Gladystar Poodles

Although we’ve had the crate in the Puppy parlor for them to investigate for a couple of days already, today is the first time they’ve been encouraged to go into the crate by using tiny bits of cheese as a lure.   They liked the cheese so much that there were three pups squeezed into the crate at one time.  (after all these are Wisconsin dogs - yum cheeeese)  In a couple of days I’ll put the door on it and close them in for a few seconds to start.   I fully expect the pups to be just like our other dogs and run willingly and happily into their crates when we ask them to.

Lots of new things for the puppies to see and do now that they’re getting older - almost five weeks.   In the last couple of days they ate lunch in a different room, got to go into a small crate, walked on the brick walkway,  had their first bath, and climbed on a low cardboard box.   Today they went to the beach!  (really the kids sand pile)

What an exciting day!  Lots of new smells and surfaces to experience.   And poop on!  Within about one minute of being on the grass four of the six pups did their “business”.   This was a previously unadulterated section of the lawn.   So, how’d they know grass is good to poop on.  After that, all the pups pretty much stayed together, never getting more than 10 -20 feet from one or another.  The temperature was in the mid 70’s F which made the experience all the more enjoyable.

Now that the pups are three weeks old, they are playing with each other deliberately.  They still lose their balance and fall unexpectedly once in awhile.  While they still sleep the majority of the time, their playing is getting much more animated.  When they are out of the whelping box, the pups do quite a bit of exploring and investigating.   We have a wide variety of toys and objects for them to mouth, pounce on and sometimes fall into.  Scampering across the room is a new skill the pups just developed; quite funny to see the sudden burst of speed!.

Now that the puppies eyes are open they’re actually walking to where they want to go - or so it seems. . Here is a short video of the pups in action.

The puppies eyes are glimmering blue globes, somewhat cloudy.  They’ll change to brown over the next few days and their eyesight will improve significantly.  Right now, they can’t follow an object nor see depth.   Which can be pretty funny as they bump into things.

However so shaky, the pups are getting their bellies off the ground while trying to stand. Since the pups only have a sense of smell, we’ve been taking them one at a time to sniff around on a different surface to experience other odors. They really seem to notice! Their little sniffers get going pretty good. Yesterday they got to experience the dining room rug; today it was the living room rug. One of the girls really was vocal about it. Little boy blue was the most active at sniffing around. Here is a link to a short video of “Yellow” crawling around.

The pups went to visit the Vet today for dew claw removal and tail docking.  Dr. Tim Bubach of Schmidt Veterinary Clinic did a great job suturing up the tiny incisions.  The tails were completely shaved with a number 40 blade so we could get an accurate length tail for the individual puppy.

The color dots on the pups’ rumps are non-toxic acrylic paint.  That’s used for identification.  The girls are Orchid, Fuchsia, and Apple.  The boys are Blue, Yellow, and Orange.

The pups will get weighed each night at about 7 PM. until they’re about two weeks old.   So far they’ve gained about three ounces each.  The average birth weight was just under 10 oz.

Considering that the pups can’t see or hear, its amazing how much they can move around.  They hold up their heads right away and strong enough to start crawling towards Mom.  They use their noses to find mother for nursing.

There are more pictures in the Photo Gallery.