Moving Day

We had an exciting time this morning, moving the pups, their dam and all of their accoutrement to the dining room. We are having work done upstairs and wanted to get them out of the way of the contractors. The pups handled the move easily (who wouldn't when you are carried around in a heated and padded basket?) but it took Una a while to settle in. She was convinced that a puppy got left upstairs. I kept counting for her but she insisted. I finally put an exercise pen around the whelping box, thereby locking her in, and gave her a bully stick to occupy her. Within a few minutes, she settled down quite contentedly.

The pups are all growing well. The three big ones are nearly 1 1/2 pounds and Mr Red is over a pound. Their pigment is coming in strongly and they are now round and sleek. Una has started nursing sitting up, a technique usually used when the pups are at least a week old, so they are getting their exercise as they work to get their meals.

Una has started getting bored. How can we tell? She kept a tennis ball in her mouth most of yesterday afternoon, looking hopefully at the doors. We had to sneak Corey and Flyer out for some exercise so Una wouldn't see them. I suspect she'll be back to work this week.

We've been handling the pups each day since their birth but tomorrow starts their formal development program. We'll start BioSensor exercises, introduce them to novel smells and begin their problem solving.

I'm off to nap. Andy pulled duty last night so I got a decent night's sleep but I'm still feeling the lack of zzzz's from the past week.