6 weeks old

Here they are, a little late, but with their new names, which, as always at this stage, are still subject to Kennel Club approval.

Little Arvo

Infindigo Täysikuu Arvo (Arvo)

With the added bonus of Maija peeping over the top

Wagging

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Tähti

Infindigo Täysikuu Anniina (Anni)

Kuu

Infindigo Täysikuu Karhu (Karhu)

mid-week this & that

Tähti & Kuu

The puppies have managed to spend a little bit of time outside this week, although it has been rather cold and wet from time to time.  It's always good fun in the outdoor pen where they get to run around and really build up some speed and muscles.   You can join the Infindigo Finnish Lapphunds Facebook group to see all the action because we are enjoying the live video feature when the threesome are doing something particularly cute.  Of course good lighting helps, so that rules out most of the indoor action.

Here's a sample of sweet moments, including a few shots of Tuuli playing with Kuu.

Tähti buried under vet bed & toys

Arvo loves to have a pillow

Bellies

What's so funny?

Kuu & Tähti share a burger

5 weeks old

I've got a selection of photos for you of puppies doing cute stuff, but I'll save them for a couple of days.  In the meantime, here's the weekly update.  I have to admit these were taken in a slight rush so the pups are looking a a bit disheveled as they were not brushed.  Also, there are no pretty standing shots, just slightly enforced ones with the rather sleepy puppies thinking "wha?"

Little Arvo

 

Tähti

Kuu

 

4 weeks old

4 weeks old is one of the biggest milestones for the puppies because that's when they move downstairs, meet the big dogs and start to receive visitors.  Up until 4 weeks they thought that Jay and I were the only giant monsters in their world, so it comes as a bit of a shock to find out that the world is full of them!

Tuuli had abandoned the puppies a few days before, going upstairs only to feed them and then scurrying back down, so on Friday night, a couple of days early, the puppies moved downstairs to the big pen.  It was time, really, because they certainly needed that space to do some extra exercising and build up the muscles on those jelly back legs.  Even just 24 hours later they were getting stronger and more sturdy on their feet.  Yes, even Kuu.

Tuuli was so happy to have them move downstairs and she has enjoyed showing them off to all the strangers who have been coming to visit them all weekend.  And she just loves to lie in the pen with them playing.

Nom nom

Rawr

And this is what you do with toys

We woke up to a really fabulous warm and sunny autumn day this morning, so we managed to get some photos early before the day's visits started.  And the puppies even got into the outdoor pen for a few minutes for a little Facebook live video while I cleaned the indoor pen.  Convenient, to be sure, but I'm guessing we're not going to be quite so lucky every day.  On those days the puppies get the run of the kitchen while the indoor pen gets cleaned.   And then, as often as not, the kitchen floor gets cleaned too...

And so to the 4-week portraits.  They are starting to look like little Lappies now with their tails over their backs.  Not so much when they're on their own for posing, though, granted.


Little Arvo

Handsome boy still with the black spot on his toe

The show stand still needs a helping hand or four

Tähti

Pretty poser

Is this what you call a show stand?

Kuu

Not telling what we had to clean off those white paws

Frankly, I'm a bit better at sitting than standing

Needless to say we had plenty of outtakes.  Here is a small selection.

What the devil are you doing with my tail!?

I don't do outtakes

What is a outtakes?

goings on

In the run up to 3 weeks of age, the puppies open their eyes and ears, start to walk, start to play, bark and growl, and they start to eat real food.  Introduced first to puppy porridge made with warm goat's milk, they soon graduated to raw puppy paste and puppy kibble soaked and mashed up with milk.  Next will come scrambled eggs - that's always a big day for the puppies because they absolutely love scrambled eggs.  And while I am happy to make the puppies happy,  I do have a very slightly ulterior motive. 

The puppies were wormed for the first time at 2 weeks, and that is the first time in their young lives that they experience something truly awful.  And I have to do it to them 3 days in a row.  It's just awful.  This litter's prize for most screwed up face goes to

-->Tähti, who was quite appalled at the experience.  There is no photographic evidence, but for an idea, you can check out a photo diary of some of the Juhla puppies being wormed.  The next worming experience is at 5 weeks and when that comes around I hide the wormer in scrambled eggs and by then the puppies know they love eggs and they tuck right in.  Cunning, eh?

4 weeks is the next big milestone, and at the end of this week the puppies will move downstairs, meet the big dogs and start to meet strangers.  Their tails will also go over their backs, but as they are already sticking up like rudders when they walk, and wagging like crazy when they see us, I'm thinking their tails might curl before 4 weeks.

Another event that normally happens sometime before the 4-week mark is one or another of the puppies find their way out of the box, and that happened on the day the 3-week photos were being taken.  You might think it was Little Arvo, since he first stuck his head over the edge, but

-->Tähti was the first to stick her front paws up there and Kuu was the first to actually find his way over the edge.

Kuu photo bombing his sister's shots

Here's a selection of some of the other cute things that have been happening.

3 weeks old

-->The 3rd week of the puppies' lives is an eventful one.  At around 2 weeks they open their eyes and ears and start to take in the world.  Shortly thereafter the fun begins with playing, as they see each other and their mum.  They can also hear and so they amuse themselves (and us) with their barking and growling.

They also heave themselves to their feet during this week and start to walk around.  These 3 puppies were a teeny bit slow to get to their feet - particularly Kuu, who is enormous and I feared would be quite happy dragging himself around on his belly for perpetuity.  However, even Kuu eventually got to his feet and by the time they are 3 weeks old they are lurching around the box and occasionally pouncing ... ok, the pouncing might be by accident rather than design, to be fair.

For the first time ever, we have had one of the puppies punching with her front paws the way that Tuuli does.  Lots of Tuuli's kids do the double-front-paw-paw, but we've never seen one do it this early.    I hereby predict that Tähti is definitely going to be a puncher.

And because I know there are one or two very excited people who are impatient to see how the puppies are developing, without further ado, here are the puppies today, on their 3-week birthday.

Little Arvo

Tähti

Kuu

And just to prove that the puppies are big, heavy and growing fast, here are the weight charts showing their development since birth and, just for fun, a chart showing the relative average weights of each litter.  I remember that Jay & I were both ill for a lot of the time the Mailat puppies were with us, and unfortunately it seems I didn't even weigh them each week, so there's not much info about them in the comparison.

Before anyone asks, no, none of these weights mean anything or even really matter.  It's all just for fun.  Puppy size seems to bear very little relevance to adult size, and average litter weights is not a competition.  However, I didn't expect any litter to ever "beat" the Tuisku gang, thanks to Usko.  But did that behemoth of a puppy grow into a bruiser of an adult?  Nope.

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