And now there are six....

Dillon, one of the puppies that flew to Minneapolis, arrived safely at his new home in Michigan. His owner, Terry, reports that he is a very smart puppy and is already sleeping through the night in his crate. He has been busy making friends with her other flat-coats, Rory and JR. Kitty has settled right in with Karen in Minnesota and is apparently retrieving everything that Karen throws!

Two puppies are leaving this week, and then we will have four for a while. One is staying here, #4 liver female, now known as "Tima". #3 "Macleod" (formally known as Wilson) will live nearby in Lethbridge and we will co-own him. We are still making plans for #10 "Tiger" and #9 "Harry".

We've really noticed this week that the puppies have become much more "polite" around eachother and our other dogs. They still play together a lot, but it is a kinder, gentler kind of play. We let them mouth our hands and they are very soft and no longer bite down hard. This is one of several reasons why we chose to keep the litter together until they were 10 weeks old. The 8-10 week period is when they really start to become more proficient at dog language and learn some manners.

We are continuing to work with the puppies one-on-one. We have been teaching them the "eye contact game" - the idea being that they get rewarded when they look at us, and not the treat. They are all catching on very quickly! And of course they all get a few retrieves every day, which they just love.

#2 left today for Vancouver. His new owners, Shelagh and Dave, drove out to pick him up. They brought along their other dog, Kaleigh, as well. We are hoping that #2 (name is as yet undecided) isn't too noisy on the very long drive home! 

So now we are down to just five puppies.....