The two puppies of the “T” Litter are four weeks old now and up on all fours. They still prefer to run around their whelping box rather than outside, but that will change in the next week to week-and-a-half. I am so thankful that this is the last day of the summer heat wave, so that they can move out on to the back patio tomorrow.

They are able to regulate their body temperature at four weeks old and I think that it is very important that my puppies grow up like dogs instead of toddlers. They will have access to rope bones and balls to play with in the kennel, but they would rather chew on each other most of the time (as you’ll see in this week’s video). As I’ve said previously, I don’t use a lot of fabric with my puppies due to sanitation and safety issues. I don’t want something that they’ll poop on, then chew on later. Or something they can get wadded up in and suffocate. Any toys that they have with them need to be cleaned twice a day.

These are hunting dogs. They need to be comfortable in the outdoors. If someone goes camping, they will likely be staked out on a chain at night or sitting in a dog box in the back of a truck. Not to say that indoors time isn’t important, puppies need to be crated at night, housebroken and spend tons of time indoors with their people once they go home. And I touch on a little bit of that exposure to the crate and the house during their time here. But outdoors hardiness is important to me at this point in their lives.

I am taking them out into the yard twice a day, but they are not huge fans of it at this point. The big open world is scary to them. Yet even though they whine a bit (normal for this age), they are starting to explore. Their faces are a little grubby from just having eaten.

Female pup, Tabitha:

Female pup, Tabitha, face
Female pup, Tabitha, side profile

Male pup, Tobin:

Male pup, Tobin, face
Male pup, Tobin, side profile

They have just started consistently eating from the dish in the last day or so. Before I was having to encourage them with spoon feeding to bait them into the dish, but now they go for it. They are fed canned puppy food twice a day.

Eating from the dish
Closeup of eating from the dish
Closeup of Tabitha eating
Closeup of Tobin eating

Here is this week’s video of the puppies playing in the whelping box:

So like I say, they leave the indoors for the back patio tomorrow, which will make my house a lot less smelly (puppies fart and poop a lot). Then they’ll really start to run around this week. I’ll also start the transition from canned food to wet kibble. We’re already working on noise conditioning during their feedings, where I’ll bang on a pan while they eat.

In big dog news, Sally and Charles are in Delaware today with the NAVHDA DelMarVa Chapter running the Utility Test. Since he’s been focused on Obi for Invitational, we are really just hoping for a pass today. We’ll see, we already have her signed up for Rappahannock in Virginia at the end of November just in case.

Best wishes to everyone out there with pups, folks training and testing, and especially those getting ready for bird season to open soon! I’ll be back next weekend with more to share.