at first, but she finally made it out to her mama.
Having the puppy area on the main floor exposes the puppy to many different household sounds. Not only is Echo’s puppy exposed to the normal sounds of a busy household, because we are in the middle of a basement renovation means a bonus of lots of different building noises for the puppy to become accustomed to.
On Monday we moved the puppy to the main floor of our house. This is when Potty Training begins. We have started with a potty pad at the far end of the enclosure. Teaching a singleton puppy will defiantly be less work than potty training a normal size litter. I corrected the puppy one time and showed her where to go potty. Many times, throughout the day, I observed her going over to the potty area on her own when she needed to go – what a smart girl! I’m sure she will have her “accidents”, but we are off to a great start!!!
Main Floor Puppy Enclosure
Stuffie Wrestling
The puppy loves her stuffies. Without littermates to interact with we use the stuffies for our singleton puppy to wrestle with.
Puppy At Play
This video shows how much more mobile the puppy has become. Watch how gentle she is giving my grandson kisses.
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FIVE
Puppy’s awake time will increase
Puppy will continue to socialize with both human and canines
Puppy’s balance will continue to improve progressing towards running
Puppy will continue learning to use potty area
Puppy will start on solid foods as weaning gradually begins
Mama will now add the invaluable teaching phase to her caring & protecting responsibilities over the next weeks.
Ellie is a wonderful mama. She knows just what to do to take care of her babies. She loves her puppies and still stays to cuddle with them after they have nursed. Their eyes are completely opened, and their ears are now open. Ellie’s puppies are in the “Critical Socialization Period”.
Exercise is important for puppies to build strong bodies but, puppies must also be challenged to build strong minds. Yesterday we gave Ellie’s puppies a little challenge to build their brains! I put them in a basket, and they had to find their way out to their mama. They worked so hard some of their bows were coming undone LOL! Watch to see how each puppy did in the basket challenge – so cute!
Basket Challenge
VIDEO: Watch Ellie’s adorable three week old puppies – Eat, Play, Sleep!
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FOUR
Puppies will still sleep most of their day as they continue to grow rapidly
Puppies will play with each other and begin developing important social skills
Puppies hind legs will continue to become stronger as they walk more
Hearing will improve
Puppy milk teeth will begin to erupt
Puppies will be moving to the main floor sometime during the week
Willow’s Puppies
Puppies start on solids
We usually start weaning puppies at four weeks of age when we introduce solids. Willow is a mama that has her own mind and didn’t follow my regular schedule that my previous mamas did. She let me know that it was time to wean her puppies by regurgitating her food for her puppies to eat – This is instinct! It helps the mama wean and her milk gradually dry up by reducing her food intake”
We decided that since Willow has already started weaning her puppies, we would introduce solids on Friday. I grind puppy kibble in my blender with water and puppy formula to make a soupy mixture. We will gradually make this mixture thicker as we progress towards dry kibble.
VIDEO: Watch Willows puppies learning to eat solids
It took some of the puppies awhile to eat but, they did a good job eating their “puppy soup” Willow kept a watchful eye behind the gate to watch as her puppies ate. When they were finished eating, I let Willow in, and she ate the remaining food. The puppies finished off their meal with a little of mama’s milk and then went back to their whelping box for a long nap.
Our adorable puppies are now three weeks old and oh how they have grown! This week the puppies have been progressing rapidly. Their eyes are fully opened, and vision is improving. Their ears have opened, and they have now entered the “Critical Socialization Period. The puppies’ hind legs have become much stronger and they have been practicing walking on all fours. They are much more aware of their surroundings and have begun to play with each other. The puppies continue to sleep much of the time as they develop.
Willow ‘s a great first-time mama. She is doing a wonderful job feeding her babies, protecting, and keeping them clean. Willow now spends much of her time away from the whelping box and comes back to check on her puppies throughout the day. Willow insists on cleaning her puppies’ in-between feedings. She goes into the whelping box to clean sleeping puppies. The puppies wake and think it is time to eat. After Willow finishes cleaning, she heads back out and the puppies are left whining their protest. Willow’s puppies are always ready to eat but, now that they are bigger, they are fed with less frequency and their milk intake at each feeding is much greater! Not to worry, the pups are getting more than enough of mama’s milk; they are growing like weeds!
The puppies cuddle with Willow after nursing.
LOOKING AHEAD TO WEEK FOUR
Puppies will still sleep most of their day as they continue to grow rapidly
Puppies will play with each other and begin developing important social skills
Puppies hind legs will continue to become stronger as they walk more
Hearing will improve
Puppy milk teeth will begin to erupt
Puppies will be moving to the main floor sometime during the week
Ellie’s Puppies – Day 15
Ellie’s puppies are becoming more mobile with that cute wobbly puppy walk as they practice walking on all fours. They have also learned to climb. We have found a couple puppies climbing our of the whelping box so, time to add a door panel to out entrance to keep Ellie’s precious babies safe.
Magenta Girl……Going…….
Going……..
Gone!
Watch the puppies walking and listen to them vocalizing
Ellie’s puppies are doing well and steadily gaining weight. They are in the Neonatal Period and spend all their time eating and sleeping. Ellie fed the puppies and then I removed them from the whelping box. When I returned them, I took a video of them. Some puppies went to sleep as soon as I transferred them…..others took a little while to settle. 🐾
Ten days old puppies still just eat and sleep.
Willow’s Puppies
All Willow’s puppies now have their eyes open, and they look adorable. They cannot see well yet, but their vision will steadily improve. Their ears will soon be opened. Willow’s babies are growing up! She is doing a great job feeding them and the puppies have been steadily gaining weight. We will now weigh them weekly.
Black Collar BoyBlue Collar BoyOrange Collar BoyRed Collar BoyMagenta Collar GirlGreen Collar GirlWillow’s Puppies Two Week Singles
The puppies are in the “Transitional Period” which lasts up to seven days. They are transitioning – Leaving Neonatal Period but not yet in the Critical Socialization Period. The puppies’ ears open during this period – the first sign of the puppies startling at sound is when the next period begins.
Willow’s puppies have started to vocalize, are now more aware of their littermates, and have begun to play. They still sleep most of the time but this morning I was able to catch them awake and interacting with each other – too cute! 💕
