Wednesday, 26 June 2013

Puppies - Day 4

Every morning about 11am, Nicole or I weigh our Tibetan Terrier puppies. We'll keep doing this every day for two weeks, then most likely once a week if they've all gained well.

The girl (black with white front paws and tiny tip of her tail - born second), was born the heaviest, and remains so, but the boy we call "Claude" (white and black, born 3rd) is only 9 grams behind her.

The other two boys born 1st and 4th are similar in weight but a little lighter, so if we see they're starting to get hungry, we give them first choice of the teats nearest to Summer's tail, as the milk is richest there.

Today we started "The Puppy Plan", which was put together by The Kennel Club and DogsTrust. who set up a new initiative (I think last year), to give every puppy the very best start in life. It is a socialisation plan for the first eight weeks of their life, and can then be passed onto the new owner to continue.

TASKS (do for no longer than 5 seconds per puppy)

1.  Hold the puppy on its back in the palm of your hand
2.  Hold puppy upright
3.  Hold puppy upside down (Nicole didn't like doing this)
4.  Tickle him lightly between the toes with a cotton bud (cotton buds are too big at this stage)
5.  Lightly rub his ears in small circles (I enjoyed this)
6.  Place puppy on a cold, damp town (they all wriggled off very quickly!)

We do this everyday until our Tibetan Terrier pups are two weeks old, before moving onto the next stage. Oh, and we do, do it right in front of Summer. She helps when we do number 1. She licks their bottoms before we continue... aaahhh...

And here are some pictures from Day 4.

 
(above)  Mum, Summer, with her pups on Day 4

 
Left to Right - Sable/white, 'Claude', Sable, Black girl

 
Yes, there are four there, all drunk with milk!

 
It's not unusual for the girl (black) to just sleep on top of the boys who are feeding...

 
We like to see the sable TTs feeding, and girly loves to snuggle

 
This is the white/sable boy. He is curled up around Summers bottom,
and is under her tail like a duvet

 
Oh year baby! This is the life!!

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