Puppy Grand Central

Mary-Ann Sontag February 16, 2021

The Moonshadows continue to grow and develop, adding steadier walking every day. They are playing with each other, albeit still a bit awkwardly. This is a series from play between Titan and Portia…

The Moonshadows still mostly eat and sleep — this is Ariel…

But their awake periods are lengthening…

…and they love to interact.

I hesitate to say too much about individual puppies because whatever I say can create bias. Puppies change so much and so quickly — it is important to stay open in our assessments and opinions. With that caveat — Hunter (below) is a charming, wiry, and early adventurer…

Today the Bright Stars have their special teeter back — this is Lyra…

They also have a bowl of water, which doubles nicely as a wading pool…

Mirak…

Sun…

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Evening Pics

The Importance of Expectations

Mary-Ann Sontag February 15, 2021

Today the Bright Stars met the Cato Board.

The first thing they did was chew/mouth it. Of course they did — that is how puppies explore the world.

Like human babies, everything goes in their mouths and this includes each other — and the humans.

Mouthing, biting, and chewing is normal and appropriate behavior for a puppy. In fact, it would be a bad sign if a puppy (or human infant) did not put everything in their mouth.

We can no more stop puppy mouthing and chewing than we can stop human babies from putting everything in their mouths.

And we shouldn’t even try — unless we want to raise a neurotic puppy or child.

When puppies are in their Baby Shark phase, we do two things. First, we redirect the puppy chewing to things we can both agree on.

Second, we allow mouthing on hands for the purpose of teaching bite inhibition. It is easy — when the puppy bites too hard, we shriek. This conveys to the puppy: OUCH!!!!!!! If the puppy continues to be rough, we do the mother dog thing — and this may surprise you…

When a puppy is playing too rough or generally being unruly, a mother dog simply leaves. That is it: she just removes herself from the puppy.

Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Mother dogs are kind to their babies.

Littermates also educate about bite inhibition. When a puppy is too rough with another, we all know it and the offending puppy gets the message.

Having realistic expectations of puppies, dogs, kids, each other — and ourselves — is so important. We create frustration and disappointment when we fail to have informed and reasonable expectations, and nobody deserves to live with all that.

The other new thing with the Bright Stars is a crate.

At nighttime, all items are removed from the puppy areas for two reasons. First, it is safer that way, even though Dear Husband continues to be up with them overnight. Second, we want the puppies to understand that we sleep at night and play during the day (except for Dear Husband, of course).

The Moonshadows have new items today as well.

Titan: Can I tell you a secret?

Buck: Of course.

Titan: I weigh two pounds today!

#gotitan

Have a terrific day!

Evening Pics

Puppy Love Day

Mary-Ann Sontag February 14, 2021

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Check out what I got from Berkeley.

She is not even 4.5 years old.

I am reminded that when kids live an intentional, thoughtful, informed, and enriched life they are able to flourish and excel.

It is not so different for puppies, except they are unlikely to send written Valentine’s Day notes.

I love thinking of ways to enrich my puppies’ lives/environment. It is fun and I know it matters.

Rosebud is part of the puppies’ enrichment activities.

There is a tension — a sweet spot — between not enough stimulation and too much. If we under-enrich, we fail to push towards potential and lose opportunities to hardwire in positive ways. If we overdo it, we cause puppies (and humans) to shut down and risk unfortunate hardwiring in the developing brains.

Sirius and Heze with Miss Piggy 2-14.jpg

Miss Piggy was new today, and the puppies noticed and interacted — very cool. That is Sirius and Heze.

Novelty is important and so you will rarely see the same things with the puppies two days in a row. Because they grow and change so quickly at this age, even a two-day break from something gives it back some novelty.

Raising puppies in this intentional and enriched way doesn’t matter to everyone and that is perfectly fine; there are breeders for people who just want a puppy — or better yet, please rescue a dog or a puppy if early life experience is not critical to you.

My goal is always to place puppies with people who value and appreciate the informed and intentional way we raise puppies because it means those new homes will continue the efforts when they assume responsibility for the puppy’s life and welfare.