Nez has plenty of enthusiasm to learn anything she can at the moment, so wonderful when they get to about the 6 month mark and just want to soak everything up! 💕
Here's a snippet of me doing the Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS). The idea is to introduce small amounts of stress into the pups life so that they learn how to calm themselves down. It also helps them become quicker at recovering psychologically.
Holding them upright and them upside down helps their body get better at changing blood pressure. Pups will yawn when stressed and so you can see the little yawn the pup gives at the end, that means that what we are doing is working.
Any pups that already have a stressor are not good candidates for ENS so we won't do it but will calmly stroke them along their spine to help them calm and settle.
There is also a step with a cold damp cloth that I forgot to film at the start but that is another sensation they get used to and learn to recover from.
You can hear the TV on in the background which introduces noises to the pups. While their ears haven't opened yet they can still feel vibrations. We will continue to play different TV shows once their ears have opened so they get used to all sorts of different noises, voices, explosions, beeping, fireworks and many others.
While we breed for calmer natures and more relaxed temperaments you can't take the work out of a Border Collie. You can see Maple still has the famous Border Collie stalk and keeps the horses in her sights. We have worked a lot on impulse control so she is happy just to watch them😄
Maple has been so tolerant with her new little brother and is even happy sharing her couch snuggle time with him. 💕 It's been amazing seeing how well all the dogs have adapted to having him around 🥰
(Sorry about the poor quality video 😄)
Little Winnie has been hard at work learning so much at her new home.💕 Her new mum has done an amazing job teaching her incredibly well!
Border collies love to learn and their work ethic is wonderful to see. I can't wait to see what Winnie is doing in another couple of weeks❤️
Everyone to the snack bar!
The pups are much faster at eating now and really tuck into the milk bar. They usually finish their meal in less than 10min and Maple is free to do her own thing in between feeds. She cleans and toilets them while she's feeding them and does a great job of keeping them neat and tidy.
They are growing so fast and have more than doubled their birth weight now!
I wasn't quick enough to video Winnie getting into the trough but she didn't put much effort into getting in, just one leg at a time. I did have a laugh at her big leap getting out a little while later😂
Some collies seem to love the water and others could take or leave it. I think it's all about how much you have them around water as pups.
We often get asked how we make it work with all the dogs living in the house. Well, it is quite easy when they all have at least basic house manners.
For a start they all know their name which helps each one know what they should be doing. In addition they all know how to sit, stay, leave it, wait, come when called, and walk well on a lead. The pups pick up these things from the older dogs very quickly which always helps with training litters.
Our cats love coming along for our evening walks with the dogs. They might think they are dogs sometimes 🤣
