Black Leg (now also known as brown leg or tri-leg as her black leg has turned 1/2 brown!) is learning the alphabet. I haven't the heart to tell her it is upside down....This is one of the sound making toys that I found yesterday in a local charity shop. It is in the pup's pen so they walk around on it and it makes noise. Sometimes they just sit on it and the toy keeps talking....a is for apple, d is for dog.......... Who would buy this toy for a real child, it would drive a parent crazy!
Up until now (the pups are 5 weeks old tomorrow) the work was pretty easy. There is not that much to do and Zen does all the cleaning!
Well, the fun is over! Now I have to get up at 6 am to feed the little pups and spend at least one hour following them around and wiping up pee and poo! I think we will need a truckload of papertowels by the time these pups go to their new homes on 28th Dec.
Today I started to take the pups one at a time into the kitchen and work with them individually. We did a little tuggy play where I try and touch them around their head and body while they are tugging. They tug so gently right now, but do try and hold on as hard as they can. Little Tony likes to kill his tuggy, shaking it back and forth. Very cute! And Pickle really holds on tight and is the strongest tugger right now.
After a minute or two of tugging, I introduced them to my secret puppy training tool. If you are reading this blog I ask you to keep this a secret and not let just anyone know about this! (Kidding, of course!) My secret is squeeze cheese in a tube.......known in England as Primula Cheese. The puppies go crazy for it and they can lick it quite fast. So for tiny pups it is a fabulous way of giving them treats as a reward.
So I let them lick it off my finger as I stand them in position and get them used to standing in a breed show stand. Then I try and get them to follow my finger around and put their feet up on things. Today they put their feet up on the skateboard and we moved it back and forth a little bit. None of them had trouble with that. They had all had gone up on the skateboard on their own yesterday. They find it a great spot to lie on and pounce on their littermates. I also have a little baby wobble board that the puppies love to run up and down on.
This afternoon I will introduce the pups to the clicker. I just click as they are licking the cheese and we do this for a day or so. I like to teach them their first "trick" by 6 weeks. Generally I just have them spin one way as that is easy for little puppies. Dennis usually teaches them to shake paw and that is his expertise in puppy training!
So each pup takes about 10 minutes and before you know it another hour is gone! I try and repeat this a few times per day and so.......My house is not as clean as it usually is!
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