Elfa (Storm) has loved water since she was a tiny baby, and she’s continued to take after her water loving mother as she’s grown. Here she is taking her “daily swim” in the pond on her property!
Dazzler doing her best Malinois impression 😂
How Dazzler is getting her breakfast
Look at little Beast and Storm/Elfa taking a walk on their trip up north! Tanya says the two pups have been great travelers, which makes me so happy. Such good little leash walkers!
Puppies had their first vet visit today! They obviously had a great time, and everyone is in perfect health. Can’t believe they’ll start leaving for their new homes in just a few days!
The puppies came to work with me and got to hang out while I was there! I was busy enough that this is the only video I have, but they got to meet new people and a couple of dogs, “help” me and another instructor teach (took turns getting carried around during class), listened to dogs doing agility, and played around with some new toys. They all thought the skateboard was pretty fun!
We’ve continued to work on the puppies getting comfortable in the water, and yesterday they finally decided it was hot enough that they wanted to give it a go. We rewarded with floating treats to help reinforce that the kiddie pool was a good place to be, and all of the puppies ended up getting in at least once!
We had a great visit with the puppies’ aunt Lizzie and assorted other dog and human friends. They got some great positive experiences in a new place, with wonderful and appropriate kids and older dogs.
These puppies are all getting ready to be great hiking companions! Doing adventure walks allows us to reinforce their natural inclination to follow (preparing for off leash walks in the future) and get the pups into new and interesting environments!
We put collars on the puppies for the first time tonight! After everyone had a collar on, they got some chicken feet to chew on. The collars feel weird to the puppies at first and they are tempted to scratch at them or roll around trying to get them off. Instead of letting them run around stressing about this new sensation, we give them something to help make it a positive one. Now they are happily chewing with their collars on, and not trying to get them off. I do not leave collars on puppies at this age because they generally end up becoming “toys” for the other puppies who will grab them in their mouth when playing, which can be very unsafe. But they will start getting plenty of supervised time with them on, and start to practice some leash walking!
Kibble scatter for dinner! This gives the puppies a more stimulating and energy using way to eat instead of just scarfing it down from a bowl. Using their noses to find food is a natural behavior for dogs that they enjoy and is great enrichment at any age.
