A week from today, the puppies will be going to their new homes!  I know I have some excited new owners out there, so I thought I had better get an update on for today.

This week we were able to work on pair crate conditioning.  This is where I take two of the puppies and place them into a crate, then take them for a ride in the car for a half hour or so.  Once we get home, they then spend an hour in the crate.  Everyone did fine, there was no car sickness or excessive crying.  Today we start on individual crate conditioning, where one puppy takes a ride with the people, but by themselves in the crate.  Then they spend two hours in the crate by themselves.  My final step in this process is once everyone has had their individual conditioning session of 2 1/2 hours, at the end of the 7th week they do 6 hours in the crate.  They are provided with food and water during the 6 hour session, but potty breaks are only before and after.  It is a stressful process for all of us, but very important in starting out a traveling hunting companion.

I was going to pick up my chukar today, but we had a big rain yesterday and didn’t think I’d get out to working to pups on it until after things dried out, so I’m heading out to the bird farm on Sunday instead.

The pups have thoroughly mastered getting around the property with mom, so next week I plan on getting them out for a run away from the property and without mom.  I was going to do it this week, but they weren’t quite aggressive enough yet on running my area with mom and I wanted to get their confidence built up before I took the next step.  Here is the video that I made this afternoon of the puppies running wild in the forest: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQGzhjcS0Pk

The final countdown begins to their new lives and we’re working hard to get them ready!