Infindigo Finnish Lapphunds: escape

Sunday, 2 August 2015

escape

With each litter, the thing we worry about most at this stage of the puppies' development is that they will escape from the whelping box. The wees on the carpet are not the end of the world, but we are super careful opening the door of their room each morning in case someone is on the floor on the other side.

And I will never forget the time we found a sleeping 3-week-old Kiittaa on the landing at the top of the stairs.

Whelping boxes traditionally have a cut-out dip for the bitch to easily hop in and out. Of course, she can easily hop over the side, but in doing so there is the scraping of the milk bar against the edge (not comfy) and the danger of landing on a puppy (cue much screeching, generally in fright rather than injury). The old whelping boxes I have had solved this problem either by being quite high-sided, including the cut-out, or by having a convenient "door" that fit over the gap at appropriate times.

The new whelping box, while having one or two features that are superior to the old boxes, does not have a high gap nor a door. So we have been blocking it off at night with a piece of stiff cardboard. Ideal.

Well, almost ideal.

It's less that absolutely perfect because it can be nudged out of the way by Emmi as she jumps over, or even by an unsuspecting puppy. Or even a suspecting puppy, for that matter.

So it was that I opened the door this morning to find 4 of the 5 puppies rampaging all over the room. And who was the one left behind in the box? Not who you might think - I probably would have put money on Stan being the first out of the box, but in fact he was the last.

So tonight the cardboard will be taped securely in place. See how long that keeps them in.

Yesterday the puppies had their first taste of raw meat paste. They were quite surprised to find something soooo yummy that not only isn't warm, but it doesn't even have honeyed milk added to it.