Busy Day For Busy Puppies!

Our day began as usual with Baili breakfast, Rhani Breakfast, puppy breakfast, clean up puppies, clean up puppy pen, walk Rhani, Rhani lunch, Puppy lunch...But the puppies are looking a mess from food stains and tear stains, so I decided to attempt baths in the shower.  Such desperation ensued!  I hate that I didn't get a video or photo of all 5 of them in the shower stall looking so very pitiful!  They all survived and smelled slightly better afterwards!

Then Baili got a walk and the puppies and Rhani rested up for the Marino's visit later in the afternoon.  (I even got a shower!)  

I've been feeling guilty because I have not been meeting my goals for puppy development.  Ideally I would spend at least 30 minutes every day one on one with each puppy introducing them to new things.  I've done it with past litters, but this time there just doesn't seem to be enough hours in the day.  I've decided it's due to a combination of 3 things.  

1. I didn't walk when I had my previous litters.  That's a 2-3 hour a day commitment to which I'm borderline addicted.  Plus September is Childhood Cancer Awareness month and I promised 125 miles and $1,250 to Alex's Lemonade Stand Fund, so I HAVE to walk this month.  If you'd like to help us reach our financial goal, you can donate here.  www.alexslemonade.org/mypage/2222232  Volvo is matching all donations through Sunday, 9/13.  It's a fantastic organization!
2. All my dogs co-existed happily when I had previous litters.  Because I have to rotate Baili and Rhani, that cuts out several hours a day that I could be spending with puppies if I spend any time with Baili.  
3. I am old!

Deep sigh - that's my litany of excuses!  But today, we drafted the Marino's for puppy school and they did a great job!

Mike took Maxwell to the backyard/pool area.  Valerie took Lizzy to the kitchen.  Riley had Rita in the patio pen.  Campbell had Sadie in the front yard/front porch, and Amelia took Jo Jo to the screened porch.  Their assignments were to expose the puppies to an orange(smell, taste, play with different texture), wave a bath towel in front of them (visual) and then cover them with it and wait for the puppies to "escape" (problem solving challenge), play thunderstorm sound effects from their phones (auditory), and get the puppies to follow them (basic human interaction!).  All the puppies got a good half hour of me time with their partners and everybody had fun.  NO ONE took photos or videos - including me - who misplaced my phone and camera throughout the entire event!  (I am a terrible visual journalist!)  Reports were that none of the puppies liked the orange, all of them calmly escaped the towel and most were calm about the thunder storm sounds.  The puppies were good followers but also good leaders venturing off to explore!  The funniest thing I saw as I tried to move around to watch was Rita wriggling out from under the towel and then promptly grabbing it and dragging it all over the pen!  Imagine that!

I will make sure all the puppies who didn't today, go to the kitchen, front yard and screened porch.  I want to get them to at least two other areas to play also before they turn 7 weeks old.  Just have to figure out where.  We have brand new carpet and I really don't want to sacrifice it to these knuckleheads!

The puppies were exhausted after all that!  I was hoping to get some photos or videos tonight during late night patio time, but they came out for about 10 minutes of play and then all went back inside to sleep!  The video below is from this morning, and the photos are compliments of the Marino's!  Thanks for sharing them with me for the blog, Mike and Valerie!

Until next time...

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