Time For Company

The pups had company this weekend. Their first visitors other than Tom, Dawn & Nicole. I went over on Saturday and my daughter Jess visited on Sunday. We carefully checked each pup over, holding it in a variety of positions and watching it's responses. Jess has been helping me with pups since she was a small child, and has helped with dozens of litters over the years. We both agreed that the pups looked terrific, even though Tom can always find something to worry about! Boji is an excellent mama, and her pups are plump and immaculate.

Because she is a very friendly dog, we do not anticipate that Boji will be protective of her pups, but as a precaution all nursing mothers meet visitors outside the puppy room. Its important that Boji not feel that she or her puppies are threatened. When strangers handle her puppies, Boji will be in her crate. Part of responsible dog ownership is remembering that dogs are not people, and they respond with age old canine instincts. Our Josie is like Boji, extremely friendly and not at all protective or aggressive, but when Josie has pups she meets strangers in our family room, and stays upstairs when we take them down to visit the pups.
It's time for the puppies to be handled by strangers now. Even though they do not yet hear, and are only starting to see, their little noses work very well and they can recognise the scent and feel of new people. This week they need gentle handling by a few groups of strangers.

NEXT WEEK we get busy. The pups will have gotten their hearing (we hope all of them are hearing next week!) so I will do the preliminary testing for that. Normally I would start doing that when the pups are 13-14 days old, but because I will be in Chicago this weekend, visiting the Pet Expo (a huge trade show), and later judging the Chicagoland Dal Specialty, and coming home by way of a couple of aquarium stores in Milwaukee, hearing testing will be postponed for a couple of days. Jess will visit the pups again though, so she may do it in my absence. (It's something we like to know as soon as possible.) Their eyes are already starting to open.

THEN it's time for visitors, lots of visitors. And time for interviews! I have not met several of the people on my puppy list. Most of previous Dal owners, but one young couple is considering their first Dalmatian. The previous Dal owners know what to expect, and are prepared for happy enthusiastic silly dogs that shed. We'll either do interviews at my house, where they can be mugged by all my dogs who LOVE company, or at Tom's house where they can be mugged by Boji. If we do that, I'll take Argus along so they can meet him too.
Dogs are not a disposable commodity, or at least they shouldn't be, although a visit to any Humane Society will make you wonder otherwise. Reading the reasons for surrender will reveal that the dogs "got too large", "shed too much", "pulled too hard", or that the buyer "didn't have enough time". DUH! Obviously the original purchase of a dog was not very well thought out. Dogs need grooming, training, and LOTS OF TIME.

Raising a puppy CORRECTLY is a lot of work!