Puppy Links

I'm trying to quickly figure out what the heck we're supposed to do
with puppies over the holidays in potentially deep (for puppies) snow.

I'm reading about stages of development, and came across this:

"The optimum time for taking a puppy into a new household is at the end
of the seventh week and the beginning of the puppy's fourth critical
period."
I thought we were supposed to keep pups for eight weeks for optimal
socialization with other dogs.

Sandy in OK...

This is a nice and intelligent article about the 7 week thing:

The nice thing about clicker training is that the puppies can learn
several cues as soon as they are old enough to hear and move with some
coordination. I also do a lot of handling - putting my fingers in
mouths, manipulating toes and handling ears. Teach them to accept
gentle restraint and with baby puppies (I['m guessing these guys are a
bit older) I hold them in all sorts of positions - head down, on back,

Janet B...

They were born on Monday!

swing them gently - put them on slightly warm surfaces, slightly cool
surfaces, different textures. This stuff I do before eyes are even

montana wildhack...

Thanks. Our pups were born Monday and we started Super Puppy today,

Sandy in OK...

Oops! I missed that. Congratulations and good luck with the little

montana wildhack...

We used a much different word when DH saw the first one under his desk.

And I think I asked him, "What do you mean there's a puppy???"

sighthounds & siberians...

You know, you never really told us the whole story. We know there was

montana wildhack...

Oh, I forgot. The Gateway vet indicated that we probably had two weeks
before we had puppies...

sighthounds & siberians...

You are sure they said two weeks, right? Not, oh, two hours? I can

montana wildhack...

Right

montana wildhack...

I just hope we find five lucky people! (Six, if you count a new home
for Rocco - a relative's dog that needs a new home).

understand your not being totally thrilled with them. I'd think a vet
would be able to tell when puppies are imminent.

Mustang Sally

sighthounds & siberians...

Our vet does not have a resident donor, because he uses clients'
volunteer greyhounds as donors. Greyhounds make the best donors
because of their high RBC counts, the speed at which they replenish
their RBCs, and the fact that many of them have a blood type which is
sort of a universal donor type. Also, they're usually very laid-back
and don't require much in the way of sedation. I would not call the
amount of valium Music got 'sedation', since he walked out of the
clinic after he was finished donating. By contrast, many other dogs
require serious sedation. A vet in the next town over thinks all dogs
have to have general anesthesia to donate blood (I wouldn't take a
stuffed dog to her). Music, who freaks when the nail clipper gets
near, stood perfectly calm while his neck was shaved and didn't even
flinch when the needle went into his jugular. I believe the blood is
good for 30-some days.

elegy...

huh. i don't think we've ever sedated a dog to donate. i thought we
were going to have to give mushroom something when i took him in, but
he was good as gold. the vet was actually telling a client about him
yesterday lol. we don't do transfusions that often, so i think the
vets i work for are of the mindset that if it's so stressful for the
dog that it would need heavy sedation, there are other dogs available
who aren't so stressed.

sighthounds & siberians...

No doubt that's what our vet thinks. He does do a fair amount of
transfusions and has a regular blood donation program. Most of the
greyhounds we've used as donors aren't stressed, though they might be
just a bit nervous beforehand, but I prefer that they have a little
valium on board because it makes it less likely that they'll try to
move at all. Occasionally someone will try to lift his head before
the draw is complete, and that can disrupt the blood flow. One time
that happened and the blood started to clot in the bag and the whole
bag was ruined. I thought Music was going to fall asleep yesterday.
He did move his head a tad, but didn't try to lift it, so no problem.
I always sit at the dog's head where I can murmur into their ears and
that sort of thing.

Mustang Sally

Mustang Sally

a period of about 45 minutes between when you posted that Neo was pg
with at least 5 pups and when you posted that one had just been
born...

Mustang Sally

squeekers. BroomSandy

which goes over much of what you outline. I will get the clicker out
for the puppies. We found that teaching some behaviors (like sit) were
nearly automagical with the clicker.

Paula...

When it comes to getting them used to sounds, be sure to hum a dremel
near them in addition to the vacuum cleaner and the clicker!

Can you tell I just did nail duty?

Judy...

Our breeder did such a great job getting her/our dogs used to the dremel!
And to grooming in general. But then since she's raising show schnauzers,
that's pretty important to her.

Spenser puts his ears back and curls up tightly in the corner of the couch
when he sees the dremel. Actually, before that. DH can go up and down the
stairs twenty times a day but if he goes down to get the dremel, Spenser
knows before DH even starts back up the stairs. But then he lies patiently
(sort of) on his back in DH's lap while the nails get done.

Sassy always gets done second. She watches while Spenser's nails get done.
As soon as he is out of the lap, she will slowly go over and take his place
on her own - without being told. You'd think from her body posture that it
was a terrible thing and yet she does it without being asked.

Since they get done every week, it would be a really terrible thing if they
fought it.

sighthounds & siberians...

Hmmph. Music the greyhound is the worst I've ever seen when it comes
to having his nails trimmed. Fortunately, he was asked to donate
blood today, so I had them trim his nails while he was under the
influence of valium. Now if I can just time his nail trims to
coincide with blood donations...

Mustang Sally

And I'd love to put 5 puppies on cue.

open. Enrich their environement - lots of objects to explore with their
eyes, ears, nose and paws (one of my last litter's :toys" - a couple of
years ago - was a metal utility scent article), different surfaces -
slick, rough, an x-pen panel for them to walk across. The more stuff
they experience young, the less scary things will be in their world.
Also, be sure each puppy gets human time away from the other puppies.
You can start crate training, and with the last litter I trained them
to a litter box (crate pan with "Woody Pet" from Tractor Supply. (I
started with the more expensive dog litter that has an attractant) The
litter is more the texture of outside than pads or papers. And kept the
puppy pen SO clean. First thing those babies would do on waking was
scramble for their litter box. Not one puppy ever went anywhere else in
the pen. And when you are ready to house train - just scatter a little
used litter in the area you want them to eliminate. BroomSandy

We've never had puppies to raise to 7 or 8 weeks.

Janet B...

Many states have 8 week old laws. As far as snow? You shovel! Build

montana wildhack...

I'm pretty sure Ohio is one of those states. And I can shovel the
patio, but to get out to the back yard, you have to step down and then
up to get to the potty area. Baby puppies will never be able to make
those steps - plus the whelping area is on the second floor, so I have
to figure out a method to carry five puppies down & outside. I'd better
find a big basket!

How will I know when we should start them outside? Do you start during
or after the weaning process? Will this become obvious?

diddy...

I start as soon as the mother quits cleaning them herself (usually at
weaning) but Last winter, I think I started earlier than that, figuring it
was the "cold" stimulation exercise of the Super-puppy program. I followed
up of course, with the hot stim

a canopy! Having had to do this so an adult dog could go in the yard
(3' of accumulated snow), even though the patio had FAR less snow (but
there's patio under there - I can't go THERE!), it's just something we
do.......

Judy...

I am so far out of active breeding and raising puppies that my knowledge is
pretty abstract. However,

In Pennsylvania, for instance, it is illegal to sell a puppy before 8 weeks.

There is, I am told, a "fear period" for all puppies and it may vary
according to breed. This is a critical time and occurances during that time
can have lasting effects. I'm sure there is information out there about
this period and how to handle it.

Does anyone have any good links about what we should be doing with
these puppies to get them on the right track? What are we supposed to
do with these little fur blobs?

Judy...

Our breeder is my best guidance for this. Puppies get handled from the time
they are born. A lot. And then a lot more. She keeps puppies until at
least 13 weeks (which gets them past that fear period and, for schnauzers,
gets their ears cropped) and believes that they benefit tremendously from
the additional time with her pack of dogs. By 7 or 8 weeks old, they are
barely walking steadily and seeing and starting to play. It takes the
additional time for them to learn to be dogs - which they learn best from
other dogs.

As much as I can see that our dogs benefitted from this, I've never had any
problem in my past life with getting puppies at 8 weeks. But then, we do a

diddy...

It's illegal to sell puppies in Ohio under 8 weeks of age also. But not
give them away. It's not enforced, not even in pet shops. Puppies 8 weeks
of age and older start losing their saleability factor

LOT of socializing with a puppy - which is also what the breeder does, and
probably better.

I'm looking at dogplay.com & I'm not seeing any "So You Have Baby
Puppies" articles!