Weigh-In

Toddler Puppies

With their walking woes behind them, the puppies' development is getting back on track:

Puppy Toddlers (3 - 6 Weeks)
This is when the social period in your puppy’s life begins. The puppies emerge on their own from the litter and venture into the surrounding environment. Gentle handling by you will help him to form a trusting relationship with humans in order to become man’s best friend.

During the toddler period puppies learn basic behavioral patterns specific to dogs:

• While playing, they practice different body postures, learning what the postures mean and how they affect their mother and litter mates.
• They learn what it is like to bite and be bitten, what barking and other vocalizations mean and how to use them to establish social relationships with other dogs.
  

From the age of five weeks, the mother teaches her puppies basic manners. They learn to be submissive to her leadership and what behaviors are acceptable. If necessary, she growls, snarls, or snaps at them as a form of discipline. When weaning the litter, for instance, the mother will discipline her puppies so that they will leave her alone. Because the mother disciplines them in a way that they clearly understand, after a few repetitions, the puppies will
respond to a mere glare from her.

Here is some cute video of the pups playing:

4 Weeks Old: Progress!

The pups have made LOTS of progress this week! All of them can walk at least a bit, and they can really zip through their brick obstacle course. We plan to make a longer and more maze-like arrangement this week. They are playing more with each other, spending less time with Mom, and still gaining weight appropriately.

3 Weeks Old: Not Walking

Shannon's darling babies appear to have had a set-back. After consulting with their vet, we believe that the whole litter has been affected by "swimmer" puppy syndrome. So for the last two days we have worked very hard to help turn this around. With early intervention (like we are doing, beginning when they are 2.5 weeks old), there is every likelihood these babies will be up and walking around in no time and back on track to develop as perfectly normal puppies.

Part of their treatment involves having them walk through a little track we have built out of bricks. The bricks keep them from being able to splay their limbs out so that they can gain the necessary strength in their back legs. We are also applying leg hobbles at times and have moved them to a cooler room. We have also begun introducing canned puppy food to give them something motivating to walk to and also so that we can limit Shannon's time in the whelping box a bit. And we have moved them to a large puppy pen with more variety in surfacing to help them gain traction.

We will keep everyone posted on their progress, but already we are noticing quite a bit of improvement in their locomotion in just two days.

Here are some links about "swimmer" puppies. Some use the term/phenomena interchangeably with "pectus excavatum " but others disagree that they are the same thing, though swimmer puppies can develop pectus excavatum as well. Regardless, our pups are NOT affected by the "flat chest"/pectus excavatum issue- their chests are shaped normally.

Bulldog Info (more commonly a problem of breeds with short legs like Bulldogs, but it can happen to any breed or mix)

PetEducation.com

Breeder Vet

A Wonderful Mother

Shannon is a top-notch mother. In two and a half weeks, I have yet to even glimpse a sign of puppy excrement or anything else in their nest. The puppies and whelping pen are kept immaculately clean, and they really never cry... Mama Shannon keeps them warm & very well fed (check out the growth chart!). They are one of the most content litters I have ever seen!

Now that their eyes and ears are open, we are looking forward to the next big milestone for the pups: walking!!! They are starting to get interestested (but why get up when you can lay here so nice and cozy and have some milk?!), but we are going to add a little traction to their pen tomorrow to help encourage them. The SPCA has a nice Puppy Development sheet that explains each period:

Transitional Period (13-20 days)

• Puppy’s eyes begin to open. He starts to walk and attempts to explore his surroundings.
• By 19 days, puppy’s ears begin to open and he will startle by noises.
• By 20 days puppy’s teeth begin to emerge

Two Weeks Old- Eyes Open!

We were delighted to see all three puppies with their eyes open on October 7th, when they turned two weeks old. Just precious!

One Week Old!

The puppies were one week old on September 30th... such cute babies!