A Busy Weekend

Sounds as if the pups will be busy this weekend. Visitors will include me, of course! I'll be meeting up with a family who may be getting a pup from the litter, plus I need to spend some time just watching them trot around and interact, and I will start stacking (standing) them on a grooming table. This is the week when we start seriously considering who will stay and who will be leaving. Because my friend Libby is looking for a performance puppy, I want to concentrate on Ava this weekend, to see if she has the right kind of personality for competition. Libby will wait for just the right black-spotted girl, to join her multi-titled and multi-talented Pierce who we sent to her some years ago.

This is also an important week for puppy socialization. Because they will be leaving soon, the pups still need to be exposed to many additional things. More kids, more places, more noises, smells and surfaces. Now that the pups are eating well, it's time to start making a lot of racket while they eat - by associating loud noises with a pleasurable activity like eating, it insures that the pups will not have problems with dog show noises, thunderstorms and the 4th of July. Pups who are "protected" from such things as babies, have trouble adapting to them later. When the pups are at my house, I kick coffee cans, roll food pans down the stairs, and drop pots on the floor. It's a great way to vent a little frustration too! (And no wonder my neighbors shake their heads.)

We're hoping to do stacked pictures later this week, pictures of all the pups from all angles. I have 40+ years worth of litter pictures, and Tom will want to start his collection too. Jess and I have been taking puppy pictures since she was about 8 years old, so she's had LOTS of experience stacking puppies, and ignoring my endless observations and suggestions. (Marriages have probably ended over puppy pictures - maybe that's why David and I split up years ago!) I will be stacking them too, although not for pictures. You can tell a lot about a puppy when stacking them, and can see and feel how they fit together. The stacked shots, continual observation of their personalities, and watching how they move at a trot, will tell us a lot over the next week or two. We know the cosmetics (spotting, trim, faces) are good, now we need to concentrate on structure and personality. Then we also need to be sure the bites are correct (they must be scissors) and the little boys are "complete".

Several of the things we can only guesstimate are eventual size, and tail carriage, and unfortunately bites sometimes change when the second teeth come in. Some pups will have their adult size by 7 or 8 months and some will grow until they are well over a year old. Because the breed standard has a height disqualification for dogs over 24 inches, we sometimes sweat that one on boys. Most of the pups will have their tails up at 6 weeks - and there is no surefire way to know which tails will come down to correct carriage - a slight curve upward off the level - and which will look like flagpoles or cuphooks. HOPEFULLY no flagpoles and hooks, but those are rather common faults in this breed. The hardest thing is when an otherwise outstanding puppy goes undershot at 4 months. That's a tough one!

We use the goal of all puppies meeting and interacting with 100 friendly strangers by the time they are 12 weeks old. Gotta keep the visitors coming!

BAER testing is scheduled for next Saturday. We know all the pups hear, but we don't yet know if they all hear in both ears. About 20% of the breed is unilateral (one-eared) hearing. It makes no difference in companion pups, but it is something to take into consideration on show dogs and breeding stock, as uni Dals are more likely to produce deaf puppies. Unis can be shown, but just have to be bred more carefully. Most people prefer bilateral hearing pups for performance, but one of the breed's most titled Agility dogs is a uni, so we know that they can excell in performance as well. BAER testing is done by attaching tiny wires to the puppy's skull, and monitoring the brain waves - sounds worse than it is, as the tiny wires have thin needles that are slipped under the skin. The pups don't mind the needles, but do hate having to sit absolutely still for a few minutes!

Time to feed dogs. Watson and Indy are wresting on the rug, but Argus is staring at me, trying to send me thought waves. Not sure if he wants to eat, or visit Joy in the honeymoon suite. We'll get to that later today. Gotta get Indy ready to meet her new family.