big puppies - little puppies

Tuuli has had another busy week.  Has she been here a month already?  Or perhaps I should say only a month!

She has had several more visits to noisy town and city centres.  We had an unrestful few minutes sitting on a park bench watching a noisy digger do its thing.  We took a stroll through a street market and slowly along next to where the new John Lewis is being very noisily constructed.  All the while there have been many treats from strangers' hands and other dogs to meet too.

She has been to ringcraft a couple more times and her show stand is coming along nicely.  She will just about let the judge look at her teeth now.  Frankly, like her adopted granny Neka, she will do more or less anything for cheese.

She gets brushed regularly and has also had a bath.  Every puppy needs to experience everything you can think of that it might come across during its adult life.  A bath is one of those things, so every puppy should have a quick, gentle bath before the age of 6 months so that when the need eventually arises for a real bath, it won't be a complete bolt from the blue.  Tuuli took it all in her stride, especially compared to Neka, Keskiyo and Maija at the same age who all howled and cried during their first baths.

Next week Tuuli will spend a few hours in our local kennel.  Again, it's a way of introducing her to the idea of staying in the kennel, but she soon finds out that we will always come and get her again.  When she's a little older I'll leave her there overnight.

Kate & Jerome have very generously taken Maija to stay with them for a while so that we can concentrate on one less dog.  Maija loves to stay with them and play with Taika, Minna and her own sister Kaija from next door, so we don't feel too bad shipping her off.  Tuuli misses her ever-ready playmate, though.  She's had a game with Keksi and several with Neka, but the puppies are her favorites, and she plays so gently with them.

A gentle game with Brown Wolf

And another with Toes.

She even bring toys to the puppies to tempt them with.











In this photo you can clearly see her brand new bottom teeth.  She's really teething ferociously now and I expect those tiny pointy canines to come out any day.  I remember finding two of Keskiyo's stuck into my forearm at this age.

The puppies make for entertaining playmates, but Tuuli's favorite place is snuggled up with Keksi.  I worry that she will miss her big brown surrogate mum when Keksi goes home in a week or two.