Day 29

NEW RELEASE!

Puppies have their faces clipped today!

I just did a rough and quick job and they sat in my lap calmly so I'm quite pleased. D'Lay was a bit of a squirmer. Next will be rough feet and bottoms. It was fun to see little poodle faces emerge from beneath all that hair. Some of them are showing a faint lightening of the hair around their noses. Their eye rims look a bit light too. Definitely D'Lay and Leo are turning silver already as their faces have blue/plum glow about them. Surprisingly Lizzy has the most lightening of the other puppies. I thought she'd be the darkest. Just goes to show you what I know!

We had a little time outside today since the weather is just beautiful. After a snack at the milk bar everyone dozed except Leo and Poppy who followed mom into the grassy yard. They were much more comfortable there than their last visit. As a matter of fact Leo ran laps around the yard.

What has been very fun for me is that each puppy seems to have his/her day. One puppy each day seems to say, Carpe Diem!!! and explores, sleeps alone out on the dog bed on the deck or ventures down the hall way. It's nice for mom too since she has a change to nurse the pups individually. On these occasions she tends to let them fall asleep while nursing instead of kicking them out 'at closing time.'

Here is a little info from my favorite book, "Applied Dog Behavior and Training:"

One of the outstanding changes in behavior at the beginning of the period of Socialization is the tendency of puppies to respond to the sight or sound of persons or other animals at a distance. The 3-week-old puppy approaches slowly and cautiously toward a human observer seated quietly in its pen. It finally comes close and starts nosing his shoes and clothes. After this, it may start to wag its tail rapidly back and forth. The tail wagging itself appears to have no directly adaptive function, but is simply an expression of pleasurable emotion toward a social object. What effect it has on other dogs is difficult to tell, but it seems to have the same effect on human observers as the smile of a child: i.e., it is a reward for the person who has initiated a social contact. (Scott and Fuller, 1965:104).”