This week the puppies will begin to spend more time outside during the day when we have nice weather.  They will eventually spend time outside every day sun, rain or snow.  All dogs need to be comfortable with going outside in all kinds of weather.

The puppies are all very steady on their feet now and are getting really playful (especially with each other).  They are doing great with their potty training by using the potty area about 95% of the time and they are keeping their beds clean all of the time. We will introduce crates to the puppies this coming week. We put all their soft bedding in the crates to encourage them to choose the crate for sleeping.  They usually all pile in one crate together as they still need each other for warmth and comfort.  

Puppies are now transitioning over to solid dry crunch kibble as they are getting their teeth. We will keep offering soft food until they all have their molars.

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This is week three of the socialization period. This week the puppies have begun to learn and be shaped by other adult dogs in the household but especially mom.  Learning dog manners is a skill that can only be taught by other dogs! We always watch interactions with other dogs closely. Mom is really the best teacher as she will stop or pin puppies that are overly energetic or that aren't picking up on cues to settle down.  This interaction is important to learning good dog social skills. They are also learning how to use their teeth without causing damage.  They teach each other that lesson as they constantly mouth and play with each other.

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We will give the puppies their Neopar vaccines this week.  Neopar helps develop immunity to Parvo--it is the only vaccine that is effective at this young age as these puppies still have passive immunity from nursing with mom.  Some vets prefer to give full immunizations at 6 weeks of age but shots at this early stage are less than 30% effective.  They have a much better immune response at 8 weeks. Our neonatal specialist recommends waiting until 8 weeks for full immmunization.  Parvo is the most prevalent puppy illness so getting a head start with Neopar is important.  We will talk more about vaccines in the take home information.

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This week our puppies usually hit what is called a fear period.  This period can last only an hour or a few days.  We will take extra care to be sure that if they exhibit any fear towards anything we will scale back and individually help them overcome those fears slowly.  Yawning, crying, hiding or avoiding are all signs of fear in a puppy. This is also the week we begin "Manding" with the puppies.  Manding is teaching the puppy to sit to 'say please.'  This type of sit is not a cued behavior (we aren't asking them to sit), we are just instilling a natural instinct to settle down and sit calmly to get what they want.  It's a way for them to communicate with us in a polite way.  We simply approach them with a handful of soft treats and we give a treat to any puppy sitting quietly.  We ignore the puppies that are jumping and pawing us.  Eventually they all catch on that sitting nicely is what gets the reward.  Peer pressure is a great thing with puppies! By the end of this week they will all have caught on and will begin expressing this very desirable behavior whenever we approach the pen.

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The puppies had their first barrier challenge this past week.  For a mental challenge that encourages problem solving and stress tolerance, we introduce a barrier that they have to navigate to get to their food.  It can be as simple as putting their food around a corner at first. We allow each puppy to negotiate the challenge at their own pace and we watch each puppy to make sure they successfully navigate to their food before we make things harder.

Everyone has their eyes open and this past week the babies all started to toddle around really well and have started to find their little voices. Tomorrow we will introduce a new bed/sleeping area along with our new pee/pooping area to help start these little ones on a path to easier potty training. In the beginning we have one soft bed area and the rest of the pen is potty area.  We use the puppies' natural instinct to keep their bed clean to help with potty training--the minute they step off their bed to go potty they will be in the desired area. Once they are accustomed to use the paper/grate area for potty we will be able to make their play/sleep area bigger. 

This week puppies will leave the transitional period and will enter the socialization period.  During this time their ears open and they begin to hear.  The puppies live in our living room so they are naturally exposed to a variety of noises that will help them adjust to family life: TV/movies in the background, children playing, vacuums running etc.are all familiar sounds to these babies.  Over the next we will also work on some startle recovery exercises. For startle recovery exercises we will randomly make sudden unusual noises that may startle the puppies ever so slightly to help shape their emotional responses. We watch closely to make sure there isn't a fear response and if necessary we will work with individual puppies more gradually to help them adjust to the noises.