Happy Saturday!

This week, Jade’s puppies had their one month birthday! We have left the newborn puppy stage behind, and we are diving into the teething and tail wagging stage of puppyhood. Today, I took updated individual pictures of the puppies. This guy here was being a real gem for his picture! You can see the rest of the puppies on the Available Puppies page. I will note, though, that the pictures are a bit deceiving! The puppies of this litter are all very close in color, but the lighting in the pictures makes some of them (like this guy) look deceptively lighter than they really are.

Here are a few of the highlights from the puppies’ daily routine.

Potty training

The puppies started with the Misty Method of potty training about a week and half ago. I gave them access to a corner of the pen with newspaper, and I am working on teaching them to ONLY potty on the paper. In the last two or three days, they have really started to get the idea. There are still a lot of accidents, but I am happy with the progress I’ve seen! I’ve tried a variety of different materials for the potty area in the past, but I always come back to using newspaper, especially for the training period. When the puppies potty on the paper, I lay a clean sheet of newspaper on top. This keeps the area clean, so the puppies aren’t stepping in any messes. However, it keeps the smell. Being able to smell it helps establish in the puppies’ minds where the potty area is! The flip side of this is that I have to keep the play and bed areas smelling clean to remind the puppies NOT to potty there. This means I am changing bedding several times a day, and I usually do one or two loads of puppy laundry every day. Potty training is a lot of work, but it’s worth it when they get it!

Weaning

Four weeks marks the time that I usually begin weaning. This week the puppies got their first taste of solid food, and they didn’t need any encouragement. As soon as their little noses found the food, they all dove right in! The puppies are getting Life’s Abundance Large Breed Puppy Food. As you all know, I LOVE feeding my dogs Life’s Abundance. It contains high-quality proteins, antioxidants, probiotics, prebiotic fibers, vitamins, minerals, Omega-3 fatty acids, and DHA. Of course, it has all of that, but NONE of the unhealthy things like artificial flavors or colors. You won’t find any corn or wheat. Instead of those hard to digest grains, Life’s Abundance uses other nutritious grains like brown rice and oat groats that are better for a dog’s body. Healthy puppies are happy puppies. 🙂

Play time

Now that the puppies are fully mobile, play time is one of the most important aspects of their training. A few times a day, I let the puppies out into the large section of their pen. (They will gradually get more and more time out here as they get better with potty training.) They spend time playing with each other and playing with myself and my children. They have been briefly introduced to my other dogs, but I’ll wait until they are a few weeks older yet before they are allowed to play with the other dogs.

Socializing

The puppies get to spend some time every day upstairs in the kitchen. This gives them time to get used to normal household noises, and this is also when I work on their crate training. The puppies did very well in their first time in the crate. There was one accident but very little whining! I also practice noise desensitizing with them by playing music, sounds of fireworks, thunder, traffic, etc. at a low, background level. This helps get them used to some of those potentially frightening noises. Of course, they get plenty of socialization with people (especially the little kind) every day. 🙂

I hope you all have a great weekend!