Week 4 - 11/24/2019

Week 4, my favorite puppy week! After a long day of work or dealing with kid stuff, this is the best age. Nothing like sitting in their pen and 9 soft and adorable puppies clamor to be the one to sit in your lap and lick your face. It is the best reward for raising a litter of puppies! They are being fed by us now, with some soft puppy kibble and water, so mama Zazu gets a break I’m sure she enjoys. They’ll get a goat’s milk snack before bed and sometimes a quick snack from Zazu. They got their first experience of outside in our new dog run that has some fake grass for them to play and sleep on. With our beautiful “winter weather” we are able to keep them outside more. It’s handy that there is a window in their pen area (our temporarily converted dining room) that gives us easy access to put puppies in and out of the outside kennel! We haven’t gotten much fun in the actual grass outside though, as it’s been rainy and leaves our backyard muddy for days on end (and we really don’t want little muddy puppies!).

These puppies have been amazing so far. They are pretty quiet overall- no real yipping and hollering in the morning hours like past litters. Some have been getting a little whiny and pawing at the window (the one we put them through to go into the kennel) so we open it and put them out and they go #2! Next litter a doggy door is going in! They are all super sweet and cuddly and playful. They all seem like a happy, well-adjusted (and adorable) bunch of pups!

Each puppy’s personality is showing more and more so it’s fun to get to know them better. It’s so hard to tell Nehemia and Nesryn apart as they not only look like twins, they are both just as sweet and playful. Nesryn has a little more “ham” in her though when she’s playing. Lysandra will stare you down with her soulful eyes. You just can’t help yourself as you reach out to pet her. One time I caught her staring so I had a conversation with her. The entire time I had her attention as if she really was listening to me (which I know she doesn’t understand but she put on a good show of it). Then she’ll come over to your lap to cuddle or play. Asterin is our confident pup, always at the top of the puppy pile and out exploring. Manon is a bit more on the reserved side and reminds us a ton of mama Zazu when she was a pup. She lets all the rowdier pups squeal and play and lick and she sits outside of all the hubbub silently watching. You ‘aww’ a little at her sweet face and the next thing you know she’s sitting right at your hip quietly snuggling with you. She may not be as kissy, but she does love to play with toys and cuddle with people.

The boys are a fun bunch. Rowan always makes me laugh and has a good mix of sweet and fun about him. Chaol has been my buddy from the beginning and is frequently in my lap while attempting to chew on me. Although that behavior is then diverted with a toy, he’s still game and plays with the toy in my lap while cuddling. Aedion has been a bit more interesting this week. He seems to be a lot like Chaol and Rowan combined, being playful, sweet and cuddly. Dorian is a bit more on the reserved side like Manon and is more tentative to try new things. Once he’s used to them though, he is much better in that situation and is just as playful as the other puppies.

This is the “no fear” period in the puppy’s life stage in which we can introduce new things like noises, people, objects, surfaces, etc. and they can startle from some of them, but bounce back fine. We have been introducing the puppies to loud noises such as thunder, rain, traffic, sirens, vacuum, pans banging, yelling, clapping, etc. They’ve been on several surfaces like tile, vinyl flooring, cement, grass (real and artificial), landscape rock and carpet and even the counter surface and washing machine (to simulate a vet’s office). We’ve been giving them some “alone time” as well where we let a puppy or two out of the pen area and explore and walk around while we make dinner so they get used to doing things on their own and how life really is with other animals and kids walking around, etc.

The Throne of Glass litter (as always in order of appearance):