Puppy catch-up

Well, it has been a month already since I last updated you about the puppies. We have not seen them in person since the last time I blogged about them, but we are going up to see them this weekend. I am sure that we will have plenty of new photos (and videos!) when we get back, so this is just a filler with a few of my favorite photos that I have received from our breeder... Here we see them just one week after my previous posting. In one week, they became much more outgoing and are beginning to be interested in exploring the world around them. I think that these photos will "bigify" if you click on them, but I can never be 100% sure one way or the other with blogger... We are also starting to see some of the traits that will become important in life. While I will never expect or train my dogs to retreive yogurt tubs for me, with a little training, I could expect them to do this with bumpers or dumbbells in competitive events, with pheasant or quail or ducks when out in the field, or with keys and the phone and such when doing service or assistance work. It is all based on the same type of training...

Of course, one of the other nice things is that when you have 8 brothers and sisters, you never have to sleep alone, or get cold when you are asleep :) And by having the puppies get comfortable with being in a crate now, it will make it MUCH easier on the new owners (me included!) as the puppies will know that their crate is a safe and happy place to go, and hopefully, there will not be any major issues getting them to go in and settle down. I know that some people may think that it is cruel to "lock up" a dog in a crate, but I tend to disagree with that assessment. And you can tell by looking at the photo to the left how stressed out they are about being in the crate :)

The following week, mom and the puppies were all moved downstairs to a much bigger area and they were introduced to... the great outdoors !!! Of course, that was all well and good, but as you can imagine, once they were outside, they immediantly wanted to come back inside :) I know when I was a kid, my dad used to complain on Christmas morning that my brother and I spent more time playing with the boxes than we did with the toys that came in those boxes... This must be kind of the same thing :) And now, the puppies are starting to realize that it is a mighty big world out there! Why, there is even water that falls from the sky every now and then. Sometimes it is good to be able to find a safe spot to sit and check things out. It is even better if you have a friend or two to share it with you...

And this brings us to the photo that was taken just this week. As you can see, they don't like people at all :) I still do not know which of the five girls I am going to get. As I mentioned earlier, we are going up this weekend to see them and rank them in our own mind. Then next week on Friday we will go up and decide along with the breeder which one will for sure be ours. At the moment, I do not have a color preference, but if we end up with the choice of two who are otherwise equal, I may go with a black one this time. Unless, of course, I like the yellow one more :) That's it for now, I am sure that Franna and I will have plenty to talk about after our trip, and plenty to share with you in the next week or two... I do think that I have decided on Winnie for a name, unless some other "W" name comes up that fits the puppy to a "T"...

-Dave