We've Graduated!

The puppies are nine weeks old. They have worked on the Head Start equipment for four weeks, exploring three new configurations a day, sometimes indoors, sometimes outdoors. All four puppies are confident in new situations, eager to learn and explore new things, and ready to take on the world. All will be fun to train, and all will be great companions.

These puppies have now started the next stage of their journeys. In the next five days, all will go to their new homes: one is going to Wisconsin, one to San Antonio Texas, one will stay with the breeder in Holliday TX, and one will stay with us.

The puppies have been in the program for just four weeks. They are very comfortable and very stable on all of the equipment. In fact, we call this picture: Graduation.  

Now that the pups are eight weeks old, they are enjoying their green nylon toddler tunnel. On this day, it started raining heavily while they were outside. The puppies demonstrated their Head Start training: they all went into the tunnel and waited to be brought in. Not one got wet! 

Puppies are seven weeks old

The puppies are now seven weeks old. They went for their temperament testing today (January 5, 2005), and you could see the results of their head start experience in the results. All four walked or ran to the stranger who was the evaluator, climbed in her lap, and covered her face with kisses. All four demonstrated high prey drives (pouncing on a rag or other item that was dragged across the floor in front of them, and shaking it or tugging on it). All four were high on retrieving, running after the item, picking it up, playing with it, and bringing it back to the examiner. All four were very high on food drives, working diligently to get the food out of the examiners closed hand or out from under the upside down food dish. All four followed the examiner wherever she went. In short, they each demonstrated on their own without the presence and support of their littermates that they will be a joy to train and wonderful companions in their future homes.

It has been raining here in Dallas for the past four or five days. That means that the outdoor play yard is not available for them. So we have exercised all of our imagination to keep the indoor play yard a fun and challenging and continually changing environment for the puppies. Today, we put together a very complex arrangement of dog walks, tippy board and cardboard tunnel, and the puppies soon were putting every part of it to use. Enjoy the pictures.

When they see me with the camera, they stop playing, perhaps looking for dinner! 

In fact, the puppies found this configuration to be very stimulating. Some went into the tunnel and laid in wait for their siblings, darting out at them. Others walked around the three dog walks and balanced on the tippy board.  

Exploring every niche of an intricate indoor configuration. 

The rains closed the puppies in this week, and the challenge is to keep the environment changing and interesting. The small slide can be brought indoors, and they can climb the stairs and go down by themselves. 

Neisha really enjoys the puppies and is very gentle with them. 

Configuration outside last Friday, before all the rain started. Puppy Head Start depends on continually reconfiguring the same equipment in new ways, giving the puppies new things to explore and new problems to solve. 

A new configuration is ready for the puppies. We try to make sure that there are at least three different configurations each day. As long as the weather permits, these are done outdoors. When the weather closes in, then we use the indoor play yard, and keep changing it around.

The grandchildren enjoy the play yard as much as the puppies!

December 29, 2004

The puppies are now six weeks old and in the past eight days, we have seen a lot of development. They are very sturdy on their legs, and they are eager to explore everything. Today, they had a visit from three more grandchildren: Matt, Josh and Charlie Cameron. The puppies' biggest accomplishment? As of today, they are able to climb the stairs to the platform and come down the slide on their own.

Following Green Girl's example, Red Girl gamely climbed the stairs and went down the slide on her own. 

This morning, the puppies were out very early in the morning, but they were ready to explore. 

Grandchildren Josh, Matt and Charlie and the puppies are delighted to see each other!  

Children have an instinctive gentleness: here, Matt gently rubs the tummy of one of the puppies. 

Charlie gets down on the floor with the puppies. 

There is nothing quite like a grandchild with a puppy.  

Green Girl sets the pace, climbing the stairs and taking turns sliding down the slide with the children. 

Wait for me, Red Girl seems to say, and climbs up the stairs after Charley, and . . . 

And down she comes! 

If you can do it, so can I, and Red Girl tries to climb up the slide so she can slide down it.  

Another configuration: this time with what we call the silver tunnel. This tunnel is actually an air-conditioning duct, soft and squishy and pliable. They have also learned that pulling on the string of the plastic duck toy makes it go "Quack-Quack!" 

It doesn't take the puppies long to find the opening to the silver tunnel. They eagerly chew on it, use it for rest breaks, and eventually go through it. 

Not only can the puppies go through the silver tunnel, they can climb the stairs and go over it via the ramp to the slide. 

The puppies do chain behaviors, going through the tunnel and out to the tippy board and then up the stairs to the ramp. 

As the day progresses, the puppies use a different configuration, this time with the cardboard tunnel, tippy board and stairs with a ramp to the slide. Someone did make it to the slide because the rubber balls that were up there ended up on the ground!