Fun with New Friends

The puppies just got done meeting five new people -- they are now up to 24! It is fun to share the puppies with other people, and especially with children. The puppies were on their best behavior and impressed our visitors with their excellent potty manners. One puppy thought it was summer and that swimming sounded good so she curled up in the frying pan that serves as a water bowl! She was one wet puppy ☺

The puppies are so friendly and social. They climb in laps and give kisses. Yes, they also bite but that is, after all, part of the puppy job description. Last night a puppy thought I needed a new piercing – in my toe – OUCH! In spite of their tendencies to imitate small piranhas, I am really happy with how well the puppies are doing with new people and new situations.

Liz asked about how the puppies stay so clean, and the type of care that Halo provides. Halo nurses the puppies and does a little bit of licking but I would not say that she cleans her puppies. She hangs out with them and does some playing with them, and would really love to eat their chicken and rice – but she apparently does not think she should clean up the puppies like she did when they were smaller.

The simple truth is that the puppies really do not get dirty. The whelping box is lined with newspaper, which is covered with a fleece and then I put towels on the top of that. When they pee, it soaks down to the bottom layer so there is not a lot of surface wetness. If they poop, it is cleaned up right away. If it happens at night they somehow (so far) manage to avoid it and I clean it when I get up in the middle of the night or morning. That said, we rarely have a pile in the whelping box at night. I change the whelping box twice each day and if we see a pee puddle in between we put a clean washcloth over it.

The play area is linoleum lined with a folded fleece in one area that serves as the outhouse. Because we are always around, we immediately clean up any accidents and/or poop piles. The puppies are getting quite good at only going in the designated potty zone and the fleece that serves as the potty zone draws the moisture down so the surface is rarely wet.

So they stay clean because their living space is so clean – and we keep it that way both because we like clean puppies but also because they are in our house and we do not want the house to smell like a kennel! When they eat more they will start to potty more and it will be more work to keep everything clean but we manage – the puppies do not get a bath until right before they head for their new homes.

The pictures are hot off the camera. We have Darby playing with her Auntie Maize – Darby and Rosebud both had fun with Maize this morning. We have fun pictures of the puppies with our visitors – I think you can really see how well the puppies did in these pictures. Sula is busy chewing on a plastic spoon while being held, and the other close-up is Kinsey. Thanks so much to Kathy, Kelsie, Sean, Bailey and Peyton for visiting us this morning!

I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. We have no other visitors planned for the weekend so will just be hanging out here in the Pines with the dogs – feel free to stop by!