Five weeks old!

Boy, the pups are getting active now. A typical day since the weekend has started with the pups waking up around 6am and being ready to eat and play! We give them a bit of soft food (soaked kibble mixed with tinned food) as they are still in the process of getting their teeth, give them a chance to nurse, and then let them out of the puppy corner to play in the dining room area. If they don’t get out of the puppy corner fast enough, they let us know they want their playtime!! They can get very insistent with their squeaking! Even the quiet ones are sure to let us know they want some attention and action NOW! As soon as we open the gate and let them out, the squeaking stops and the action starts.

Auntie Phoenix (our one-year-old apricot female, not actually related to these pups) is afavourite playmate. She is very gentle with them, and doesn’t actually really play much wit them – she seems a bit uncertain of how to play with such tiny munchkins – but she acts a bit like a mom, licking them and letting them climb all over her and snuggle up beside her in the dog bed by the table. Grandma Momo is more prone to actually play – she’s had pups of her own and knows what they can and can’t do. (Though at the moment she is subject to the cone of shame as she has a sore on her paw and we need to keep her from licking at it an further irritating and infecting it). Mama Galena used to growl at the other dogs – especially Phoenix – to keep them away from the pups when they were litter, but now that they’re active, playful, and not so dependent, she is happy to let Phoenix & Mo interact with the pups. Phoenix has even been able to venture right into the puppy corner without getting a warning. The kids get down on the floor and play with the puppies too, calling to them, giving them a toy to bite or chase or play tug with, and generally having fun. 

  

Thankfully our entire main floor is hardwood or vinyl, so any messes are easy to clean up, as the pups are at the beginning stages of potty training. We have a pee pad in their puppy corner that they use fairly reliably, and another one by the dining room table for playtime. But outside the puppy corner they may not think to run to the pee pad so messes will happen.

Recently when we let the big dogs out the French doors onto the “poop deck,” the puppies hve displayed some interest in following them outside. It’s still a bit cold out so we haven’t let them venture out on their own yet, though just the past two days a couple of them have been taken around the block while securely tucked inside a kid’s jacket. 

We are continuing to see personalities bloom. The biggest male is our gentle giant – very calm, quiet, snuggly, and playful. The smaller chocolate male is adventurous, exploring the house more widely, and a bit more independent. He likes snuggles too but is happy to play on his own if there’s no one to give him attention. The two caramel parti girls are lively and active, into active tussling with Auntie Phoenix. The chocolate female is between the two males – middle of the road in activity, vocalism, huggability… The chocolate parti girl is still generally very quet though we’ve seen her get noisy in her demands to get out of the corner to play, and a bitg snuggler though I’d say the larger male beats her in that department by a tad. 

Mama Galena is beginning to give the pups more independence (or perhaps Is houdl say beginning to want some down-time?). She’s spent most of the last two nights sleeping in my bedroom, rather than insisting she needs to be with the pups, and spends more time outside the puppy corner than in, only going in to check on them when they’re hungry or complaining. I’m sure the beginning of teeth is a contributing factor to the desire not to let them nurse as frequently. Within a week I expect they will be eating as much solid foold as nursing, and within 2 weeks they should be essentially weaned. 

They are continuing to grow well. The b

g chocolate boy is a bit over 2kg by now, while the smallest girl is about 1.5kg. All but the smaller chocolate boy already have several teeth – upper canines, upper incisors, and the beginnings of lower canines and incisors. The smaller boy is just starting to show the beginnings of teeth, so he’s a bit slower than the others in this regard. They are very sturdy on their feet, not just walking but running all over, and they are learning to climb over the base of the gate that allows them out of the puppy corner – about 10cm high. 

 

Just another 3-4 weeks and they’ll be ready to head home!!