Today was a really big day for the puppies, they celebrated their 7 week birthday, took their temperament tests (they had been studying all week) and had a visit from "grandma", aka Mikey's owner. Our friend, Maureen, came down from Calgary to do the temperament testing. Temperament tests are done by someone that that puppy has never met before, in a place where the puppy has never been before. We find that it is interesting to see how the puppies do in this situation and it is useful to sit back and watch the puppy interacting with someone else instead of always being under our feet!

Maureen felt that it is a very nice litter of friendly, people-oriented puppies that have a typical flatcoat "softness" to them. Unfortunately it was wickedly hot when we did the testing (32C!), so the puppies were a bit hot and sleepy, but we did the testing in our soon-to-be-finished kennel building which was nice and cool.

Mikey's owner, Bev brought a huge toy for each puppy. They thought this was the best part of the whole day! They were busy carrying around yellow ducks, quail, an octopus and a monkey! The proud father also came along to visit and enjoyed swimming in the river with our adult dogs.

Needless to say, with the very hot weather, the puppies have taken up water sports. They love being sprayed by the mist setting on the hose and have started to investigate the wading pool. A few have been in, but for now the water is quite shallow. The humans have been too busy supervising all the activities to have taken many photos....hopefully later!

Another busy week! We have started spending time with each puppy on its own. This helps us to see what the puppy is like away from its littermates, plus we can start on some early training (something that is impossible in a group of puppies!). We have been working on retrieving with all of the puppies and they are doing very well. They are now able to watch and visually track something that is thrown about 10ft away. This week they have really started to understand the concept of a "treat", which means that we can start using food treats to train the puppies. Also, we now use a whistle when we call them in to their food bowls at feeding time, which will help to shape coming to the sound of a whistle.

Their energy levels are increasing and they are now very good at following us, so we are able to take them on short walks around our place. They love to romp through the long grass. When we march them from the house to the kennel or back, we call it "The March of the Pupguins"....Well, the puppies think it's funny....