I got up yesterday morning, to train dogs, and it was 80 degrees at 6:00 am. This morning it was almost as hot. Even early it’s too hot for the dogs and for the pigeons. When the pigeons are in the release traps there is not much air circulating around them. If I was going to work dogs on pigeons when it’s this hot I would put ice in the release traps with them.
More puppies.
Puppies with collars and ropes.
Sally and her puppies.
The puppies are 4 weeks old today. The vet, Dr. Becker from Independence Animal Hospital, took their dew claws off and checked them when they were 3 days old. I wormed them on their 3 week birthday. I weigh the puppies almost every day to make sure they are all growing, as they should.
I started feeding them a formula that my vet gave me for mother replacement milk. This formula consists of:
a can of evaporated milk
a can of warm water
an egg yolk (the egg white is not good for dogs)
a tablespoon of plain yogurt
a tablespoon of honey or Karo syrup
When I first started feeding this formula to them I had to shove their nose into the milk to get them to drink. Now, a week later, when I drop the feeding pan into the whelping box they start lining up to feed.
This morning, when I warmed their formula I put in a small bunch of dry dog food. I let it soak for about 15 minutes before warming it in the micro wave. The puppies drank all of the milk and ate some of the soaked dog food. When they start eating all of the soaked food I will know that I can quit the formula and feed them dry dog food. I like to leave enough dry dog food that they can eat any time they want.
Last night, before I warmed the formula, I blended some dry dog food into the milk. The puppies drank what liquid they could but didn’t eat the blended dog food. They licked the blended food a little but didn’t consume very much. This might work later on but not now. Just soaking the dog food for a few minutes, as I did this morning, worked better.
Each day since they have been born, with the exception of one, there have been some people, besides me, that have petted these puppies. I think having lots of people around them socializes them, really well.
Last night, one of the people that has second pick, brought two young girls over to pet the puppies. Before they got here I loaded all of the puppies into a laundry basket and carried them to my front porch. That was a bigger job than I thought. It’s up hill to my house from the shed. Six puppies in a laundry basket gets heavy walking, up the hill to my house. There are more seats and with the sun well to the west it was shady.
The puppies and the young girls had a good time. The puppies played for a while and most of them took a short nap. Then they were ready to play again. Each of the puppies was held and petted. When the girls were ready to leave I talked them into carrying two puppies each and I carried two. We took them back to the shed.
I’m hoping we will have some cool mornings soon so I can train dogs but if not I will devote more time to the puppies. Even with 6 puppies latching onto her I think it may be hard for Sally to give up the air conditioned shed.
Mann pointing a pigeon.
Babe on the barrel.
Sally and her puppies.