Time to fly

Well, it's almost time for the little monsters to move on to their new homes. They are fearless (well, except for doing DOWN the stairs!) and are virtually impossible to wrangle without cloning myself. We'll find out shortly who is Lucy and who is Teak (Formerly Known as Hannah Montana!). While the girls have been responding to Blue and Pink, their names have evolved into things that are a wee bit more creative this week (and not terribly appropriate for print)! They are so cute, cuddly and adorable when they are three weeks and well, a little different at seven weeks!!

 Dingle

Time in the house has been spent playing while the vacuum is running (I did get video, but watching it is like participating in a Virtual Izzy Dizzy Olympics, so I won't subject you to this). We've had puppy socializers over to help (such rough work, I know!) and the Bitter Apple has come in handy. They have been eating solid food for several weeks, but never hesitate to belly up to the milk bar when Mom comes near. Gamine is extremely tolerant.....I've felt those teeth!

 

Teak & Lucy

 

During house time, silence is NOT golden! Silence means the little monsters have made an escape from the Wrangler's watchful eye and have most likely found forbidden treasures. Shoes under a bed? Puppy Nirvana!!

Tasty tail

Puppies can get possessive with toys, especially the good ones! We start working with this and have found hooves and pig ears (AKA Puppy Crack) are very helpful for this lesson as these smelly and tasty treats will hold their attention for a very long time.  They get used to having the good stuff taken from them and will get taken down if they try to argue. So far, these three have been very compliant with my demands.

Playtime with the nanny 

Punk rock puppy 

Their main job is hard core puppy play and the video shows Dad participating (music included for your listening pleasure, turn on your speakers). We are so fortunate to have great adult dogs who can help with their end of puppy socialization.

The Life of Riley....or Dingle, Hannah Montana and Lucy

The skies are sunny and the puppies are having fun romping in the grass. Wrangling has gotten significantly more difficult as they go three different ways at warp speed!

Pink, giving me the hairy eyeball.

Baby piranhas

Dingle, in a contemplative mood

Pink, letting me know what she thinks of my camera

Ever adventurous blue girl

The party moves inside on a regular basis, and on occasion, one of them lets me know I've missed a key piece of puppy proofing! Dingle now has a favored spot, the Dingle Bat Cave, where he engages his siblings in a version of King of the Mountain. It gets pretty loud sometimes!

Dad standing in as the Jungle Gym

It's now a huge chore to keep track of them when we are on our treks. On the day they turned 6 weeks, they discovered the stairs! The video shows a bit of this, but it's getting pretty difficult to take video as I'm so busy wrangling to keep them out of harm's way. And my thank you??? You'll see in the video.

 

They're all pretty tolerant of the weekly nail trims and ear checks. They were due for another bath, but somehow mysteriously all disappeared and were sound asleep when I found the hiding spots. They're genius, as I didn't have heart to wake them just to stick their heads underwater.

At the end of the day, Mom helps to corral them and return them to their room at the "Big House".

Growing Up

It's been another week of firsts. First baths are always lots of fun for them.....NOT! :-) They are about as thrilled by this as they are with sitting still for nail trimming.

They are little monsters around the house, not afraid of a thing and are spending more time awake. They are VERY vocal when awake and locked up (once again, "Yo Mama's" ring through the house). They have learned how to gang up against the evil puppy gate and knock it down if it's not well secured. BANG!!!!!!, followed by the sound of thundering feet down the hallway. It is astounding how something so small can sound like a herd of elephants! They are a ton of fun, but my Puppy Wrangler feet can't keep up with them going separate ways. Thank goodness for only three, it's much more work to have twelve of them!

In between playtime, we start Puppy Kindergarten at 5 weeks. While they have itty bitty brains that have the attention span of a gnat (okay, I'm guessing on this, as I really haven't tested a gnat's ability to focus), they have excellent noses and liver treats are useful to start the idea of a sit command.

Dingle, in one of his preferred places under the coffee table.

Pink, hanging with Mom.

Blue, liking the liver treats, "I'll sit for these!"

Pink, using Mom as a jungle gym.

Dingle, showing off his skills.

"Sit"

It is time to move them to the "Big House", where they have more room to romp and play, along with more sights and sounds to get used to.