Seven weeks old today!

All of the puppies ears are starting to move around and show different ear set styles. Usually by 5 months of age it is the permanent ear set, but until them, they will be moving, changing, tipping, pricking, folding, or hound dogging it for awhile.

SEVEN WEEKS is the day to start puppy testing – usually between 49-54 days. I use to test litters, for about eight years actually, for breeders that wanted an outside read on their puppies, to help with better placement with working, performance, or professional homes.

My criteria was to contact me on the day of birth so we could set a testing date, and then to not post any information to me about any of the puppies, so when I went to meet them and test, it was through fresh eyes.

I would spend about 4-7 hours at the breeders home or facility, testing each puppy individually, going through a sleep and eat cycle, test in a group, and then another sleep eat cycle.

Some litters were straight forward, and others came with a difficult conversation. And I would say in about half of all litters that I tested, at least one puppy I marked as a hold back puppy – meaning for the breeder to either allow more maturing with that puppy to see if there were any changes, or to keep that puppy because I felt it was unadoptable.

Litter testing is a lot of work, a great way to observe new life with nonjudgmental eyes, and the learn, learn a whole bunch about puppies before the outside world got ahold of them.

SEVEN WEEKS is also when a great number of hunting kennels release their pups to go home. There is an old wives tale that if you don’t pick up your puppy on the 49th day they will not bond to you. Some go as far as saying that you need to spit in your pups mouth on the 49th day, so they will always know who you are and be faithful to you.

I have had pups that I picked up at 6.5 weeks and 7 weeks of age. They were the mouthiest, most destructive pups, with the least amount of self control, and one was super vocal.

At a year of age it was hard to tell who was picked up early and who was picked up at 9 weeks, unless you looked at the damage to house and hands, then it was obvious.

FROZEN, we went outside this morning, earlier than usual to run around, the pups were ready to go! It was about 2-5°f, and they all ran out, ran around, and in about 5 minutes ran into the mudroom. Then did that circuit a few times until they didn’t want cold too much longer.

RAW DUCK HEADS arrived today, raw freeze dried duck heads that is. Not so messy but still super nutritious. They have been teething away on them almost all afternoon between nap times.

Mama Beetz was playing with them early this morning, I tried to capture the video but my phone died half way through. It was the master educating the little grasshoppers. They were trying all of their moves, and with little effort she would send them flying, and they kept coming back for more.

The real active stage has started today, more mobility, stronger appetite, deeper sleep time, and more adventurous spirit.