Halfway Point

The pups are four weeks old and their stay here is half over. In four more weeks we will be taking them back to the Shelter to be neutered and put up for adoption.

The pups’ development continues to be very rapid. They’re much more active now than they were a week ago and this trend will continue right up until they leave us. They are staying awake longer and playing more. We’ve also started to socialize them and have been very pleased that they actively seek out physical contact with us. They’re also learning not to use their teeth on humans.

The first four weeks are very easy for us. Mom feeds and cleans up after the pups. That’s all about to change. This week they will move out of the whelping box and get the run of the puppy room. They will also get their first taste of solid food. We’ll broadcast their first feeding live on PuppyCam. We will announce a time for that broadcast in a few days. It’s always an exciting, if messy, affair. As soon as the pups get on solid food their weight will really take off and we start having to clean up after them. It takes a lot of newspapers to raise a litter of pups!

If you’ve been following the development of the puppies’ teeth, here’s another set of pictures taken one week apart. The one of the left was taken last week. The center and right pictures were taken Wednesday evening. In the center picture you can see right above Harriett’s thumb that the back teeth are also coming in nicely. The pups should be ready to eat solid food.

Daisy continues to be an excellent mother. The pups are well fed and very, very clean. Their whelping box is almost always spotless. She’s one of the nicest mothers we have had and we’re hoping she will find a good home. We don’t worry about the pups getting adopted, but we’re very concerned for the mothers. Daisy will stay with us for 4 to 6 weeks after the puppies leave to give her milk a chance to dry up. Then she goes back to be spayed and put up for adoption. If you know someone who’s looking for a very nice, calm, well-behaved dog tell them about Daisy and have them contact us. We’d really like to see her in a nice situation after all she’s been through.