Day 10

No peeking eyes yet.

But puppies are moving around like pros.

Here is a developmental chart from the book, Handbook of Applied Dog Behavior and Training:

According to this book, " A puppy's general motor activities at this stage of development are limited to swimlike crawling movents predominately involving the front legs. Guided by tactile, ofactory, and gustatory senses, a puppy refexively orients and locates the mothers teat. Forelimb-placing movents are seen after 2 or 3 days, and efforts at forelimb support begin between days 6 and 10. Hind-limb-placing responses are seen after 8 days. Flexor muscles are dominant over extensors for the first few days, followed by a much longer period of extensor dominance and the emergence of unsteady walking in the transitional period."

YIN YANG PUPPIES

Greenie and Leo

We added another member of the family to the pack today. My lovely 12.5 year old Corsa Bella came home from Cat's house. Just Eureka! remaining. Ico seemd to adjust to Corsa quite quickly. Of course Corsa is low key and only interested in the puppies when they cry. At that point I have to hold her back. She can's see well enough to read Ico's body language and I don't want her blundering into the whelping box. Here is a pic of everyone hanging out in the coolest room in the house! I have iced cold water bottles in the box along with what's called a K9 Cool bed. This is a pad filled with water and as the water evaoprates it cools the dog laying on it. It is dry on the outside. The puppies have gravitated onto it.