We’re down to the final week of having the “P” Litter with us and it is always bittersweet.  The puppies are lovely and fun to be around, but we are only one family and they are a pack of dogs!  Luckily they are good and come when I clang the dinner bell (hitting a Christmas tin lid with a spoon), because they have no fear of the woods.  I have learned to let go a bit and allow them down the hill to dig holes and run around in the wild, but they wish that they could do it all day instead of just for a couple of hours.

Next up is the last round of de-worming, trips to the vet for exams, shots and microchips (I am splitting them up and doing it over a couple of days to make it easier), then lots and lots of paperwork for me.  Oh and I need to squeeze in some crate conditioning in there, but luckily I have enough crates where I can get it done in a day in a couple of shifts.  Then the fun of meeting the new owners and getting to play Santa Claus in the spring.

Bird Introduction

How I do bird introduction as a breeder: I like to do it at 6.5 – 7 weeks. I have a chicken hutch inside of a woven wire dog kennel, this go-around we happened to have quail. I carry the pup to the kennel, place a lead on the collar, open the door to the kennel and just let them check out the birds. I step back a few paces and fire off a kid’s cap gun a few shots. Once the pup acknowledges the birds, I collect it and give it lots of praise.

About 15 paces away I have a run that I set up using two ex-pens connected together, with a dead quail (from previous training sessions with the big dogs) tied to a stick off to the side. I take a few steps away from the live birds, place the pup on the ground and encourage the puppy to follow me while on the lead to the ex-pen setup. I place the pup inside of the ex-pen and get the pup’s attention with the dead bird by dragging it around and popping it in the air. I then lay the bird down on the ground close to the pup and they just seem to know what to do! Once they pick up the bird, I give the pup lots of praise and encourage them to run to me. I tell the pup to “give”, gently take the bird out of its mouth, then pick the pup up and love the heck out of it.

Here are everyone’s individual pics from the bird introduction session.  Please don’t take their poses to analyze their individual potential, it just happened to be one exposure session at a very early age and where I caught that particular puppy with my camera.:

Paul

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Peter

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Philip

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Phila Mae

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Peggy

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Penelope

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Patience

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Pamela

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And last but not least, a quick video of them jumping on me in the kennel: https://youtu.be/BM85e3txbqU

New owners: we’ve set up our dates and times for you to get your pup, please let me know if anything changes.  I’ll also be reaching out before you come over to see if you have any last minute questions.  Between vet visits and kid events my schedule is sort of random the next week, so if I don’t catch you, feel free to call back or email.

Next up on the blog will be these babies going to their new owners and Zoro’s NAVHDA Natural Ability Test results, so keep an eye out for that sometime the week of May 5th.  Good luck to everyone else out there testing dogs and having litters this spring.