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3/20/05
Awareness or Identification Period (21-28 days)
Information from "Behavioral Development of Puppies" an article by Kathryn Lanam:
By this age sight and hearing is functioning well. A variety of noises (music, radio, bells, vacuums, etc) and sights (change in light level, moving objects and vibrations) should be part of their daily life. This might be the time to move the puppies into the kitchen or other busy part of the house. The puppy must now learn that he is a dog; recognizing its mother, recognizing other species (humans). The puppies will begin "play-fighting" during this week with a loose pecking order starting to form. Barking increases. Puppies still need a very stable environment during this time. Their humans should do a lot of handling, cuddling and pick up the puppies regularly.
We'll be playing our CD of noises for the puppies to hear. We are forcing ourselves, VBG, to spend lots of time handling the pups.
We gave them some puppy formula for the first time yesterday. Three of the puppies (Chipotle, Cayenne and Serrano) dug right in almost immediately. The others caught on when Jan got them out a few at a time for an evening feeding. This supplemental feeding will not only help Chili out in feeding the masses, but it should develop a wonderful association for the puppies that humans provide yummy stuff to eat!
3/21/05
Made a pen in the living room for the pups so they can be where all the activity is when we are home. We played the CD of noises and they seemed pretty bored with the whole thing.
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