play

Once the puppies start to hear they start to make noise. In addition to the little grunts they make when they're wrestling over a prized spot on the milk bar, they start to bark, squeak, squeal, howl (amusingly) and - funniest of all - growl. They test their volume, too, and they frequently give each other and themselves a bit of a start with an unexpectedly shrill screech.

And once they start to see, the whole big world opens up to them and all the really cute stuff starts. When I say "whole big world", I mean the portion of the big world contained within the walls of their whelping box. At this stage, anyway.

They gaze up at you as you peer into the box, they wag at you (I know!), they gaze up at their mum (and chew her ears, and take swipes at her nose) and of course, they can see each other. This is when the playing starts. It usually kicks off with a bit of mutual face-chewing.







































At this age they do a lot of sleeping, so after about 5 minutes or so of playing, they all look for somewhere comfy to have a snooze.




"I bag the corner!"
Kicker doesn't look impressed.

And, on a different note, he looks so much like Inko did at the same age! Same little comma eyebrows.

















"You lie on him & I'll lie on you."











In the meantime, other puppies just sleep through it all.





"Who woke me?"