The puppies have officially moved to the romper room, 24/7. I thought we would do days in the romper room and nights in the whelping box so Mama Beetz could sleep with them and nurse them, get up and eat and drink, and then go back in, BUT they made it clear that they were going to try and crawl over those walls with all of their might!

So when Mama wants to go in I get up in the night and let her in, and when she wants to come out she also lets me know. A small inconvenience for a safer environment!

I will have to look in my 2018 Whelping Box Diary notes to see when night nursing stopped, I kind of think it was around 5-6 weeks?

It was super fun this morning to see these puppies moving around their romper room with such ease and knowingness, finding their nesting box for napping, but getting up and moving around as if they have lived there forever.

Their coats are really coming in now – I think we have all rough coats, maybe one medium rough. There is so little variance with these puppies. All are so super sweet, love to be held and loved on, love to make eye contact, and connect and play and socialize with each other. I have seen no resource guarding as of today, which I will state again is a first for me with an entire litter, my own and the ones that I test for other breeders. We have growling, posturing, rolling, paw and jaw play, all of it – rehearsing skills, and it is give and take with all of them, they all try out new and different skills.

They seem to all come to female voices as well as male voices, equally and easily.

Because I spend the most time with them I see the nuances in the puppies and see their own unique personalities. There is one who watches me, one who wants to be nuzzled in my neck, one that loves to fall asleep in my hands, one that has a great sense of humor, one that doesn’t care what her littermates are doing and does her own thing, one that loves to play, and one that is super easy going. Such subtle differences, I know them, but to the new visitor I hear, they are so similar, and they are.

In my last litter I had a tender one who would retreat, and a super bold one. In a litter before that, Hotdog had big resource guarding to food by four weeks of age. These things are common, each litter is like a tiny village, representing a bit of this and that.

When there is line-breeding, or a type of in-breeding you can expect very little variance, and a whole bunch of the traits you are breeding for.

This breeding was not line-breeding but rather out-breeding, no relations for as far as these lines go back, and that is why it is such a surprise to me of the similar and wonderful traits coming out each day.

Oh – today was their first day of three meals, small meals, but three all the same. Their final meal this evening was the raw chicken grind, with raw goats milk, and the first addition of some of our cooked winter squash. They totally loved it. And we are now on day three of perfect poops, it makes a breeders heart super duper happy.

Okay, enjoy this beautiful sound of pups lapping up their meal – to me it is one of the best sounds ever, so satisfying.

The super snoozers are loving their new nesting box, makes you want to nap with them!