Jolly's 2018 Puppies - 5 Weeks Old

**Click on the above pictures for more photos of each puppy.  Scroll down on their individual pages for the most recent photos.**

The puppies are really "coming alive" at 5 weeks old.  Although they still need long naps, it is not unusual to look in their whelping area and see everyone awake and playing.  The children are able to handle them more and spend longer periods of time snuggling with them.

The puppies had lots of new experiences this week - milk, food, collars, outside time, bath time, and a grooming brush.  They also briefly met our other adult dogs.  Their world is expanding everyday, and we are so pleased with how they are all growing!

​We put collars on the puppies this week.  They spent lots of time trying to scratch them off, but soon realized their fate was sealed.  We use Lupine collars because of their high-quality and their chew guarantee.  Lupine will replace any collars that your dog chews or scratches.  We've used this guarantee only once before this litter.  This time around, Liberty and Miracle scratched their collars enough to damage them and require new ones.  Lupine graciously replaced them for us.

Above, the puppies are having their first taste of goat milk.  They transitioned quickly from lapping milk to eating softened pieces of food.  They still receive a few feedings from Mama a day, but their main source of nutrition is now food.  We soak it in goat milk to soften it, but we will gradually lessen the milk amount and softening time.  All the puppies love feeding time!  We also have started to take them outside to do business after eating.

A big new life experience for the puppies this week was bath time!  Above, Liberty is all snuggled up after her bath.  Since Jolly doesn't spend time cleaning them anymore, it is now our turn.  The first bath is typically easy because they are too shocked to respond.  They smell wonderful after the bath with Life's Abundance Revitalizing Shampoo with kiwi and mango scent.  After they dried off from their baths, I gave them a very brief brushing session to simply introduce them to the idea.
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To close this week, I'll include some photos with the children and the puppies.  As you can see, these puppies are well socialized with children!  Children (and all the noise they make) are simply a part of their lives.   As I've watched my children interact with puppies over the years, I've decided there is a balance when allowing young children to play with puppies.  On one hand, the child needs to learn to be gentle, and, on the other hand, the puppy needs to learn how to tolerate hands that don't always know the best way to hold them.  We have to be constantly monitoring our children as they handle the puppies.  As I think back, when we had our first litter of puppies here at Russell Homestead in 2014, AJ was 4 years old.  At age 4, we could not trust him to be alone with the puppies.  Now, at 8 years old, he has earned our trust to play with them independently along with CJ, age "almost" 7.  They both do a wonderful job of handling the puppies and giving them lots of snuggle time.