Outdoors and onwards

The Magnificent 7 are now going outside a couple of times every day. Not for long as it is still cool and has rained a bit but enough to march to the end of the big fenced yard and back. They are excellent pups! They often pee and poop while outside, run and get tired. They are learning to beware of people's feet - OK, my feet anyway :).

The pups come to "pup, pup", a clap or a whistle. They follow but they also like to explore. The girls were more photogenic when I finally remembered the camera.

Inside, they are in the big puppy play area during the day and move into the whelping box/expen area at night. I added a helium balloon to the pen yesterday. At first they all gazed up in awe - should have had the camera then! Now they ignore it.

We are way beyond the "7 surfaces" for them to walk on so that is good. On "7 things to eat off" we are at about 5. Actually if you count eating off each other since they are messy, I suppose we are at 6 :)

Ears are up and staying up on Pink and Orange. Green generally has one ear up and the other boys are working on their ears.

I now serve two meals daily plus they are still nursing. They all drink water from the bowls in their pen too.

Kate has been taking them for car rides on the weeknd so they are learning about that too.

They had more visitors today - Nathalie and Pam stopped by and got to play with them. Doris and Kathy were here the other night. My sister Chris comes tomorrow for a day so we should have fun.

Adolescent and adult dogs on tap

On a break from puppy musings, let me discuss adolescent dogs and adult dogs. Seven month old Babe is quite a delight. She is the biggest counter surfer I have ever owned despite being fairly small but otherwise generally a "good girl". One hopes of course that the adult dogs will influence a pup, show her how to be a great dog, etc. And not that the pup will teach them some "new tricks".

So yesterday, I was working on an article on deadline. Babe was lying by the gate to the study most of the time. (The dogs are shut out of there now due to Queezle and the puppies). Occasionally I would see her get up and then hear her dropping and playing with her Planet Dog Glow Ball. All is good.

Then I started getting a weird smell. I thought it might be the printer having a burnout since it has been acting up so I turned that off. Nope, I can still smell it. As I head into the kitchen, the smell gets quite strong. And in the living room, on a dog bed is a 16 oz bottle of wild salmon oil, basically oozing a few last drops onto the bed. Oh, and the carpet has a strong "eau de fish" too.

Hokey has horrible fish breath, Babe a bit and Dani a little. Baloo the Aussie appears to be innocent. I have to leave in about 20 minutes for a vet cont ed mtg. Chuck is heading home to cover. The house smells like a fish market at the end of a long week.

So, do I mention we had our honey moon on the coast of Maine? Do I pretend nothing is amiss since he tends to have a lousy sense of smell? I basically simply said, "They spilled a little fish oil - no big deal."

I fly to my meeting which is a dinner meeting. The friend sitting next to me says "You know, I don't know why but I really feel like having fish tonight". Yup, kept my mouth shut!

Oh yeah, pup teaching others bad habits!

Supper time!

The Magnificent 7 as I call them (my husband says the 7 Deadly Sins though he claims we only seem to have Wrath and Gluttony), are trying a bunch of new things.

The last couple of days I have given them plastic bottles they like to shove around. They also got some toilet paper rolls - empty of course! I don't want to start a confetti business :)

We also started them on some "real food" Turkey baby food and yogurt were first on the menu. That went over splendidly. Then I had some soft bananas, so I added that into the mix. Their breath was lovely after that. Currently they get 2 meals a day plus access to Queezle 24/7.

The three smallest pups eat in one area - each with their own bowl. The four bigger pups eat together from the muffin tin - each one gets a corner spot. All the pups are eager eaters!

Driving me crazy!

Yup, they are officially driving me crazy! At least this am I got to wake the pups up instead of vice versa as I had to leave early to take Babe to the shows. As it turns out, we all should have slept in.

Still, it was gratifying to shake them awake :0

Green Boy decided to show off his driving skills with the little beeping bus we have used for a rally distraction. Hopefully I have the right puppy - both Green and Blue were nude this am, so I quick slipped collars back on them. Luckily Kate has a code to tell who is who!

They are starting to play with toys as well as each other. They also play wrestle and fight - sounding quite violent at times.

The boom box appears to be ill so the pups are currently listening to "Puppy Sounds" by Dean Lake via my new laptop. Many thanks to Tom who guided me long distance over the phone on using it. Who knew a laptop would have something called a touch pad?! For those concerned about the puppies' classical training, Dean Lake is a bassoonist so that ought to count for something.

Off to fix Queezle's 3 pm feeding - darn, already 12 minutes late!

Boxed!

I decided to give the little angels a box or two today. So I added an empty cat food box (held cans) and an Amazon.com box. At first just the girls were checking things out. Like true shoppers, they went right for the Amazon box :)

Later, the boys woke up and they thought the Amazon box was more interesting too. I really need a bigger box or two for more fun.

I got this fun photo of Pink Girl sleeping on Queezle's head. I would feel sorry for Queezle except she sleeps on MY head part of the time at night!

Up to laundry load #5 today. I will have to give in and go to papers eventually but I hate the thought of newsprint on the pups. Hopefully the washer and dryer hold up.

I made them listen to corny dog songs again as payback for the 2:30 am ruckus last night :)

Belated update

Kate was home last week due to spring break and enjoyed spending almost 24/7 with the College pups. She is now back to Cornell and the pups are left with me.

They are growing like weeds - with most of them over 4 lbs now. They growl, bark, howl, wrestle and play. They also got Queezle's interior decorator gene as they are constantly tugging and rearranging the blankets!

I started playing the tapes for them. They have heard "obedience trial sounds" and "agility trial sounds". Currently they are listening to a set of somewhat corny "dog songs" like "How Much is That Doggie in the Window" and "Walking the Dog".

They had fun playing with a paper bag and none of them were bothered by the crackling noises. Now if they could just give up the late night parties!

St. Patrick's Day

The College Litter had a relatively uneventful St. Patrick's Day. Queezl enjoyed a spin around the yard enjoying the sun. She hopes her glasses kept her identity safe from any lingering paparazzi. She would hate to have any photos of her in her post pregnancy/nursing figure to appear in the dog show magazines!

Black Boy agreed to pose for the hat photo. Basically he was in the biggest milk induced torpor so we figured he would hold still.

Yellow Boy was caught having gone "over the wall" and heading for the study to start his own Facebook page this am while I got Queezle fresh water.

Green Boy wanted to celebrate the day by joining the Irish tenors. Alas, he is currently an upstate NY soprano - off key at that!