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!!!

It is 2:54 am, and tonight sleep is evasive; the puppies are tucked safely away in their new homes and all is returning back to normal(except for the not sleeping part!). But unless you have had a litter of puppies in your home, the one thing that no one prepares you for is that although these are “just puppies” and they were only in my home for a short 7 weeks of their lives, they get a piece of my heart for a lifetime. I don’t stop worrying about them or thinking about them because they aren’t present in my home-it reminds me instead of when my own children went off to college. I frequently think of Sugar’s first litter that are almost 1 1/2 years old, counting down to the time when they will meet their person. Tonight I woke up after dreaming about the puppies and couldn’t fall back to sleep, so decided to write for awhile.  But as I write this, I once again realize and appreciate the fact that although they aren’t with me, whelping homes are SO lucky because we get to experience their journey vicariously through the joy of others!

When the updates on the puppies started arriving as early as the same evening of the transition I was thrilled!  I anxiously waited until the next morning to check Facebook (okay, SCOUR Facebook!) and see how their first night had gone in their new homes, what puppy antics they had put their new puppy raisers and great start homes through, and how they were adapting to yet another change in their lives. It’s an emotional roller coaster that no one can adequately prepare you for, and as with anything else I’m sure everyone feels varying degrees of attachment to pups that they raise in their home. I am one of those that feels large amounts of emotion so it seems fitting that my connection to these pups would continue, just as it did with Sugar’s first litter.  I somehow feel an “ownership” in how their journey plays out just as I’ve done in the past when I have been a puppy raiser.  I also think that doing this blog and facebook page to document the journey and share it with others has increased my connection to these puppies since I have spent a lot of time thinking and writing about them! I think that the varied connections to these dogs are what make the volunteer journey so special.

 

 

When I think of the number of people that touch the lives of these dogs to get them to their final placement, it’s almost overwhelming. If the program gets in 70 puppies throughout the year, 70 or more new volunteers are needed. Breeding Fosters, Whelping Homes, Great Start Homes, Puppy Raisers, Inmate Puppy Raisers, Fosters, volunteers that exercise the dogs at the facility and take them on outings to make sure they are ready for their duties, Trainers, Staff that connect the dots for each of the dogs coming into or leaving the program and the list continues.  Each of us gets to put a piece of the puzzle together to create the building blocks of the assistance dog in training on the “yellow brick road” to their client.

 

When that dog doesn’t make it to what we have already built in our mind as their destiny, disappointment follows-at least I know it does for me. It doesn’t matter the reason for the detour; many of us think if there is something we could have done differently-if we could have worked harder, if we could have trained better.  In our minds, we know that many things determine whether a dog graduates from the program-but our heart takes the lead and it’s hard not to make it personal because we’ve put a lot of time and energy into “our dream” to make them great. I don’t pat myself on the back and tell myself “Well Holly, you did a great job anyways”-but rather “what did I miss and how could I have done it differently?” I don’t beat myself up over it as I know there are MANY reasons a dog may not make it through the entire program and many of those reasons are completely out of my control, but I would be lying if I said that once a dog has spent time with me in my home that I don’t take a vested interest in their success 🙂

But, on the other hand, when a dog whose life we have touched makes it to that pinnacle moment and our dream for them is realized I can only imagine what that will feel like.  I say that because although I have been a volunteer for more than 5 years I have yet to be “in that moment”.  I’ve lost count of the number of dogs through our home.  We have tried to volunteer in as many opportunities as possible including great start, puppy raising, fostering, breeding/whelping etc. We have puppy raised three incredible dogs, all three were a different breed of dog-all with VERY different journeys.  One was career changed(now a very happy and loved family pet for someone), one was moved into a different career path, and one is in final training to become possibly a mobility assist dog. But then there are the puppies that have been through our home and just as anxiously I wait for them to move through the program because I am equally thrilled to follow their journey!  I feel a similar connection to them although I wasn’t a part of their formal training and growing up years-but I WAS part of their beginning days! I personally believe that everyone who has a hand in touching the lives of these pups rightly deserves the opportunity to celebrate in some form or another when they find their forever person!

So, the next time you see someone with a service dog in training and you want to ask them the #1 question we get asked of “How can you give them up after you have them for so long?”(Just for the record, the answer is “It’s hard! And, yes, we are sad to say goodbye. But we try to keep our mind on the final goal and remember that this dog will change someone’s life and that is incredibly AWESOME!”), try asking a different question instead to get a better picture, like”How do you feel when you see them change a life?”, “Why do you choose to do this kind of volunteer work?”, or the best question, “How can I help?”  I think you will be inspired by the answers you hear!!!!