Three weeks old and all kinds of stuff is happening in the Puppy Nursery.
This is the first in a series of sound habituations that expose 3-4 week old puppies to sounds that are known to cause anxiety in dogs later in life. Exposure to these sounds during this crucial 3-4 week period (and then continued periodically during the next several weeks) significantly the maturing pup avoid anxiety during these events as it matures. FYI: Not an actual window, just a big screen with YouTuBe channel .
Sound Habituation continues with young 3 weeks puppies to habituate them to sounds that tend to cause anxiety in dogs. This early exposure does have significant results in diminishing this type of anxiety for dogs as they mature. Today is an introduction to Fireworks played on a large screen TV. It starts at a low volume. If puppies show no fright or stress, then volume is increased slightly. This is played for about 1 hour 2x a day. Volume then increased tomorrow.Expanded Puppy Pen includes low ramp and extended potty areaYellow boy and Lime girl using new potty areaFirst experience with Puppy food gruelYummy Gruel
We also have been exposing puppies to loud sudden sounds to test their “startle & recovery” response.(Hopefully, I can remember to video when we do it tomorrow!) Each day, a new sudden loud sound is done 3x consecutively about twice a day (usually in morning and then after dinner). We started with just a loud hand clap, then a loud rattle of their pen, and today a wooden spoon against a pan. All our doing great. Some don’t even startle by the 2 or 3rd “bang”, and even when startled, all recover immediately and do not demonstrated any true fear and anxiety. This is a great sign!
In this session we took each of the pups out individually. We are looking for their desire to “look around” and how well they respond to the chukar wing on a string and toy on a string. If you dangle something on a string in front of a puppy, he/she will want to play with…
Earlier in the day, we were doing some field training with our older Brittanys on Chucker and Quail. Unfortunately, one of our “teenager” Brittanys (aka little Miss Journey) got a little too rough with the quail, leaving it severely injured. We decided before having to euthanize it, we would use it in a kick cage…
As we are getting really near to due date, an x-ray was completed to get a more accurate count of expected puppies. Well…vet counted 11. Let the fun begin. Oh, my!
Manding is an exercise from Puppy Culture which is the beginning of teaching a Puppy some positive reinforcement with treats as well as beginning social politeness training (specifically, not jumping up and deMANDING attention or treat). The MANDING exercise is often done with a clicker and treat. We don’t do clicker training, so I pair…
We did the final evaluations on the pups today. The evaluation is really just a continuation from what we have already done. Rather than a chukar wing or a live chukar in a kick cage, I used a dead chukar I had in the freezer for training. Thawed him out for todays session. The objective…
Green boy actually had an “escape” from the outside puppy pen, but advantage was taken of his walkabout the “big” yard. These 4-5 minute video “walkabouts” of each puppy are observation for us and you to see, again, how they do separated from the others but within hearing and sight of their pack. Observe their…
