4 week portraits

The puppies are very quiet this morning.  This is a rather unusual event.  Fair warning, new-owners-to-be, spring puppies wake up very early and increasingly so as the sky lightens more and more early. 

It's no surprise they are tired this morning, though, as they had a big day yesterday. They moved into their new downstairs pen, met all the big dogs, and even had some visitors and cuddles from complete strangers (strange to them, anyway - we know them, obviously...)  Actually, they had already met Tuuli already, because twice she sneaked upstairs when my back was turned and I found her in the box with the puppies.  Yup.

In addition to all that, we had a lovely warm and sunny day so the puppies even had their 4-week photos taken outside and got a little taste of the big wide world.  Interestingly, they weren't a bit fazed by the experience.  In fact, Hopea and Claw did so much wriggling and wagging and wanting to run & play that it was difficult to get any shots of them at all.

Brown Wolf - preferred to stand rather than sit.

Hopea - looking a little bit sleepy here, but she soon woke up & then getting a photo was impossible, except for ones that were blurry with speed.

Toes - with ears back, taking in all the sounds of the great outdoors.

Little Ilo - In a bit of a funny pose, but you need to know how tough it is to get any photo at all.  It's a legitimate excuse!

Claw - doing his fashion model pose.

Brownie - with a pretty good pose of his own.

And here are some cute getting-to-know-you pics from when the puppies first moved downstairs.

Neka saying hello and doing her granny duty.  She spends as much time in the pen with the puppies as Keksi does.

No one else is allowed inside the pen, so Tuuli contents herself with saying hello and playing from the outside.

the great escape

If you're wondering how Hopea managed to climb out of the whelping box last week, you're not alone.  I'm pretty surprised she managed it, even though the puppies always try around this age.  Tiny Maija gave it a good go at the age of just about 3 weeks but certainly didn't manage to get right over the edge. 

Here they are practicing.

Hopea having another attempt while the others watch and learn...

... and then join in, right Brownie?

Brownie is then joined by Brown Wolf

Claw arrives to keep Brown Wolf company.

Toes has a go.

Meanwhile, Little Ilo tries something a bit less ambitious. 
















Video time!  Noisy puppy games.

being mean

It's a terrible thing when the puppies first realise that more than only pure unadulterated good stuff comes from my hands.

At this age they are starting to interact with us.  They respond when we speak to them and when we come into the room to the box, they come to the edge wagging and asking for attention.  So far, we have been the fonts of all good things - clean bedding, food, cuddles, tummy rubs.  But then the day comes when they must be wormed.

Oh, it's a terrible event!  The wormer is a thick white liquid that must be administered to the puppies 3 days in a row every 3 weeks.  I squirt it into their mouths using a tiny syringe and they tell me it tastes terrible.  Truly terrible.  It tastes so bad that they shake their heads and squawk and try to spit it out and it flies all over the place and even out their noses sometimes.  Ah, the poor little puppies!  Suddenly they realise that my syringes hold more than just yummy warm milk.  The second day is tougher than the first.  And the third day?  Yep, they clamp their little jaws firmly shut against any hint of the syringe.  Eventually I lull them into a false sense of security with squirts of milk, then - bam! - in goes the wormer.  Terrible, sneaky human.  Treacherous, mean human.

Luckily they don't hold a grudge and it's cuddles all round again.  After Keksi has cleaned them all off, obviously.

This is how big they are now:

Keksi rarely lies down to nurse them now - or if she does, then she quickly jumps to her feet when they descend upon her like a pack of tiny vampires.  Frequently she will stand in the box doing a general clean up while the puppies hang off her undercarriage.  She is starting to leave the majority of the feeding to me, and that's why the workload is ramping up all the time.

This weekend the puppies will move downstairs and that will be a relief for both Keksi and me.  I won't have to run up the stairs every 7.2 minutes and Keksi will be able to hang out with the gang downstairs, which she really misses.

"Oh, go on, let me come downstairs.  It's boring up here!"















Puppies doing puppy stuff:

The boys cuddling up to the cool water bowl.  There's always one.  At least one.

Brown Wolf discovers that a sibling makes an excellent pillow.

Little Ilo & Hopea showing off their bellies.

Toes spark out & tongue out.

Tuuli's second week

Tuuli spent a lot of her time socialising last week.  We had several trips to various busy and noisy town centres where she could see and hear lots of traffic noise, lots of people, thundering lorries, screaming sirens, the works.  There was also plenty of opportunity for cuddles from all sorts of strangers.

Right here on our own doorstep she gets daily exposure to children as they play in the park or walk past on their way to and from school everyday.  She is getting accustomed to bicycles, scooters and various other wheeled kids' stuff.  But it's pretty slow-going on those things because they are extra-scary.

Mostly we walk Tuuli separately from the rest of the dogs.  She needs one-on-one training and attention at this age and we certainly don't want her picking up any bad habits from the others.  However, she had a few trips to the fields where she had the opportunity to run and play with the big dogs.

Mmmm - mud!  Or other even less palatable things found in Devon fields. 















She also had her first trip to the beach where we found out that she actually has plenty of confidence.  Plenty.  No problem for her chasing off after every other dog on the beach only to come back when she was good and ready.  Just like every other Lappy, it seems.  Cue the serious recall training next week...

Trying to keep up with Maija.

No fear of the water.


















There was also her first ringcraft class.  We don't have an available puppy class in this area, so I am making up for that with our own daily training at home and in the park as well as the socialisation and training opportunity of ringcraft.  She did brilliantly well there in the strange surroundings of a noisy village hall with so many other dogs. 

She took a bit of a fancy to a little Affenpinscher but really fell for the Afghan. He wasn't quite so keen, though, and kept his distance.

Learning her show stand.

Excellent trot already!

3 week weights

The introduction of real food at about 2.5 weeks brings a new growth and strength spurt to the puppies.  They are getting stronger and their balance is improving as they practice not falling face-first into the plate of food and eating the leftovers from each other's faces.

In terms of their individual development, by the time they were 2 weeks old, Brownie had fulfilled his early promise and taken over the spot as heaviest puppy.  As you will can see from the graph, he's looking unlikely to give up that title now.  He's usually the first to stick his head in the food tray and the last to leave, so I foresee his development progressing in leaps and bounds.

Toes has had a steady progress and and reclaimed her spot as second-biggest puppy.

Hopea, the little polar bear who has maintained a steady spot in the middle of the pack is now losing a bit of ground to her siblings.  I think that's mainly because she's less enamoured of the real food than the rest of them.  She would much rather sleep, having exhausted herself stomping around, playing and wagging.  She will give the plate a few licks, but she still prefers mum's milk bar, so the rest of them are overtaking her.

Here are the numbers - as always, click on the image for a larger version that's easier to read.  For the cute photos of the day, feel free to skip to the bottom of the post.

Before their 3-week photos, the puppies all had their faces washed and dried.  At this age, the photos often look like the puppies are wet.   This is not because they are actually wet, though.  Rather, they are somewhat, um, crunchy.  Here's why.

Little Ilo with food all over her face (and paws)

Clockwise from left:
Hopea, Claw, Toes, Brownie, Brown Wolf
You get an idea of the mess they are making.









Then the fun part: licking the food off each other's faces.  Otherwise known as spreading it around.

Brown Wolf  "cleaning" Claw's face













After all the eating and playing is done, time for a snooze.  In the meantime, the food dries to a fine crisp.  Rather like hair gel.

L-R: Hopea, Brownie, Little Ilo, Claw, Toes, Brown Wolf