So Much to Tell

It has been a busy day for the pups so I have lots to tell you. The most exciting thing is that the pups are now recognizing and responding to people. For the first time, when I came down this morning, they came running over to me. I've been greeting them from the back of the pen so they have to get into the litter box to get to me. That has only been moderately successful even as recently as last night. But today they can see, hear and locate people and, equally exciting, they want to! Eight of the nine of them ran over to me and pottied in the litter this morning. Big YAY! (The last pup just couldn't hold it so ran over after her business :-). )

Today was also their first trip outside. It was a sunny, warm day with low humidity so I knew they would be comfortable. The grass was still wet from yesterday's rain but they would only get a little damp so I decided to get them out. My new puppy assistant, Amanda helped me haul the litter outside to the yard onto the grass. They played for about 7 or 8 minutes before crashing all over the yard. When puppies need to sleep, they sleep no matter where they are. We got lots of photos and some video so check out Week 5.

My puppy development plan also requires changing the footing in the box today to introduce the pups to another novel experience. I didn't exactly use a novel item but it sure was fun watching them explore this new part of their environment. Those photo and video are also in Week 5.

I also added some final pictures and video to the Week 4 folder. You can get an idea of how big the pups have become. Go back to the Week 1 video and photo folders to remind yourself how very small the pups were when we started this adventure only one month ago.