HOW WE RAISE YOUR PUPPY
Puppies are born inside my home and are handled multiple times daily for neural stimulation and massage. The baby nursery is adjacent to my home office so during the long night vigils pre-whelping, during and after, I can get on with my emails and chatting with you on FB Messenger while keeping an eye on what's going on in the nursery. It's usual for the other girls to station themselves nearby as well for moral support of their besties. So sweet!
WORMING. Puppies are wormed at two weeks and then every two weeks thereafter until they leave us at 9 to 10 weeks of age to homes within Australia or twelve to 16 weeks old overseas depending on individual countries' regulations. The life cycle of ascarids (the common puppy worm) is 21 days and treatments kill only the hatched larvae, not the eggs, which is the reason such frequent worming of young puppies is necessary. |
How relaxed can you be?
Eyes and ears open at around 2 weeks old and pigment is usually through on noses pads of paws and eye and lip rims. Now they get extra playful and want to go exploring, so it's a good time to begin accustoming them to new sights, sounds and experiences.
The soft music they've had played to them up to this point, gets ramped up to the noisier stuff and they're introduced to the TV, and educational toys that bleat like sheep, moo like cows, wiggle and waggle and flash blinking lights while they play nursery rhymes! Crates are never used at Rutlands as a correction or time out for unwanted behavior so the puppies quickly learn that the crate is a safe happy place.
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By 6 weeks they're spending most of the day time outside in the Adventure Playground, and are fully established on their solid food diet. They'll continue getting drinks from their mama until they're vaccinated and microchipped at 6 to 7 weeks. After vaccination it isn't good to let them nurse any more because the antibodies in their mother's milk may fight with the vaccine which may not be fully effective in one or more of them. By this time, she'll most likely be teaching them to leave her belly alone, by growling at them, snapping and flattening them to the ground until they pay attention. Once they accept her discipline, she'll be happy to patiently play with them for hours on end while they chew her ears and tail, and climb all over her. The six weeks old puppies have already learned that the crate is a happy place to be and to wear a collar. They'll spend time outdoors and indoors as well, where they watch the TV, meet the noisy vacuum cleaner, new people, and go for short walks on the leash.
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