The third week was full of changes all around. Eyes opened fully, hearing started going live, their voices got louder and more diverse, and the puppies became so much more interactive with each other. Some cut some sharp teeth, apparently using them on Maya which made Mom go on strike.
Seeing & Vocalizing:
Puppies eyes were just cracking open last week and within a few days they were wide open. Interestingly, once their eyes opened and before there was evidence of hearing, they started broadening their vocalizations. They added trills and growls and a few howls to their vocal repertoire, previously limited to coos, groans, whines and cries.
Hearing:
Puppies just got their hearing live. Their ears fell from an upturned position to dropped on the sides of their faces Right before they started to hear. You can tell they can hear when you see the first startles to sounds and/or puppies stir and wake up from a dead sleep when they hear you enter the room. Once their hearing goes live, it's my clue to start introducing them to the normal sounds of life, and start noise desensitization. There's a blog about noise desensitization on an earlier blog. One of the best ways for puppies to learn about the sounds of normal household life is to start living in a main living area.
Moving Day:
Puppies were moved into our living room a couple of days ago. They are near the kitchen where commotion happens all day long, and some of the loudest sounds happen with the blender running, dishes clanging, and and dishwasher cleaning. They are near the dining table, and they are near a door where they can see the great outdoors. In a couple of weeks, they will spend much of their day in an outdoor pen, weather permitting. Where they are currently, dogs and people cruise by the puppy pen dozens of times a day. Right now Maya has an apartment in that area, with a fenced off area outside the puppy pen, where she has her own raised bed and feeding station. The other two dogs frequently peer through the fence and watch the puppies, Gloria always talking with them via her own dog language.
Feeding:
Another thing that happened this week is that many of the puppies became turbo drinkers. I found that out when one of them slammed down a couple of ounces of milk in a fraction of the normal time. They drank more than normal, and crawled away moaning, similarly to how I do when I've eaten too much Thanksgiving feast. So I've needed to watch the milk volume very vigilantly as I'm bottle feeding them, because there is so much variation in how fast and how well they drink. One puppy had a rough day last Thursday, suddenly grunting and breathing rapidly for a couple of hours. She got a free ride right with me, hanging in my baby sling part of the day, because she really worried me; All it takes is a big slug of liquid down the wrong pipe and if it settles in, could potentially become a pneumonia and take out a puppy. After a few hours she appeared back to normal, and as we kept a close eye on her the next couple of days, all seems well.
Teething:
There have been a couple of incidences that Maya has gone on a feeding strike, jumping out of the pen shortly after she began feeding her puppies. The first time was only a day or two after dremmeling the puppies nails. After feeling a couple of their mouths, I learned that all puppies are starting to cut their teeth, and a few of them already have sharp teeth erupted. When I say they are cutting teeth, it's not a slow process like babies; They are cutting the front six top teeth, at least six bottom teeth and two to four back molars all at the same time. So when they are cutting teeth, they are cutting nearly a mouthful all at once. So Maya is requiring encouragement and reassurance with many of their feedings, sometimes needing me to sit in the box throughout the feeding. In some ways we are becoming even more dependent on bottle feeding and working to transition them toward eating gruel soon as their primary food source. We've started by offering a shallow dish of milk to drink from and assessing each puppy. Puppies that do not lap liquids well and those that have the least teeth eruption are the puppies spending the most time with Maya, and the puppies with the sharpest teeth, able to drink from a bowl will be working toward gruel sooner.
Potty Training:
As soon as puppies potty on their own without Maya's stimulation, they are introduced to a potty area. Right now it's a tray of artificial turf that is low to the ground and easy to climb on. Some puppies are seeking it out frequently hitting the mark, and others not so much. We will soon transition them to their more permanent litter box full of pine pellets.
Collar Change:
The collars I originally bought for the puppies were too big for them at birth. Additionally, there were 12 collars and 13 puppies! I had bought a pack of ribbons just as a back up, and ended up putting them to good use. I actually really liked the polka dot ribbons, but they are much harder to adjust on quickly growing puppies! This week as the puppies started biting at each other and biting the collars, it was time to switch them to the breakaway collars for their safety. The ribbons were washed and will be in their going home folders. There is not a perfect match between collar and ribbon colors, so I put original ribbon colors on each pup through the collar loop. Here is a picture of the collars:
Anticipated this week:
Pine pellet litter box potty training
Noise habituation soundtracks
Noise desensitization practice
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