Looking Back
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🐾😊🐾.
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.
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
