Busy, busy, tired, tired

Sorry for the lack of posts and pics the past few days. All due to being extremely busy with pups, visits from future owners & prospective owners, dealing with puppy enquiries, visits from relatives, as well as every day life and its demands and the needs of 3 adult dogs.  Pups are now awake for longer periods of time and spending more time playing outdoors. I don't just leave them in a pen all the time with no human interaction. They get let out in pairs or all 6 at a time for playtime and games. I also spend more time on 'poop patrol' since mom no longer does the cleanup (the weaning process has begun!).

Here are some observations from the end of the puppies' fourth week and beginning of their fifth week of life:

• pups started to follow humans and demand attention from humans
• they acquired depth perception and with it, an ability to climb down a step rather than fall off a step
• they were introduced to kibble (mushed up at first and now whole kibble softened from being soaked in hot water)
• their physical abilities have greatly improved - boy, can they run fast now & they can now climb up on things!
• they quickly mastered the ability to eat from a bowl
• they are beginning the process of being house trained
• they also learned to:
• eat by themselves rather than in a group
• lap water from a bowl and a water bucket

I also noted that they are 'giving kisses' a lot rather than biting my face off. This is being rewarded with lots of praise & pats along with a click. They still don't understand the Click/Treat notion but they are now used to the sound of a clicker.  They are exploring more with their mouths and so biting has increased. A puppy that never tries to bite never learns to inhibit its bite so it's actually important that they try to bite my fingers, toes, clothing.  When they bite too hard they will receive feedback that tells them their bite was not appropriate. To read more about bite inhibition, here's one good article from a very trustworthy source - Karen Pryor's clicker training website. http://www.clickertraining.com/node/725  Karen Pryor is the author of Don't Shoot the Dog  and one of the founders of clicker training. Karen is an active, leading spokesperson and teacher for effective force-free training across the globe. Her work with dolphins in the 1960's revolutionized animal training by pioneering and popularizing force-free training methods based on operant conditioning and the conditioned reinforcer.

I will sift through the over 400 pictures and videos taken of the pups the last couple of days and try to post some tomorrow.  Thanks for your patience!