If there's anything more fun than 5 and 6 week old puppies, I don't know what it is. This is the pay-off of weeks of work and worry, months of planning and paranoia, sleepless nights, endless laundry and hope.
The Dva puppies are 6 weeks old and although I've kept their
webpage current, somehow the blog got neglected. Sorry about that - guess I was distracted!
Anyway, the puppies met the tunnel this morning. They had the
buja board in their play area for several days, and took to romping on it like it wasn't even there. (Somewhere there *are* pictures, but I can't find them right now!) I
love buja boards because they MOVE and MAKE NOISE and seem UNPREDICTABLE - all of which teach puppies that these things are NO BIG DEAL and in fact FUN.
On our daily adventures and evening walkies they encounter all manner of obstacles - railroad ties marking off an old garden area, drainage ditch, big dirt piles, cactus - our property could hardly be called "groomed". Puppies learn that the ground is uneven, holes happen, falling down is normal, getting up and having another go is the only way to fly.
As their adult baby-sitter is rotated each day, it has become necessary to ensure the adult dog doesn't steal all the puppy food. So an old section of wallboard with a small dog door is set up to block the in/out of the x-pen barricade. A few days of this - puppies have to find the opening and navigate the hole to get into the big paddock - and they are zooming in and out with ease (in for water and food, out for a big playmate and more room to run).
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"In" has other perks - Ripple sez MY rabbit skin.
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This morning I simply set the tunnel on the "out" side of the puppy hole - they had to go through the tunnel to get into the big yard.
Four of the little stinkers were out before I had my camera turned on.
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| Hm, I'll stop and have a sniff. |
This isn't a
real agility tunnel, but a
kiddie version. The real things are
heavy, opaque, and expensive. Not what I want puppies exploring with their teeth - which of course is the next thing they do, followed immediately by jumping on it.
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| Why go around? Over works just fine. |
Pretty soon they were running in and out like pros, which is exactly the point
.
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| In. |
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| Out. Repeat. |
In the puppy paddock (about 3000 sq ft) they can run to their hearts' content. And explore - the big dog-door into the kennel
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| Moose (r) peers inside; Chip (l) changes directions. |
and the big dog house (room to run in there!)
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| Hey, whatcha doin' in there? |
jump on / run over whatever is lying about
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| The inverted pool was covering a critter hole; these pups are gamey! |
and just generally run like fools.
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| Dulce (r) in hot pursuit of Vanna (l). | |
Just another morning in puppy playland...
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