Friday was a BIG day for all of the puppies-they had a lot of new activities to experience like their FIRST meal, first bath, officially beginning potty training, time for them to wear T-shirt’s/onesies to help desensitize them for wearing capes, and some enrichment games to continue to build their brains! It was a busy day as I was trying to give the puppies all of these “firsts” but also knew my day was filled with other “life” events that were more important than a puppy being potty trained.(It’s hard to imagine, but it’s true!)  Life continues on even when we have puppies in our home as much as we want to just sit and play with them all day!!

Yesterday’s event was that I had the pleasure of attending my daughters PH.D. graduation.  She received her doctorate in Animal Science with a focus on Nutrition(Equine).  She has spent her entire life exploring through science and has completed countless research projects, had her research published and is in a completely different place as she was before she began her college career in the science field.  What she was convinced of 8 years ago is completely different than what she knows now through her education and research.  I believe this is exactly what life is like! You think you have the answers to most everything, but when you look back you realize that what you know is not as important as what you chose to DISCOVER over the course of time, what you learned through listening to the experiences of others, and through what you’ve tried in your quest to make something better.  I’ve learned that through research, scientists have to keep an open mind because often the truth that is revealed is much different than their initial theory of the problem. And the opportunities to discover new and better ideas is HUGE with puppies!  Every litter that has been in my home has been completely different in one way or another, and I have learned incredible new things from each one that has actually taught me lessons that I apply in my everyday life. I have learned to interact with people in a different way, I seek to look for better ways, more efficient processes and to enjoy the moment.

Every litter is different, but the biggest challenge for me as a whelping home is to learn from past litters in order to make this litter more successful!  I don’t rest on the excuse that “every litter is different’, but instead my time with these puppies becomes one HUGE science experiment.  One of the biggest mistakes I believe people make in life is that they get comfortable in what they know so they never continue to ask the big question of “why”? They don’t choose to learn from what’s in front of them, from the insight of others, or from what others have discovered through the value of research.  Something may have worked in the past, but WHY did it work and WHAT could work better are important questions as well!

One example of this is in the picture below.  I did some research and studies show that if you put out more bowls than the number of puppies you can reduce the future incidence rate of resource guarding that dogs display.  Since resource guarding is one of the things that can career change a pup in training, I figured I would try this method.  Does it mean that none of these puppies will resource guard in their futures? No. They have many other life experiences along the way that can develop or inhibit this behavior.  I’m just one tiny piece of the puzzle, and every piece and experience along the way continues to develop their personality. Does it mean that this is the ONLY thing that will help them with this? No. But…..and here is the important part of this; there is NO evidence that I could find showing that having more bowls of food than puppies EVER will harm the puppy or detrimentally inhibit the puppy in any growth areas, so with only positive opportunity and no negative ramifications why WOULDN”T  I do this? Research is so extensive, and for most studies you can find opposing viewpoints.  But there are some studies where there is only an upside to the research and it seems obvious to add it to my daily routine.  Rather than bore you with the actual research studies, I have provided a link that discusses much of the same thinking about providing extra food bowls.

Link: Preventing food aggression in puppies begins when they are young

Here is also an excerpt and a link on how to work with food/resource guarding with a series of training exercises to use with the dog if they already show some of the signs:

An Ounce of Prevention

Young puppies are prone to guarding behavior because they often have to compete with their littermates for limited amounts of food. Breeders often feed puppies from one large communal pan, and the puppy who manages to eat the most will grow the quickest and become the strongest. If a breeder is not observant, this situation can deteriorate into one or two puppies monopolizing most of the food. A history of being rewarded for aggressive behavior can become firmly established in these puppies.

ASPCA training a dog with food guarding issues

Watching the daily interactions of the puppies can teach you so much!!!  You learn all about the intricate behaviors of each puppy and you start to feel like you have an insight into their future and what problems and successes they might experience along the way!  I’ve always said one of my dream jobs is to track a litter of puppies from birth throughout life and to track all of the things they’ve experienced along the way, looking at insights from the whelping home and beyond and seeing how accurate those thoughts are in the adult life of the dog.

And this is a brief look into my life as a whelping home!  I love research, and I love to improve upon processes so that I can feel like this litter has even more benefits than the previous one in my home. I never think I have THE answer and there’s no other way.  I take each experience and determine if I can positively build upon it to improve the outcome.   It’s a bit of a personality flaw, but I actually enjoy the intense nature of my mind, so it’s all good!

This is what I love about science and research.  There is an unbelievable amount of research that is at our fingertips!  We get to choose if that interests us to look it up and discover something new that might possibly improve some problem that we want to avoid.

As I was listening to the keynote speaker at the graduation (he was the one who studied and invented Baked Lays and is an incredible entrepreneur), I’m sure the majority of people were thinking of how the speech applied to some aspect of their personal lives.  I was also doing this, but what I realized is that frequently my thoughts drifted back to the 7 little puppies in my care and I was surprised at how much of the speech applied to my time with them as well!

So, I figured I would share the key points of the keynote speaker that he gathered from some of his students which I feel are a fabulous way to start a new day! Although these aren’t puppy related, they are wonderful to consider!

• The best four-letter word is FACTS;
• Make sure your curiosity and interests change as a function of time;
• Look for an opportunity you can grab; that can be anything from how to think, live or act smarter, or to help someone else;
• Learn to be comfortable being uncomfortable, but don’t just accept it without exploring your options. It’s not a destination, but rather a point in time;
• Learn to listen to ideas you disagree with-in the end you are the one who gets to decide how you want to live, but hear what others have to say about topics that affect you and keep an open mind;
• Use logic and facts to do the analysis, but use the situation in front of you to draw the insights
• Look to solve any problem by looking at nature;
• Never settle; always problem-solve and innovate. This is what has developed our world and allowed us to realize things that were never thought possible;
• Dare to be different;
• Change is always predictable;
• Not taking a big risk is still a big risk;
• Focus on the problem you want to solve, not the job you have in front of you;
• Facts are the key in decision making;
• Quit thinking outside of the box, just create a new box;
• Always value the lessons and messages of others, even if you don’t share the same views;
• Keep re-learning how to be curious;
• Develop a clear set of guiding values and remember those values you pick are a skill that needs to be mastered

What a busy day!!!!

Sugar’s litter is officially the “N” litter; all this means is that her puppies will have names beginning with N, but they don’t get their official names yet.  The organization will determine their names when they get closer to the time of going into official training.  So, in the meantime, whelping homes are allowed the opportunity to give the puppies nicknames so that we don’t go around calling them simply by their collar colors!

We get to give these temporary names around the 3-week mark, and since this litter will be three weeks tomorrow it’s time to start calling them by (temporary) names!!!  So here they are! They are officially Lady, Mindy, Roo, Tanner, Jax, Chase and Boomer!

 

Once the puppies eyes open and they are reacting to noise, it’s time to add enrichment to their living space!  This is one of my favorite times because the puppies absorb things at such a rapid pace that you can barely believe what you are watching!

At this point, they are getting up on all four legs and walking (stumbling) around the whelping box; their eyes have only been open a day but you can tell they are already starting to look at things around them regardless of how blurry it might be; they are startling at noises and lifting their heads when I come into the room and talk to them; and that just means they need some opportunities to interact with colorful objects and they need to continue building their motor skills.

 

So now they get some additions to the whelping box!  They get the puppy play gym-I intentionally made it with lots of colors so it was bright and enticing and I fill it with a variety of puppy and baby toys.  They will crawl all around it, under it, through it and as they gain play skills they will stop and chew on the different items because they will seem too irresistible to pass by!  This will help them in many more ways than just having toys to entertain them.  The brain enrichment that they get from adding things to their living space will help build them into confident dogs that will want to explore and not be afraid of their surroundings.  As they grow, every few days new items will be added to their living space including a ramp, a wobble board, various flooring surfaces, noisy toys, a slide, and a myriad of other items to keep their brain learning and developing!

 

This is a critical time for neurological development and all of the things that they are able to do during these initial puppy weeks build the foundation for a solid dog that’s happy, confident and willing! The variety in flooring pads that create different textures to crawl on, the tube snakes, the puppy pods, the puppy play gym – all of these items may seem like no big deal, but they are all part of the big picture of creating happy and well adjusted pups that will be able to take in the rigors of training to be assistance dogs!

I have to admit, knowing that every moment during these weeks in my home can help change the physiology of these puppies’ brains is pretty amazing, stressful and unbelievable!

 

Of course, there is science to back up what we offer the puppies from the very earliest stages!  And while I am sitting in the whelping room keeping an eye on the beautiful puppies that I get to do my very best to build a solid foundation for,  my mind decides that I have to learn a bit more about the research on how to create a complex environment for the puppies so that they have the very BEST start they can have!

 

Here is some of the information that I read about and that I implement in the living spaces for the puppies while they are in my home:

They found that the dogs reared in the more complex home environment not only learned faster but seemed to be less fearful and considerably less stressed in the testing situations.

Over the years researchers have proven that these behavioral changes are the result of actual changes in the physiology of the animal’s brains. The brains of animals that have lived in changing and complex environments actually become larger.

New connections develop between existing neurons in the cortex as a result of experience. Recent evidence demonstrates that it is even possible to grow new neuralcells in important areas of the brain that are associated with learning, memory and the organization of behavior.
The important aspects of the animal’s experience which cause these positive changes in their brains involves exposure to a wide variety of interesting places and things that novel, and exciting experiences. It is best when these are combined with frequent opportunities to learn new things, solve problems and to freely investigate, manipulate, and interact with objects and environmental features. The data is unambiguous in showing that this leads to individuals who not only tend to be more inquisitive and are more able to learn quickly and perform complex tasks, but also who are less fearful and emotional.

Recent research by psychologist Norton W. Milgram and his associates at the University of Toronto have shown that the benefits of such experiences are not restricted to growing puppies. Adults and even elderly animals, not only benefit from having richer environments, but these problem solving experiences seem to help to offset the usual decline in mental efficiency that is seen in older dogs.

So, if you are interested in reading more from the article by Psychology today including some of the research, clink on this link to find out how you can continue to work with dogs and build their brain power even after they are out of the puppy stage!

Building a better brain for your dog – Psychology Today Research

Here is an excerpt from a website about the first 7 weeks of a puppy’s life:

First 4 Months of Age

The Imprinting Period

Like children, puppies have a small window of time during brain development when they are most impressionable. This is called the imprinting, or critical learning period.  For puppies, the imprinting period is during the first 16 weeks of life. Puppies learn more during this time than they can learn in a life time. Therefore, the quality and quantity of what they experience will have a huge impact on their future personalities and determine the formation of many of their “good” or “bad” behavior tendencies. In fact, such vast change in development happens with each day that passes, the Imprinting Period is further sub-divided into multiple distinct puppy-stages.

First 7 Weeks

(Neonatal Period, Transition Period, and 1st Socialization Period)

In the first 7 weeks of life, puppies gain use of all the senses, become mobile, start growing baby teeth, transition to eating solid foods, and become completely weaned (independent) from their dog moms.

Learning is already rapidly occurring, making it important that human caretakers provide puppies with specific neurological stimulation, a complex environment, and careful, yet thorough, socialization for proper development and adjustment to living in human society.

Excerpt taken from the following – http://wonder-puppy.com/puppy-stages

Well, the puppies have been working on it for a couple of days now, but this morning in a matter of TWO hours 3 puppies have opened their eyes!!!! Purple, Blue and Orange!!! I completely suspect that by the evenings close all puppies eyes will be open and they will start exploring their new world!

Their personalities are really starting to shine as well!

Miss Pink is the sassy one (why is it that Pink collared girls are always the sassy ones in the litter?????) She’s independent and fierce in her opinions about her unhappiness with the bio-sensor training, letting me know that she REALLY doesn’t think that I should be maneuvering her body the way I do and that Q-tips in the paws should be outlawed! Ironically enough though, she is the snuggly one who is always scootching up to her siblings to sleep with them, preferring company over being alone. She also loves sleeping UNDER things, and I am constantly doing a head count looking for her before I step into the whelping box! But by far she loves snuggling with her Mama Sugar the most!

Miss Purple loves adventure!  She is the first one to follow the tube snakes in the whelping box to get to another destination completely on the other side.  She navigates puppy pods, the snakes, and fellow siblings to make her journey in record time! She seems to already be a problem solver and I can’t wait to see how she progresses!  She’s fabulous at her bio-sensor training, I’m guessing she’s figured out the quieter she is when I’m doing it the quicker it will get done!

 

 

Mr. Blue is our rock star-literally!  His hair on the top of his head is shorter and spiked and when you look at him he looks like a rock star from the 80’s! (see photo below) He is super friendly and quiet, and he seeks out humans for attention already!  He loves to snuggle in my arms and when I talked to him this morning he wagged his tail for the very first time!!!! It was a heart-melting moment to be sure!  Of course, I gave him extra snuggle time for that!

Mr. Red is apt to use his voice to show her displeasure:)  He also loves to snuggle with the tube snakes, preferring to have his head lifted off of the ground-he will even use a sibling if necessary! He’s more independent, and he’s the one most likely to sleep through feeding time:)  And Red is very particular about the whelping box climate; he wants it between 74-77 degrees, no more, no less. If it’s outside of HIS comfort zone I have to adapt his sleeping space-like today when I had to put a cool towel down for him to sleep on because 78 degrees just wasn’t acceptable….

Mr. Orange is the one who will NEVER miss a feeding! He will climb THROUGH his siblings to get to the milk bar and nothing stands in his way! That makes total sense because he was the heaviest at birth and he still holds the title for heaviest pup in the litter!  Orange loves to find a tighter space, and roll on his back to sleep. (Probably to rest his belly!) He isn’t quite aware of his size, so when he tries to stand up, walk, or crawl it’s sure to make you laugh. I can’t wait to see this big boy grow!

Mr. Aqua is a sweet, sensitive, snuggler.  He likes a quiet whelping box and he loves hiding in the corners.  He loves to snuggle with Miss Pink and they seem to make a concerted effort to find each other in the box, going around other siblings and stopping when they get to each other.  He’s an active dreamer and his legs make me think he is doing a lot of running in those dreams!

Mr. Green is the unassuming one. He goes with the flow; Bio-sensor training now? ok, whatever…..whelping box change, sure………feeding time? “Hey, I’ll get around to it when my nap is over” type of attitude.   Green loves the puppy pods and the cat bed for his naps. Nothing seems to stress him at this point so it will be fun to see his personality change over time!

They are really REALLY fun to watch and I’m amazed that they are so different already at 2 weeks old! What’s even more amazing is that they were showing signs of these personality traits as early as a couple of DAYS old!  Of course, that immediately makes me want to research puppy development even more….

 

 

And just in case you wanted to know more about puppies and their senses developing, here’s some of the science behind the last two senses to develop in a puppy….

According to a variety of veterinary websites, here is the basic information about their last two senses to develop and how that is part of the canine evolutionary process:

Puppies lack two senses at birth: sight and hearing. It takes a minimum of 10 days to two weeks for their final two senses to develop. Although lacking their sight and hearing might seem odd to human beings, puppies develop in a way that is advantageous to their species.

Eye Development

Puppies’ optical nerves are developing along with the rest of the central nervous system, making them very sensitive to light. In addition, the eyes themselves are still forming behind the lids. Sealed eyelids protect the nerves and membranes of the delicate organs from hazards such as light or grit. Once the eyes have fully matured, puppies’ lids start to open.

Appearance

Newborn puppies bear little resemblance to adult dogs. They have massive heads with pronounced muzzles suited to nursing. Their legs are short and possess only enough power to scoot their bodies along the floor or ground. Newborn puppies cannot stand. Neither can they hear; their ear canals remain sealed shut. Finally, they cannot see because their eyelids are also sealed. 

Dogs as Predators

According to Stanley Coren, Ph.D., this helplessness makes perfect evolutionary sense. Newborn herbivores emerge fully functional after their mothers’ long pregnancies because they have to be able to run with the herd, in part to escape predators. However, long pregnancies would interfere with predators’ ability to hunt and to survive. Puppies continue to develop after leaving their mothers’ wombs because doing so is in the best interest of the canine species in terms of survival.

The Nervous System

Puppies’ central nervous systems are incompletely formed when they are born. The brains, spinal cords, and nerves are all present in their bodies, but the nerves cannot transmit electrical impulses in an efficient way because they have not been coated with enough myelin yet. Myelin is the fatty layer that carries messages along the nerves. In normal, healthy puppies, the myelinization process takes several weeks, after which puppies can make more purposeful movement.

Oh.my.gosh. I blinked for what seemed like a moment today and all of a sudden these “kill you with cuteness” puppies decided that crawling was too easy, so they got up and started walking all over the box!!! Mr. Green is the first one today to try to engage in play with a sibling by chewing on another pups paw, and their eyes noticeably continued to darken and they have blinking reflexes! I bet their eyes will be opened by tomorrow morning!!!! Purple is leading the pack and I hope I will get to see her beautiful eyes in just a few hours!

Tomorrow should continue to see more incredible developments!!!!

So many developments today it’s crazy!!!