(hopefully they were worth the wait!)
Week Four seems to be flying by, with not much time for updating the website. The puppies and Tally are all doing very well. The puppies now have clearly visible teeth, but it does not seem to have put Tally off from letting them nurse. Sometimes Tally just stands in the puppy pen, as the puppies can now reach the milk bar that way. When Tally decides she has had enough and walks away, the puppies look a little like bowling pins as they all fall over in varying directions.
Tally is losing weight and looking a little thin, so she is getting a lot of food. She gets around 8-10 meals a day!
The puppies are much more interactive with us now. They watch us as we clean their pen and move around them. When we put a hand in the pen, they hurry towards us, wagging their tails. It has now become very difficult to clean out the pen while they are in it, as they want to participate and to be honest, they are not very helpful! We have a smaller area penned off to the side that we use for feeding, so we put them in there while we clean their main pen.
Our house has a very open design, so the puppies are subject to everyday household noises and commotions. This is a very important part of their development - they soon realize that loud noises don't result in anything bad happening, and they quickly learn to bounce back after such sounds. They have taken the dishwasher, grinder, television, radio, vacuum cleaner, dogs barking etc. all in stride.
This morning, one of the puppies managed to escape from the puppy pen, by climbing over Tally's door, which is about 10" high. It is now 14" high and hopefully that will hold them in for a bit longer! That way, Tally can come and go as she pleases.
Yesterday we had a bit of a disaster. In the process of washing puppy mats and towels, our old washing machine broke, flooding the upstairs bathroom, mainfloor bathroom and parts of the basement! Quite a mess. The puppies stayed dry, but Tally wondered why it was raining in the main floor bathroom!
April 2
The weekend brought more visitors, and a new washing machine! The puppies are increasingly interactive, but still spend much of their day sleeping. Below are some photos which show them at work, rest and play....
