The Rule of Sevens

This is Trilby puppy-sitting again. She's trying to help them reach their goal of all the sevens in the 'Rule of Sevens' . My peeps read about this in a book on Puppy Development - it was originally written by Pat Schaap for her Shelties. She says that by the time they are 7 weeks old puppies should have been on 7 different types of surface: my pups have been on vet bed, newspaper, shiny tiles, stone tiles, concrete, grass and carpet.

Played with seven different types of object: plastic flower pots are a favourite of my pups, also woolly toys, antlers, chew toys, cardboard boxes, squeaky toys and small rubber balls.

Been in seven different locations: here is one of my boys in the conservatory, they have also been in the kitchen, the sitting room, a crate, the whelping box area, the playpen and the patio.

This is Gracie with one of her new owners - the pups have to meet and play with seven new people, including children, elderly people, wearing a hat or carrying a walking stick or umbrella. They are meeting new people quite often and will meet more by next week when they go for their eye test. But so far they have met two children, four men including one elderly man and five women of different ages.

They must have faced at least seven challenges BOL - that has been no problem for my little mischief makers. Here is my other boy trying to make his escape through a gate while Aoife wasn't looking. They have also been in a play tunnel, climbed out of the conservatory, climbed back in and up the garden steps, they have climbed over obstacles, played hide and seek in the conservatory in and out of the chairs...and more :-)

This is one of my boys with his sister trying the food in the plastic bowl. They need to try food from seven different containers - we are still working on that one - they have had plastic and china so far:-)

And they need to eat in seven different places: my pups have fed in the whelping box, the playpen, the kitchen, the conservatory so far so 3 more to go :-)

They have all had great fun meeting these challenges and my peeps think the rule of sevens is a good one to aim for. Just before I go - here is are a few more photos of my pups who are 6 weeks old now and getting very grown up.

Gracie

My eldest boy

My youngest boy

and last but not least sweet Mabel :-)

When Rodders met Trilby

As you can see I am trying to grab a bit of sleep in my new bed. We have had a very busy weekend with visitors coming to see my pups and my Trilby is now in love!

This is Rodders - a handsome young schnauzer who came visiting on Saturday with his Mum all the way from Hertfordshire. He is going to have one of my pups as his new little brother but not sure which one just yet :-)

Here he is posing with one of my boys.

And here is the other boy getting to know Rodders' Mum:-)

But Trilby had her eye on Rodders - here she is trying to catch his attention while he watches the other pups in the playpen.

Here she is again trying to get his interest for a game in the garden. They did have plenty of games together and great fun in the back garden while all the peeps were talking. And then - can you believe it ?- the pups got fed and we had to just look through the window and watch!

But we all had a good time and it was a sunny day too for a change. And although Trilby was very sad to see her new friend go home, we heard news that Rodders became a real hero back home. He woke his peeps up at 3 a.m. to tell them that there was a fire behind their garden fence. Someone had lit a fire just by his peeps' car - luckily they were able to put it out before it caused any damage to fences and sheds as well as the car! What a hero he is :-)

Gracie & Mabel

Things are moving fast here with my pups and Leigh has had no time to blog as they are taking up so much time feeding, cleaning up after them, feeding and more cleaning up...! And they are growing very fast. Their little sharp teeth are coming through and I'm beginning to let my peeps do the feeding as often as I can.

This is one of my boys tucking into his dinner :-)

And this is my other boy who is really looking schnauzery now.

But the big news is that my two girls have now met their new families and have been given their special names. Below is a photo of Gracie in the lap of her new owner.

And the next picture is Mabel who is going to live in a family with 2 little girls to love and care for her.

She does look a bit thoughtful here but she was so happy to meet her new family and have a sit in their laps that she fell asleep and looked as if she would have been happy to go home with them that day!

Gracie waited to do her snoozing after her new peeps had left - but she was dreaming of them, her head resting on the lovely blanket they brought her.

......and here is Mabel playing hide and seek with her brother.

We have more peeps visiting this weekend too and my boys are not short of visitors either. So all is going well here even though we haven't been blogging much. I'll let my boys say goodbye with this photo:

Puppy Mayhem

Yes this is me - on the dining table :-) 

You may be wondering why...Trilby came to ask me as well.

I tried to tell her that it's very hard work raising 4 pups and they are getting bigger and more mischievous every day. All I wanted was a bit of peace and quiet really.

I try to keep them clean and fed but look at this - one of my girls trying to chew on her sister's leg....

the two boys having bitey face games....

and when they finally settle down to have some breakfast I'm nearly squashed!

Well, at least after a feed they are all ready for a nap :-)

And when they're asleep they can be very cute I suppose  :-)

Caught on Camera

Here I am checking my babies yesterday as we had a visitor from Dogsclub.tv who wanted to put up a 'puppy cam' to film my pups in their playpen. We had a chat about it as I wasn't too sure when I saw him going up to my pups with his HUGE camera but he said he just needed a few still pictures for Facebook and he would take my photo too :-) and eventually I thought he seemed OK so I just watched what was happening and let him set everything up.

The Puppy Cam will be filming the pups over the next few weeks as they grow and if you want to see it you can visit Dogsclub.tv (click on the name) and go through to the Puppy cam live. You may need to sign up with a name and password but there's no personal details wanted :-) If your peeps are on Facebook they can go in through that instead and there are a few photos the man took of me and my pups on the Dogsclub.tv Facebook page too!

Trilby's not sure what all the fuss is about - she said they didn't have all this carry on last year when she was born!

One of my little boys having a snuggle :-)

The New Playpen

Now the pups are growing bigger and can see their way around, my peeps have put up a second playpen for them - and me - close by the kitchen so they can see what's going on in the house and get used to noises. They have to learn the strange noises that can be heard in peeps' homes - all the machines and the sound of things falling on the floor when someone drops them.

As you can see Trilby and Aoife were very interested in seeing the pups close up - here they are watching the pups feeding.

My work is still not over - feeding and cleaning goes on here too BUT there is talk of weaning my babies soon so that may stop them looking for all their food from me...at least I hope so :-) Once they start eating proper food I won't be cleaning up after them either - Leigh & Judith can take that little job over then and I can start having more me-time!

I do love my little ones though and I will always spend some time every day snuggling with them.

There are a lot more toys in the playpen now - all sorts of colours, sizes and textures to help the pups get used to the different shape and feel of things - and give them things to snuggle, things to chew and things to play tug with...and even a tunnel to hide in.

Some of the knitties made by my peeps' friend for Aoife's birthday have found their way in here too.

The playpen is all new to the pups just now so they are a bit unsure of where they are today but they will soon get to know it well - as they stay here now through the day and go back to the whelping box bed at night. One last photo of all four posing for the camera:

A Week of Changes

April has come and lots of changes are taking place here. This week my pups will go from being not able to see or hear or go to the toilet without my help to being proper little pups able to do all those things...and hopefully they will begin to look more like schnauzers and less like little rotties.! As you can see from the photo they are certainly getting a lot bigger.

These are the two boys on the left and the two girls on the right - my little dark girl has decided to be independent and lie the opposite way round from the others :-) Leigh & Judith think that her sister looks a lot like Trilby when she was just a few weeks old so she may grow up to look like her big sister.

Here are the 2 girls having a snuggle and below they are having a look round the new extension.

As you can see they have some puppy toys now as well as some other things for them to play with as they grow and the extension has been added to the whelping box to give us all a bit more room!

And here are my boys enjoying a bit of togetherness using their sister as a pillow :-)

This is the darker of the two boys - he reminds us of Smudge when he was little.

And here is my other boy who is thinking he might like to be a footballer when he grows up :-)

None of the pups have names yet as my peeps have applied to the Kennel Club for their registered names but they have not got them confirmed yet. They all have an Irish connection being born on St Patrick's Day! But when the pups go to their new homes their new families will give them a special name as well :-)