The pups turned 2 weeks old on Saturday, January 11th. They are all doing great and are very healthy.
They have recently made huge strides in their development. On Friday a few started opening their eyes! The eyes were just halfway open, but it made them much cuter. On Sunday one of the pups started walking, it was "Left Hip Female". She is now known as "Jackie", named after Jackie Joyner-Kersee the famous runner.
Also, I researched raising puppies and the things they should be exposed to and came across an article that talked about starting potty training when they are just 2 1/2 weeks old! It's called the "Misty Method" and is based on the puppies' natural instinct to keep the nest clean. Pups try to go away to relieve themselves as soon as it is physically possible for them, so this method says to use this instinct to your benefit. Newspapers should be put down just outside of the bed so they pups can relieve themselves on them. The bed needs to be kept clean and changed several times each day, this causes the pups to go to the area that smells dirty to releive themselves - the newspapers. At first the potty area should be right beside the bed, but as the pups get older and more mobile it can be moved farther from the bed.
I thought this was extremely interesting, so we gave it a shot. On Sunday we changed the layout of the pups so their bed has newspapers right next to it. The newspapers and bed are contained in an exercise pen so the pups don't get too far away. I did think it was fascinating, but was still pretty skeptical of this, I mean the pups are sort of crawling, but the majority of the time they end up falling down and going to sleep halfway to their destination. But sure enough, Within a few hours there were 2 puddles on the newspapers! The majority of accidents were still in the bed, but it was a start. Today there were about 5 puddles and 1 pile on the newspapers!!
I've continued to do the D.A.D. training as well. The spraying has slowed down, but I have been putting their nose in the container with the low scent and then putting them on Luna to nurse. I'm not sure if this is accomplishing anything, but I still want to try every method I can, and hopefully one will work. A video of Drey's Alert Dogs (where I am finding all the info on imprinting) demonstrating this stage can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q98KniaJO84
At 3 weeks I plan on practicing the scent training with the pups individually and their reward will be a small piece of real food. A video of that stage of training can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjpWFAl0alE
They have recently made huge strides in their development. On Friday a few started opening their eyes! The eyes were just halfway open, but it made them much cuter. On Sunday one of the pups started walking, it was "Left Hip Female". She is now known as "Jackie", named after Jackie Joyner-Kersee the famous runner.
Also, I researched raising puppies and the things they should be exposed to and came across an article that talked about starting potty training when they are just 2 1/2 weeks old! It's called the "Misty Method" and is based on the puppies' natural instinct to keep the nest clean. Pups try to go away to relieve themselves as soon as it is physically possible for them, so this method says to use this instinct to your benefit. Newspapers should be put down just outside of the bed so they pups can relieve themselves on them. The bed needs to be kept clean and changed several times each day, this causes the pups to go to the area that smells dirty to releive themselves - the newspapers. At first the potty area should be right beside the bed, but as the pups get older and more mobile it can be moved farther from the bed.
I thought this was extremely interesting, so we gave it a shot. On Sunday we changed the layout of the pups so their bed has newspapers right next to it. The newspapers and bed are contained in an exercise pen so the pups don't get too far away. I did think it was fascinating, but was still pretty skeptical of this, I mean the pups are sort of crawling, but the majority of the time they end up falling down and going to sleep halfway to their destination. But sure enough, Within a few hours there were 2 puddles on the newspapers! The majority of accidents were still in the bed, but it was a start. Today there were about 5 puddles and 1 pile on the newspapers!!
I've continued to do the D.A.D. training as well. The spraying has slowed down, but I have been putting their nose in the container with the low scent and then putting them on Luna to nurse. I'm not sure if this is accomplishing anything, but I still want to try every method I can, and hopefully one will work. A video of Drey's Alert Dogs (where I am finding all the info on imprinting) demonstrating this stage can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q98KniaJO84
At 3 weeks I plan on practicing the scent training with the pups individually and their reward will be a small piece of real food. A video of that stage of training can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xjpWFAl0alE