Getting close...

...to the time when the pups start to go to their homes.  A lot has happened this week.  We got their official 7 1/2 week puppy stack pictures done, their temperament testing done, their field work evaluations done and their conformation evaluations done.  Some decisions have been made about who will be going where but I'll be emailing the families privately before posting here.  I sure am going to miss these little buggers.  They have been such a joy.

It was incredibly hot and humid when we took these photos.  My lens kept fogging up and getting confused about what it was to focus on.  The puppies waiting for their turn played in the water bowl to cool off, so come look a little...wet :)

Red Boy

Green Boy

Orange Boy

Pink Girl

Yellow Girl

Blue Girl

 

 And a BIG thank you to my friend Mary Lynn who has come out to help me get puppy stack pictures of every Flat Coat litter I've had.  Mary Lynn is a treasure to the dog world.  She LOVES puppies and dogs and it shows.

Playtimes!

The pups are at the age where Marlene really starts to enjoy them.  She loves to play with her puppies!  She is teaching them how to be good dogs and when they play too rough, she gently corrects them.  She is such an awesome momma!  We are so proud of her and her puppies she raises up.  Here are a few short videos of recent playtimes.  Not the best quality, but enjoyable none the less. 

5 Weeks Old

A week of more changes for the puppies.  This week we took out the whelping box and made them a penned area.  They were getting very bored in the box because they couldn't see out.  Since we gave them the larger, open area they are very quiet and content.  They have really started to act like little dogs.  They play fight with each other and play with toys.  They are loving their dog kibble and finish it up almost every time.  The teeth are in big time!  And they like to try them out on human toes. 

 Red boy and Yellow girl start a wrestling match

 Looks like it's one for the girls this time

 Let me out of puppy jail!!

 Yellow looking like an angel

 Red's at it again, this time with Blue girl

 They make the cutest sounds when they wrestle

 Sleepy Pie Green boy

 Blue with the rope toy.  They love their toys now.

 Orange boy and Red boy this time.  Look at those little, sharp teeth!

Another angel, Orange boy

Cute as can be

 Yellow Girl

 Chowing down

Orange boy thinks the paper strips are fun to carry

 Yellow and Pink girl playing

 Blue girl looking adorable

 I think this was green boy

 Orange boy all stretched out on the cool paper

 They are so big now that Marlene stands most of the time to nurse them

 Red boy

 Red boy asking to be picked up

Another of sweet Red boy

Week 4

More changes this week for the babies.  We opened up the "potty room" for them.  That is a small section of the whelping box that we put shredded newspaper in them.  The purpose is for them to learn to go potty in an area besides where they live and sleep.  It helps with their house training when they become bigger puppies.  Amazingly they have an instinct to go over there most of the time to do their business.  They also started eating dog food.  We soak the puppy kibble in hot water so that it gets soft.  They picked up on eating solid food with no problems!!  The funny thing is to watch them eat.  They haven't figured out  how to stand outside the bowl to eat...some of them lay across the food all sprawled out to eat.  Here's a little video of one of the recent meal times. 

Escaping

I've not tried to upload videos before, but here are a few little ones just taken with our phones today.  I hope you can view them OK.  I was sitting in the room with the puppies and heard a big raucous coming from them.  I got up to see that three of them had climbed out of the box!  I put them back in and right away they started trying to get out again.  You can see that in two of the videos.  One is rather dark (taken with Bill's older phone) but it shows one pup playing with a little toy and then moving on to play with another puppy.  They really are so cute and fun now.   This is getting to the part I love!  When I've got active, playful puppies to be with.

3 Weeks Old

This week just flew by!  And boy did the puppies change this week.  They are no longer cute little squeaky blobs, they are little dogs!  They are playing with each other, playing with toys, barking and today a few even climbed out of the whelping box.  They are so cute and fun, we don't get much done except puppy gawk.  Marlene, Olivia and I had a very nice Mother's day and we hope you all did too.

 We saw the first "bitey face" games begin a few days ago.

 Big puppy yawn

They get new collars every week.  After a week they outgrow them and they

also get pretty tattered somehow.