The puppies had a steady stream of visitors this weekend. They had a great time playing with everyone and are starting to get into tugging on pant legs and chewing hair (they especially liked the long blonde hair of one of their younger visitors!). We are taking full advantage of their visitors, getting them to help us carry the puppies outside and feed them.

This weekend we really noticed that the pups are becoming more aware of their surroundings and are very focused on people, watching us from quite a distance and wagging their tails furiously when we approach. When we are outside they follow along behind us and like nothing better than to jump into laps.

Everytime we feed them, we say "pup pup pup pup pup" and they are very tuned in to this and come running full speed when they hear it. It will be something that puppy owners can start training a recall with. We also use a clicker and give one click when they first start eating. We are hoping to do some early clicker training with them before they head for their new homes and their owners can continue with this if they want to. For now we are just getting them used to associating the clicker with something very positive (food).

Monday May 31st

This evening's play session was a hoot. They had the kitchen to themselves (covered with mats so that they are not on the slippery lino) and Tally insisted on joining them. After they nursed until they could nurse no more, they chewed on her ears, pounced on her tail and played, played, played..... We have added more cardboard boxes to make a tunnel-like maze. A couple of the black puppies (#6 & 9) went through the whole thing, but most of them were much more interested in something else - CARROTS! We threw a few baby carrots in the play area, as they are very keen on chewing things right now. They thought the carrots were pretty good stuff. They carried them around, played tug of war with them, batted them about the floor and of course, chewed them.

We also put a water dish out for them. Being true flat-coats, this prompted several rounds of competitive drinking. I knew we would regret this later and sure enough, there were a lot of small "lakes" in their pen the next morning..... After the puppies had drained the bowl of water, Wilson proceeded to carry it around. Pretty impressive considering that it was one of our adult dogs' metal feeding bowls.

They also got to play with a couple of full-size tennis balls (since Piper ate the puppy-sized one). We were amazed that they were perfectly capable of carrying these around already.

Thursday June 3rd

The puppies are outgrowing their pen in the dining room. They are now getting to spend some time in one of our outdoor kennels. There is more room to run and play and they can interact with our other dogs. Today they spent the whole afternoon outside and had two groups of visitors.

It has been quite hot here, so we have been putting wet towels in our freezer and then taking them out for the puppies to lie on. They just love their frozen towels! There is also a cool indoor part to their kennel run, but as not all of them have the dog door figured out yet, we have to clip it open for now.

Lupine and Huxley think their new neighbours are very entertaining and they like to lick them through the chain link fence and watch their antics. We have all our adult dogs out with a few puppies at a time, under our supervision. They are all getting along well, and Lupine loves to play with them.

Friday June 4th

They were introduced to running water today - a running hose in their water bowl. They all thought this was great fun, especially given the hot weather. One of the puppies managed to carry the hose away from the water bowel, which was even better fun because of the big puddles it made in their run. There was lots of splashing about. Unfortunately Andy had the camera at work, so we did not manage to get any photos. This weekend we will see what they think about a sprinkler and will be sure to get photos!