Week nine
Week Nine (Days 57-63)
DEVELOPMENT OF THE PUPPIES
+ Develops strong dominant and subordinate behaviour among
litter mates
+ Begins to learn right behaviour
+ Motor skills improve
+ Short attention span
+ Starts focusing attention on owner rather than other puppies
+ Separate litter mates
+ Start house training
CARE OF THE PUPPIES
+ Continue lots of individual attention
The pups are eight weeks old and most have gone to their new homes. There are different theories on when a pup should be homed, it seems that in the UK the accepted age is seven weeks however across the pond many breeders keep their pups until 12 weeks of age ensuring that the pups have had all their vaccinations and fully understand bite inhibition and have developed social skills between humans and dogs. We believe that when we let our pups go at seven weeks they already had ingrained on their systems highly developed social skills for interacting with other dogs and are in the course of learning their social skills for humans. Therefore it is important for them to be homed and have the individual attention to develop these skills especially with such a large litter. Now we have the three on their own we can concentrate more on developing these skills but if we still had them all it would be a near impossible task!
We have been to the vets with Fergus for his first injection. It turns out, that he will not be able to go out and mingle until at least (all being well) 12 weeks old. By which time the window frame for socialisation will have ended. This is important as until 12 weeks whatever your pup encounters during this time it will perceive as normal., therefore we will need to:
o let it mix with men, women and children
o let your puppy meet other dogs and cats
o expose it to all loud noises - fire engine sirens, police cars, busy traffic, vacuum cleaners
o take it for lots of short car rides
o carry it through crowded streets with lots of people and allow strangers to stroke it
o take your pup with you when you visit friends so it gets used to different houses and people
o enroll at your local puppy classes
But we must remember, until your pet is fully vaccinated do not walk it along the streets, in public parks or let it meet stray dogs.
The three musketeers From left to right, Lavender, Fergus (Rusty) and Hector (Ripple)
Mr. Ripple now known as Hector left us today. He has always been such a big character in the litter from day one. Keeping him for these few extra days has proved to us that nothing fazes him and he will always be a happy friendly boy in any circumstance! House alarms and all! He will enjoy exploring his new surroundings! But he may miss Fergus (Rusty) as they became good playmates despite our efforts to separate them to server their attachment to each other!
Now the pups not only eat all the plants but they crush them to death too!
Saf brought a stick into the garden which caused great excitement, both pups automatically began chewing on it like it is something ingrained in them from birth!
Fergus and now to be known as Lexi (Lavender) love playing chase and stalking each other, this is Lexi in camouflage.
Lexi (Lavender)
Lexi (Lavender)
Today Lexi (Lavender) left us. She was our mini Molly, she looked like Molly as a puppy and even acted like Molly! Lexi is a sweet puppy with lots of character who could definitely hold her own with the boys! Lexi liked to bark when she wanted something, or just whenever she felt like it. She was a typical girl with a mind of her own, when she wanted to go in there was no way of convincing her otherwise! She has gone to a home where she can be centre of attention and get all the cuddles she wants! Which is how she likes it!
Right, that's it all the puppies have gone now. We will miss them all dearly, but each puppy has gone to a really wonderful home where they are going to have a fantastic life!
We were very lucky to find the wonderful people that we did to take our puppies. The road to finding these people was very difficult. We came across many people who had not fully comprehended what this bundle of fluff would turn into. Although Golden Retrievers are thought as of family pets, in reality they grow into big intelligent dogs which are too strong for most children. We also came across people who intended to use a pup as a "Red coloured Goldie Stud dog"- they did not even warrant replies! People who wanted a pup solely for company for the other dog while they were out at work- again no reply and our main concern was for people who plainly did not seem excited enough about getting a puppy. Many of our puppy owners have been unable to sleep through excitement! If we decide to have a litter in the future we have to have a more stringent vetting process for puppy purchasers as dealing with these sorts of people only wastes our limited spare time!
We tried our best to socialise the litter and get them accustomed to textures and noises they may encounter later in life. As it was such a large litter it would have been useful (although time consuming and complicated) to take detailed notes on how each puppy responds to the stimuli and provide stimuli on a routine basis, rather than here and there. It also may be useful to introduce certain stimuli on a number of occasions as puppies may forget. The puppies that stayed with us for longer seemed to be, to a certain extent noise conscious therefore in future more emphasis should be put on loud noises during socialisation! However pups may change, we will need to wait and see in order to assess how successful or not, the extensive socialisation was. Early reports from puppy owners suggest that pups are confident, highly responsive to human contact and adaptable. A lot of their reactions may be down to genetics as Saff is a very confident dog and always has been.
In regards to the over success of the litter I can happily say they are all gorgeous. Many of the pups have inherited Baloos wonderful big head and body structure which is what a proper Goldie should have, together with a big profuse coat. As for having four out of nine of show quality is amazing and just emphasises the success of the mating!
We will hopefully continue to receive updates from puppy owners which we will place on the website.
We cannot list the amount of people who have given us help and support throughout the process but you know who you are, thank you. Also, thanks to everyone who helped in the socialisation process, every single person was appreciated. We would also like to thank Anita Deadman, (Baloo's Owner) who has been a great help throughout the process and of course a HUGE thank you to Farthings Veterinary surgery, without whom we would not have the pups or Saff with us today.
Finally a big thanks to all our wonderful puppy owners for giving our pups the life they deserve!