Appalachian Mountains Litter

Irene rarely lays down for them now. If she allows them to nurse, she stays standing and they better reach for it. The puppies had saucers of formula last week- tis week they transitioned to wet food + formula and from there, to wet food + moistened kibble.

The feeding stations allow me to monitor how much food each puppy is eating, if they are eating any of the moist kibble vs wet food, and prevent resource guarding.

The puppies took to the travel waterers without issue. I like these because they are virtually spill-proof and shallow to prevent accidents.

The puppies have touched packing paper before during a novel surface exercise but now they are interested in playing with it. Herman caried his piece to the other side of the box and back- just because.

AviDog recommends building an adventure box to get the puppies accustom to things bumping into them, clanging around in space, and dangling above them.

These guys didn’t give much attention to the box this week. Maybe when they are taller next week, they will notice it more.

The living room pen was set up this week. This pen allows them to be involved in the bustle of a human household and watch other adult dogs.
This pen also introduces crate spaces. The puppies have taken to them and frequently pile up inside for naps.

Puppy Culture has an exercise called the barrier challenge. The puppy is placed on one side of a barrier and a bowl with food is placed on the other. The intention is to teach the puppy problem solving.

We did this 2x with each puppy. The photo here is a video snapshot. Please forgive the poor quality.

More bodywork this week, as directed by the Puppy Chronicles program. I didn’t have time to coordinate photos of the down restraints this week but those went relatively well.

Sit restraint work is already paying dividends during grooming.

Check out this video for a what bodywork looks like! The breeder in the video is Diane- she’s been incredibly generous answering my questions about getting started with these protocols with this litter.