Can’t go outside?  Improvise!  One more new space to play in!

The departure day for the puppies is getting close and we have a couple of recommendations:

We’ve been monitoring the puppy space continually since they were whelped.  Right now 70 degrees is the lowest they seem to be managing without shivering, so we recommend a minimum of 72 degrees for the room temperature when you get them home, especially when they’re lying still/not moving around.

We’ll provide a few “pee pads” for you but suggest that you pick up a box of 22″ x 23″ (more or less) pee pads, available at Target or Petco, for the transition to peeing outside.  This weather is so cold that you’ll never get your coat on quickly enough when you see your puppy is about to go (body language you will quickly learn).  But if there is a pee pad right near the door, you can carry your puppy right to it, set him/her on the pad and teach that the pee pad is a “good” place to go potty (or whatever you call it at your house.)  Lots of affirmation and a bit of urine pressed onto the pad (from a previous pad) will increase successful use of the pee pads.  DO get into the habit of being ready to take your puppy outside (on leash) as often as possible so that he/she learns that outdoors is the place where peeing and pooping happen.  You won’t have to stay out long if you go out when he/she comes out of the crate after napping, after a meal or after a few minutes of playing.  The pee pad near the door should be just a transitional place to go.

The puppies have gravitated to the little polar fleece blankets that we’ve set out for them.  Actually we bought a couple of bed-sized polar fleece blankets and cut them into 30″ x 30″ pieces).  These make the ideal kennel/crate bedding, either a couple of them folded and layered one on top of the other or one polar fleece blankette on an old towel (not a frayed towel, however, as they will just shred it further, and that’s NOT good for digestive systems.)

I’ve been re-reading the little AKC New Puppy Handbook and it has a lot of great information, developmental stage by stage.  It includes a reminder that treats should be very small (Biff recommends soft ones to start) and you’ll want to consider them as part of your puppy’s total calorie intake, just like human treats.

As the coldest weather since the mid 1990’s blasts toward Minnesota, we all are staying pretty toasty inside.

A few days ago, Biff, in a noble attempt to provide some outdoor time for the puppies, got the idea of building a clear windscreen around the kennel just outside our “doggy door”, a place for the puppies to get outside and into the sun and fresh air, if even for a few minutes.  How disheartening to find the temperatures for the pups’ last week with us are not cooperating.  Temperatures at zero and way below zero are just too cold for 7 week old puppies, wind or no wind.  So his project was halted.  We are going to open up the other downstairs space tomorrow to provide these increasingly active (and larger) puppies to motor around.

The puppies had a few more visitors today, from Lakeville and Richfield.  Thanks Joanie, Rich, Melissa, Brady and Brinna for driving out.

We were going through old photos and found these shots of Chev when Biff picked him up in Montana and another taken during the road trip when Biff drove him back.

And here’s our boy now, just his unbrushed handsome self, out playing on a cold winter day.

Despite their growth, the puppies continue to snuggle with each other in a sprawling pile when they nap.  What a big transition it will be at the end of next week when they join their new families and no longer have their littermates as constant companions.  They are such babies in so many ways and will need every bit of attention that they will get from their children and grown-ups.

In a way these have been holiday puppies for us.  We’ve had them from Thanksgiving through Christmas and New Years.  By Valentines Day we’ll be missing them all, wondering how they’re doing as they settle into their lives with you. I tried to convince Biff that we “name” them after the 12 Days of Christmas (not to be… this “A” litter will be named after authors whose names begin with “A.”)  But those will be just their “kennel names”.  We’ll post all their “call” (real) names when we learn them all.

Biff and I have begun “acclimating” the puppies to spending time in a “crate”.  We’ve pulled out the crate we first used for Chev when he was 8 weeks old and lined it with a towel, then put in the most intriguing new dog toy (the “ball bone” with treat rings screwed into the ends) as entertainment and reward.  One by one we introduced them each to the space (with the door open and closed) for just a few minutes.  One of them grabbed a tennis sock of mine and I let him have that, too.  They all did well.  A couple of them had to be coaxed out after getting into the chew toy.

I recall getting Chev to fall asleep in my arms at nap and bedtimes and then sliding him into the crate when we first got him at 8 weeks.  He handled it easily because he was already asleep and he never stressed out about being in a crate.  We made sure there were a couple of safe chew toys in there with him for the times he woke up and wasn’t able to get out right away.  We left the crate door open at other times so that he could go in and out of his own safe space.