The guys received a lovely Valentine's day card from Hearing Dog Albert. He along with his recipient are undertaking a fund raising challenge during the month of February. Their exploits are ALWAYS worth following as the bond between them is so precious. This is a link to their fund raising page should you wish to contribute. https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/sarahalbert-28challenge
With time, lots of training, copious packs of treats and a huge amount of fun, the W's will hopefully follow in Albert's paws and enhance a deaf persons life!
My buddies from the breeding team visited to assess the pups. Check their responsiveness, how sociable they are along with checking for any signs of nervousness or fear. I put the visit down as an excuse for a cuddle with a silky smooth fur monster but am definitely on their side and happy that they visited. As the pups are destined to be service dogs it is important that they are passed onto volunteer socialisers who can help to develop and build their confidence and skills. It would be unfair to partner a shy withdrawn and easily frightened pup with a large lively family. Shy? withdrawn mmm not sure these pups appreciate what these words mean. Now in their seventh week as our house guests they have started taking liberties.
A lovely wicker box containing many soft toys is not quite so pristine - The edges have certainly taken a puppy bashing. The art gallery so carefully chosen by their mum suffered a riot overnight. There are 4 suspects being interviewed but I've not yet mastered the good cop bad cop approach as when they just return their answers with puppy dog eyes my response is a cuddle rather than a reprimand.
Short car journeys are going well. A short initial protest followed by a pack of pups supporting each other through the twists and turns. Later this week they'll be microchipped and given their first vaccinations. Hopefully the handling that they've received to date from me, my friends and family - oh and the breeding team members! will mean that they're not overly wriggly for the vet and it'll be as stressless as possible.
They've all taken well to their collars and tags. It may be because there is now something extra to grab hold of when in battle mode with their siblings. The only noticeable reaction to them, other than the new item to grab, was a short scratching session trying to determine what was going on around their neck.
I was warned that the seventh week would be the most boisterous. The warnings were correct. It's not just the pups! mum has had great fun doing zoomies leading to the pups taking temporary shelter underneath chairs etc. before joining in. There has been lots of play and lots of social skill learning associated with the play. Despite having 4 boisterous pups I've tried to keep the number of visitors up so that they continue to get used to other people. This aim is great but the tiredness is growing. keeping an eye on the pups and making cups of tea and coffee mean that life has become a constant washing machine or dishwasher routine. Why am I moaning? Loading the washing machine and dishwasher can hardly be described as an exhausting task. Thankfully I'm not having to do what would be exhausting - dealing with everything by hand!
I've also been asked to keep mum away from the pups at night. Easy right! - Not with a crafty Cocker Spaniel I have no idea how she managed to open the doors to get to them but suffice to say that I found her on one side of the closed doors with 2 of the pups and the other 2 in my lounge causing havoc at 03:00 earlier in the week. I shouldn't complain that her maternal instincts are so acute - what I have done is butcher a tee shirt so that her undercarriage and milk bar are not accessible to the pups.
My 1st attempt was shambolic. My tee shirts are generous for me an obese bloke so on a sleek Cocker Spaniel they were just absurd as can be seen above. A better effort was done with one of my mother's and on the whole it appears to be having some effect as her teats clearly haven't been emptied as normal. The pups are feeding well on their own food so don't need mum any more - I've not managed to convince super bitch ... the mum that she shouldn't present herself for feeding now. The battle continues.
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