Day 23-- Hello Mommy

In the first three weeks the puppies only know Mommy as a place of warmth and a source of food but they now recognize her as something very different. The pups are interacting with Hope on a regular basis and love to chew on her ears, lick her face and to be nuzzled by her. In the first photo Nikos is instigating some Mommy play. What a pretty puppy he is; because he has thicker fur his markings are not as noticeable yet, but he is strikingly pretty.

 

Atz Lee takes a turn trying to get Mommy's attention 

 

                                         He finally decides that a bite on her ear may do the trick.

 

                                                Why yes, that worked. As time goes by and their bites become harder Hope will discipline them for hard bites by getting up and leaving. It is a good way for us to teach bite inhibition too.

The pups are interacting more and more with the toys that I place in the puppy pen. Here they meet Grammy Chris's bumble bee. 

 

Oh, hello little lamb. Lamby plays lullabies and they seem attracted to the music.

We did some startle/ recovery work yesterday. They are being raised in a rather noisy environment of our kitchen as it is, but I added metal pans banging over their heads, encouraged Gavin to be a little louder  in his play, and then the big test was an electric drill drilling holes in the puppy pen. The reason for that is I wanted to now attach a play yard for them and needed a way to attach it. Here is Daddy Gage checking out the new play area. I had Gavin remove the extra barrier and then encouraged the puppies to come out over the top to explore the new space. What fun to watch as each learned that they could climb and that sliding down the ramp was actually fun.

Here's Mama checking out her new sleeping place. She approved. She is able to be in with the puppies or come out to get some peace. 

This is Otto just because I thought it was a cute shot of him. Like the others, he has a very sweet face.