Today the puppies got their first opportunity to take a short ride in the car! They were all kenneled in one large kennel and we went for a ride to get them used to the movement and the different surroundings.  Hopefully these brief road trips will help to prepare them for their first long trip in two weeks where they will have a two hour ride to their next journey where they will spend two weeks in Duluth at the prison for their first training series. They all did wonderfully and they came back without any real stress about their experience which is great!  When they got back from their jaunt, they got right back to the business of playing like nothing had happened!

Time to learn about car rides!

Sugar wanted to go along to supervise the transportation education….

Sometimes I have to stop and laugh because I have this huge area for the puppies and I think it’s hilarious that they all gather in one TINY spot!  In the pics below you see 6 of the pups squished into one area, and then you see Mr. Orange who figured out the REAL way to get a good nap…….Smart Boy Mr. Orange!

Today I was reading a book titled “The Monks of New Skete-The art of raising a puppy” and I was intrigued by the information I was reading about.  It dawned as me as it has many times over the years that for every “answer” to a training or puppy raising question, there are 100 more “answers” to that very question.  So, how does everyone figure out which answers are the “right” ones?  And which ones will make the puppy we bring into our house the best dog it can be?  That’s where it gets murky……

-This litter has an intense instinct to scratch the ground after going to the bathroom.  Some “experts” say that dogs scratch at the ground after going to the bathroom because they are trying to cover up their smell; others in the field say that they are scratching to “spread” the scent to diffuse the potency of it that might draw predators.  In the end, the big picture seems to indicate that the final result is to lessen the possibility of predators finding them due to a centralized scent, but the two theories of what they are doing are exactly opposite!

-I thought weighing the pups was purely for the purpose of keeping an eye on them and seeing which ones were gaining and to catch any issues if one of them began to lose weight. Some experts say that weighing the puppies is supposed to be an early opportunity to look for personality traits which I had NEVER even considered before!~ Do some squirm more than others, not like to be on their sides or in a confined container while being weighed-which ones are more reactive, more vocal and more sensitive to touch…..imbalance than their counterparts raised without such stimulation.” (from book above)

This gives just a small idea of how hard it is for anyone who brings a pet puppy into their family to try to figure out exactly what the right thing to do really is-and for a service dog puppy you can imagine how that becomes so much more complicated!  Luckily for us volunteers, we don’t have to think too much about it because it is our role to go to classes during the puppy raising time and we are trained by staff trainers who let us know what they want us to teach the dogs, how to go about teaching them the needed tasks, and what is important for them to know to get the desired results!

Sugar ran into the play area, stole one of their toys and came back out to taunt them from the outside……

Miss White was not impressed and proceeded to stick her tongue out at her mother to show her displeasure….. 🙂

Today the puppies got to explore a new feature in their puppy play palace-a tunnel!  I thought that they would be really leery about going into the tunnel and walking through the loud plastic  and tube-NOPE, not these playful puppies!  They immediately ran over to check it out and began to climb through it before I even had a chance to be a dog whisperer and teach them the ropes! 🙂 I had it all planned out; I was going to introduce the new object to them, then I would playfully throw some of their favorite toys into the tunnel for them to go get and I would run to the other side and call them through it with a big Yippee! when they did it successfully.  3.4 seconds after I set the tunnel down they were checking it out and running through it as I sat there realizing that all of my “puppy planning” was for nothing,  But my brief disappointment didn’t last because of my excitement that overtook me knowing they didn’t need my guidance after all and they were secure enough to check out the new toy.

They have gone to 2 meals a day, which in my terms only means twice as much “cleanup”, twice as many potty pads, and twice as many loads of laundry so you’ll forgive me for not being “thrilled” at this new stage:)  Then the breeding coordinator told me that 3 meals a day will start very soon…….FABULOUS…… 🙂 So I had to put my thinking cap on for what I could do to make sure my house didn’t start to smell like a barn or a pet store, and then the idea came to me!  I would use the diaper genie that we have for our grandson and that would become the property of the puppies room for the next few weeks while they are here!  I noticed a difference immediately when I began using it, and I was able to reclaim my house from the smells that aren’t nearly as cute as puppy breath…..

They have grown so much (from their mere 1 lb weights as newborns to over 6 lbs. now-which means they had to “upgrade” their collars.  I bought them new ones, but it’s difficult to find collars that match exactly the velcro strips you chose for them when they were born-so some of them have some “variations” now in their collar color which adds one more set of confusion in keeping them straight!  Blue is now blue and green stripes, purple is now pink, white is now black…….and that is why I’m going collar hunting tomorrow!

That title sounds like the beginning of a bad conversation, but in the case of puppies, it’s all happy and only describing their new enrichment toy added to their play area today-a slide!

Today, it was all about staying warm in the -20 degree weather, having fun and learning some new confidence!  They checked it out with intense excitement as it came over the x-pen, and then they weren’t quite sure what to do with it, but after a short investigation period they started tackling the task at hand and trying to figure out how to use it:)  It was funny to watch them problem solve which way to go up, whether they really wanted to go up, and how to get back down once they got up!!!

At this point now they have a ramp, a wobble board, a slide, a fun pvc toy with household items dangling from it……..and tomorrow will bring a tunnel and some other experiences!

Play puppies, PLAY!

The weather has been a little brutal for December and it’s typically what I would expect for the Minnesota cold snap in January-so the puppies have not gotten to experience the outdoors like I had hoped other than a little bit through “jacket excursions” that I mentioned in my blog a couple of days ago.

Unfortunately, puppy brains don’t stop developing just because our weather is not fit for man nor beast (or in this case puppy!) Because of that it’s necessary to come up with as many things as possible that challenge and stretch these beautiful puppy brains so that they can be self-assured, confident dogs which isn’t easy during the winter months.  All of a sudden I feel like I am back in the days of a stay-at-home mom trying to think of any activities I can to keep my active 2 and 4 year olds busy and entertained!  For my first litter I had beautiful September weather and I literally x-penned in most of my entire front yard so that every nice morning Ii set up a lawn chair, brought out any “to do” items I had and we played outside from 630 in the morning until late in the day with only nap breaks inside! Change of plans for this litter…… 🙂

So, today’s enrichment activity is the wading pool and a ball pit!  First I introduced them to the cold wading pool that had been out in our garage-not too cold, but definitely a temperature difference from what their precious little puppy paws are used to in a house that is 72 and “sunny”!  Once they acclimated to the new environment, I added the balls!  At first glance it might seem like a quick, simple game for them and you may wonder “What’s the big deal?” But with that small enrichment activity, there’s many things going on:

• The puppies are exposed to the temperature difference-good for enrichment
• Exposure to a variety of textures, from rippled plastic to the round balls they have to navigate
• New sound exposure-I never realized it when my kids were at ball pits, but these balls are NOISY!  The pups had to get used to the balls moving around and making noise
• Wading through new material-the puppies haven’t had any experience to date where they had to go “through” a material to get somewhere
• Climbing-getting in or getting out requires some muscle!
• Desensitization in general-one tiny ball pit.  This seemingly unassuming little play thing can be scary for the first time!  ( I remember when my kids went into their first ball pit and they started sinking down and I watched their faces go through the first panic stage, then the smile broke out when they realized everything was going to be okay!)
• General observation for me-this gave me the opportunity to “check-in” on the personalities of each puppy; who was afraid of the experience, who tackled it head on, who wanted to sit back and observe, who loved it right from the start.  It’s amazing how little activities like this can tell you so much about what these dogs are like and maybe what they need to work on.  Because of this activity, I am changing up some of my daily “exercises/training” to individualize it a little more to meet the needs of where each puppy is at.

So, today it’s the ball pit-and I will start brainstorming what activity is waiting in the wings for tomorrow!

With 12 Days until Christmas, it feels appropriate to think of a holiday song that can be sung with the puppies in mind!

Sugar and Mr. Orange getting into the holiday spirit!

Feel free to hum along……..

In the Twelve Days of Whelping, My Sugar Gave to Me:

12    loads of laundry

11    rooms of cleaning

10    hours of playing

9      wrapping presents

8     nail trimmings

7    puppies whining

6    nursing sessions

5    MINUTES OF RESSSSSSTTTTTTTT…….

4     box changes

3    charts to fill

2    floors to mop

and a journey of a lifetime!

Being a breeding/whelping home connects you to the puppies you have raised for the first 8 weeks in a very special way.  You feel a bond with them even though you don’t great start, puppy raise, foster them or do their final training.  You are a silent partner, rooting them on from the sidelines hoping they become the fabulous dogs you had tried to develop in those beginning weeks. You think about nature vs. nurture and what part you may have had in their development; would they have been the dogs they are regardless of the effort you put into it? You wonder if you did the “right” things when they were puppies to help them become great adult dogs; did you give your whole heart to them for the time they were with you, and was that enough? Being a home for newborn assistance dog puppies is not just a job of feeding them and loving them-for me, it’s a mission of magic.

And then as you follow them because you love to see them grow, change and learn! You start to anticipate the day they will either graduate or become part of the breeding program so that their contributions will continue.

And if you’re lucky you get the opportunity to have a brief encounter with them on the journey with the organization when they are in for final training.  I was fortunate enough to have that opportunity this week while I was in at Can Do Canines picking up puppy capes.  I got to see my first litter “all grown up” at 16 months and I got to take some pictures of them to share:)  (Thank you Can Do Staff!)  Here are 3 of the Spice Girls born in 2015 and on their way to great things!!!

Clover-originally Ms. Blue-she was the quiet puppy in the group and loved attention!

Clover as a puppy

Miss Poppy-I had a soft spot for her:)

Miss Poppy as a puppy! She was one sick puppy at 4 days old and we spent almost a week nursing her back to health, so seeing her as a full grown dog full of energy and lilfe is a special treat for me to be sure!

Saffron-although you can’t see it, she still has on a collar reflecting her original orange puppy collar:)

Saffron as a puppy!