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.