The pups beginning to look and act a lot more like puppies now. They are walking, their eyes are open and they can make a lot of noise! Some of them are even howling already! They do this when they are hungry and are demanding that Tally be summoned immediately. We have also noticed much more interaction between puppies - they are attempting to play with eachother, including mouth-play, just like our adult dogs do. But mostly they spend much of their day either sleeping or nursing.
Soon, they should be able to hear, but we don't think they can just yet. The adult dogs were barking and there was no response from the puppies today. They have started escaping from the whelping box when we open the door to let Tally in. We try to get Tally in the box, but sometimes the puppies get out before she gets in! So every time we let Tally in the box it is quite the adventure.
The other dogs in our household are very curious about the puppy noises and have been very excited about the new additions, ever since they were born. But it is important to give Tally her privacy for these first few weeks, so mostly we keep them away from the whelping room. Don't tell Tally, but Lupine has snuck in on a few occasions, to admire the puppies. She loves puppies and stands over the box, wagging madly and gently sniffing all the puppies. In a week or so the puppies will move out into the main part of our house and the other dogs will get to meet them.
A few more developments today... The puppies are starting to lick at Tally's lips and face. This is their way of encouraging her to regurgitate her food for them! They are a bit young to be eating solid (or mushy) food, but it is a sign that they are getting close to being ready. We will likely introduce them to small amounts of food when they are around 3 weeks old.
And a very significant development - they can hear! We notice that they startle and wake up when they hear us opening the door on the whelping box.
Today, one of the puppies growled in his sleep. This brought Tally rushing in to the whelping room to see what was going on!
Tally is trying to tell us that it is time for her puppies to leave the whelping box. She rarely feeds them in the box now, preferring to encourage them all to pile out of the box and dine on the floor. We will probably be moving them to a pen this weekend.
As well as walking, crawling and lying down, the puppies are now able to sit. We also noticed that their teeth are starting to erupt. It will be a few more days before they are through, but we can feel them when they chew on our fingers.
The puppies had their first visitors today. Mostly they just slept while everyone admired them, but they seemed to enjoy a few extra pats and cuddles.
Today was an adventure-filled day for the puppies. First, they got to sample some solid food. We offered them a mushy mixture of ground turkey and goatsmilk. It's a few days earlier than we were planning to start them on solid food, but they were giving us all the signals that they were ready to give it a try. They were all VERY excited about the food and each puppy lapped some up. They probably only ate a tablespoon or so each, over two meals. Most of it got spread all over the floor and themselves! Tally was very obliging and helped clean up the mess. After their turkey dinner, the puppies slept very soundly.
In the afternoon, we took their week 3 portraits - stay tuned for those!
Then, in the evening, they moved in to their new digs. We set up a pen for them in our dining room (actually it takes up most of our dining room). At first there were a few complaints and a lot of pooping, but after nursing from Tally for a while, they explored their new home and then settled in for a nap.
The puppies and Tally have settled in to their new home. Although, Tally still goes in to the spare bedroom from time to time to check that there are no puppies left in the whelping box.
It is quite amazing how quickly they have adapted to solid food (well, mushy food). They got 3 very small meals today, as well as their usual meals from Tally. This time we were able to put their food in small bowls and they lapped it with a lot less confusion and mess than yesterday. Nevertheless, we did have to wipe them down with a warm damp cloth afterwards. Of course, with the addition of some food, the volume of poop and pee has increased, which means a lot more cleaning up for us! They are pretty good at making it to the "pee pads", but there are always accidents. Our washing machine is working overtime washing mats and towels, and meanwhile, our own dirty clothes are piling up!
VERY IMPORTANT NEWSFLASH! For the first time, one of the puppies actually picked up a small toy and carried it for a few steps. He then shook it and another puppy grabbed the other end and they had a brief game of tug. Up until now the toys in their pen have been considered pillows to sleep on and there was no other real interest in them (except by Tally, who likes to remove them from the pen and then put them back in again.....and so on).
The newspaper is for their after-dinner reading pleasure. Smart puppies.
It is technically Week 4 already, but as this most recent achievement happened last night, we'll report it here! This may not be very exciting for those of who who are reading this, but for us it was a very big deal:
When we got up in the morning, 100% of the puppy poops were on the pee pads or immediately adjacent newspaper!! Nothing on their towels, toys or beds. It made for a much easier clean up. So housetraining is progressing well!
