Rubies pups are 5 weeks old tommorrow.

Although they have already been outside in the puppy pen in the shade under the old apple tree see picture

today was the first day they have ventured out on their own without being carried from their indoor puppy pen.

See pic 043. From there they made it around the side of the house with an eagle eyed mum keeping watch over them.

The pups at feeding time. Note they are fed individually so that I can ensure everyone gets their fair share and no bullying takes place. Also they become used to human hands in and around them during feeding time  making them less likely to show food aggression when they grow up.

Since they have been born neither they nor mum have wanted to  lie on vet bed or carpet due to the warm room hence they have been on newspaper only throughout. We had vet bed and carpet specially cut to fit the whelping box but mum was having none of it preferring to lay on the paper. She literally threw the vet bed out of the box. She whelped her litter on a special whelping board covered in hessian which she used to scratch as the pups were arriving. I only mention that as someone has commented on not providing mum with bedding for the whelping and since.

As  you can see now that the pups are older they have already started to gravitate to the wood wool to

spend a penny making it much easier to toilet train them later on. Wood wool is expensive but well worth the investment because it stays dry and allows the  puppies waste to pass through keeping them dry and not smelling of urine. See picture 080.

The pups out in the garden when it was cooler with mum and my old Police dog Spud. As you can see Spud like mum has a wonderful temperament allowing the puppies to bite at his teats looking for milk. It is very beneficial in the development of puppies to grow up with an adult dog such as Spud providing the dog has a good temperament.

The puppies were wormed this week. We also took individual photos of all of the pups for our puppy naming competition. They have already received many visitors with the pups just taking everything in their stride. Mum has shown no guarding behaviour to visitors from the start and is very trusting but ever watchful.

All going well see you next week. Paul