montana wildhack wrote:
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:
(http://www.ccc.govt.nz/animals/Criti...evelopment.asp)

"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.


This is a nice and intelligent article about the 7 week thing:
http://my.execpc.com/~crzy1ess/49daymyth.htm

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

On 6 Dec 2006 08:30:11 -0800, "Sandy in OK" ,
clicked their heels and said:

(I['m guessing these guys are a
bit older)

They were born on Monday!

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

montana wildhack wrote:
Thanks. Our pups were born Monday

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

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 12:43:43 -0500, montana wildhack
wrote:

On 2006-12-06 12:36:09 -0500, "Sandy in OK" said:

Oops!

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???"

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

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 13:21:21 -0500, montana wildhack
wrote:

On 2006-12-06 13:04:29 -0500, sighthounds & siberians said:

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

Well, in that 45 minutes, we discussed what we wanted to do about the
spay, since the vet said we'd have to let them know the next morning.
We went back and forth about what to do. We checked email, etc. We
agreed to talk about it more after our meeting and laughed about how we
should have expected that she would come here pregnant. DH changed his
clothes, came back into the office, Neo lay on the pillow under his
desk and Bella was on the pillow under mine. We discussed what was
going to happen at the meeting and we heard a funny noise. Like a
squeek. Then it sounded like a kitty. He tried to reproduce the sound
(his chair makes noise) and finally looked down. It was the first puppy.

That's pretty much it! Of course, there was some disbelief on my part,
then I took Bella out of the office, we had a short discussion about a
whelping box, he went to the basement, I got on the phone with the vet,
we set the crate up and by that time, she'd had puppy 2!

and the rest, as they say, is history. You left out what you and DH
said when he saw the first puppy, though.

Mustang Sally

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 13:44:59 -0500, montana wildhack
wrote:

On 2006-12-06 13:04:29 -0500, sighthounds & siberians said:

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

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

You are sure they said two weeks, right? Not, oh, two hours? I can
understand your not being totally thrilled with them. I'd think a vet
would be able to tell when puppies are imminent.

Mustang Sally

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 14:09:04 -0500, montana wildhack
wrote:

On 2006-12-06 13:51:09 -0500, sighthounds & siberians said:

You left out what you and DH
said when he saw the first puppy, though.

"It's a puppy!!!!"

"What do you mean it's a puppy?!?!?!?!?!?!"

"Honey, she's having her puppies!!!!"

"What do you mean, puppies?!?!?!?!"

Heh. I'm pretty sure that's not what I would have said.

I like your responses.

Mustang Sally

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 14:45:25 -0500, montana wildhack
, clicked their heels and said:



I swear to god, we believed we had time to think this through and be rational.

a perfectly reasonable assumption, given the information you had! I
gotta tell you, the internet (and a good community that you're part
of) is a pretty great thing to have handy, along with the vet on the
other end of the phone.

If I'm am ever tempted to adopt an unknown status dog, I will
definitely be doing some things immediately - if your experience
hasn't made anyone realize that this is NOT for tha faint of heart,
well...... and you have a good mother who birthed naturally and
easily. Can you imagine if it had not gone so well?!?!?

--
Janet Boss
www.bestfriendsdogobedience.com

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 14:45:25 -0500, montana wildhack
wrote:

Then there were some 2 Stooges moments while we got some packing boxes,
put them together, and realized that wasn't going to work. DH had to
run to the basement, pull the giant crate out from under a truck bed
full of boxes we are storing, grab the dog towels, and try to navigate
up two flights of stairs. Our house was built in 1929. The basement
stairs work well if you're short and empty-handed.

Sounds like our house, which is about the same age. We've lived here
16 years and still smack our heads in the basement.

I swear to god, we believed we had time to think this through and be rational.

Well, that's not unreasonable, considering that you'd just been told
you had about two weeks until puppy arrival.

Mustang Sally

sighthounds & siberians wrote in
:

On Wed, 6 Dec 2006 14:45:25 -0500, montana wildhack
wrote:

Then there were some 2 Stooges moments while we got some packing
boxes, put them together, and realized that wasn't going to work. DH
had to run to the basement, pull the giant crate out from under a
truck bed full of boxes we are storing, grab the dog towels, and try
to navigate up two flights of stairs. Our house was built in 1929. The
basement stairs work well if you're short and empty-handed.

Sounds like our house, which is about the same age. We've lived here
16 years and still smack our heads in the basement.

I swear to god, we believed we had time to think this through and be
rational.

Well, that's not unreasonable, considering that you'd just been told
you had about two weeks until puppy arrival.

That's right! *That's* what had me confused in the health group about vets
and doggie pregerries. Is it that hard to tell? I guess it would be what
with not being able to get a dog to stay in the stirrups long enough for a
thorough gyn exam.

Tara