Let the Games Begin!

It was a big night, last night! It was 72 hours since the pups were born and that means the beginning of our developmental program. That means, the pups went to school for the first time. Now mind you, they have learning all kinds of things with Dreamer in the whelping box. They've learned how to find mom or each other for warmth, how to root around to find a nipple and how to hang on for dear life while brothers and sisters try to pry you off, how to throw your weight around if you have it or how to be sly if you don't. Yesterday, they learned how to balance precariously on each other or their mom's foot to grab and hang on to a dangling nipple.

But now they are going to learn some additional subjects, such as Biosensor 101 and Scents 101. We started last night with Biosensor, a set of exercises developed by the military for their working dogs. These series of movements slightly stress the pups in ways they don't typically experience in the whelping box. Stress has to be managed carefully in young animals because it can be detrimental or developmental, depending upon the amount, timing and type of experiences. We don't want to throw too much at them too soon so this program goes step by step from now till they go to their new homes, then we give their new owners information on how to keep up the lessons.

I'll post some videos over the next few weeks but tonight, I'm off to do Biosensor on the pups and introduce them to "moss."