Hello, outside world! I took the puppies outside for the first time today as I took their 3 week photos. They look just gorgeous in the sunshine! Click on their pictures for more photos of each puppy. The puppies are becoming more aware of the world around them. They have suddenly realized that life is more than food and sleep. They have discovered many new things - their siblings, Mama's food and water bowl, noises that now wake them up, children, and much more! They are all growing beautifully. I have gotten many questions about what size these puppies will mature at. The truth? I don't know. Puppies have a way of surprising with their adult weight. Their weight is also dependent on diet and exercise. However, I can estimate that they will fall in the 16-20lb range. (If any of you reading this have a puppy from Jolly, please comment below on their adult weight. We would especially love hearing from the 2017 litter families who have a full siblings to these puppies.) I use this website to estimate puppy weight, but it is not very accurate at this young age. It becomes more accurate as they grow. The puppy weights as of three weeks are as follows: Boaz (2lbs, 1oz), Liberty (1lb, 12oz), Peanut (1lb, 10oz), Rocky (1lb, 10oz), Miracle & Chase (1lb, 9oz), and Ryder (1lb. 8oz). The puppies' whelping area will undergo some changes in the next few days as we being paper training them. We believe that house training starts now for the puppies as they begin to become mobile. We have used the Misty Method successfully with our past litters, and we plan to use it again. The premise of the Misty Method is that dogs do not naturally want to soil their sleeping area. As the puppies can begin to choose where they eliminate, they should be given a "potty area." We teach them what the potty area is by keeping the other areas as clean as possible. Whenever the puppies soil their bedding area, I clean it up to remove the scent using Biodeodizer and/or a fresh towel. Whenever they properly go on the newspaper, I cover it up with more newspaper to keep it clean, but yet preserve the scent that will keep them coming back. They do not always catch on perfectly, but it is amazing how fast they learn and how often they get it right. Paper training the puppies then lays the foundation for crate training, which should begin at 8-10 weeks old. Because the puppies have been paper trained, they already know there is a proper place to eliminate and proper place to sleep. Crate training simply transitions them to have that proper potty place be outside and the proper sleeping area being their crate. (If you want to read more, see my previous posts on house training - part 1 and part 2.) The puppies diet still consists solely of Mama's good milk. Jolly spends longer and longer stretches of time away from them - even venturing down to the creek in our backyard to go swimming (evidence that she's fully recovered from her surgery), but is always eager to return and check on them. We begin weaning them around 5 weeks old using Life's Abundance Small & Medium breed puppy food. (If you are going to be bringing one these puppies home, please check out our nutrition page on our website to find out all about Life's Abundance.) And, of course, as they grow that means more play time with the kids! All the children love spending time with the puppies, but there's a little girl who very enamored with her little Peanut. We are honored you stopped by our blog! Thanks for reading.
2 Comments
Miranda Parsons
7/27/2018 08:18:54 pm
Maizie weighed in at 14lbs at her one year birthday in April 2018. She was from Jolly’s litter last year.
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AuthorVanessa from Russell Homestead. Follower of the Lord Jesus, wife of my knight in shining armor, mother of 5 wonderful children, and joint-keeper of the Russell homestead. Thanks for stopping by! Archives
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Vanessa Russell
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