Tachi's 2021 Puppies ~ 4 Weeks Old

Welcome to week 4 with our gorgeous, cuddly crew of mini schnauzers!

I captured quite a few "gem photos" this week with the puppies.  Topping the list was this sweet moment between a boy and his puppy.

​And close second, third, and fourth places are these below:

Willow enjoying the sunshine

Murphy with his tongue out

Jackson giving a yawn

​Now, for their weekly update photos.  Remember to click on them for lots more photos.  The puppies did well posing for me in the warm May sunshine.

​Their weekly photos doubled with their first experience of the outdoors.  They were able to smell rocks…

Mandy

...feel the grass...

…and see and smell so many new things including EJ on his bike at a safe distance from them.
 
At four weeks old, the puppies are definitely waking up to the world.  Though the majority of their time is still spent sleeping and growing, they have short awake periods where they tussle with each other and snuggle with us.  Below, Lucy is getting some early literacy.

MJ & Lucy

The puppies are growing beautifully.  Their weights as of this week are as follows: Willow – 3lbs, Mandy – 2lbs, 7oz; Murphy, Belle, & Jackson – 2lbs, 6oz; Ruth – 2lbs, 5oz; Odysseus – 2lbs, 2oz; and Lucy – 1lb, 13oz.  Their main source of nutrition remains Tachi, but she’s showing us the natural signs that she’s ready to wean them by spending less time with them.  They’ve learned to lap goat milk from a bowl, and we plan to introduce softened food to them in the next few days.  When we give them their first taste of food, we want to make sure it’s something nutritious for growing puppies.  We choose to feed Life’s Abundance Small and Medium Breed Puppy Food.  (For those of you bringing puppies home in this litter, please visit our nutrition page to read all about Life’s Abundance.)

We continue to make headway on house training.  The puppies are doing an amazing job of getting their “potty business” on the newspaper in the their potty area.  They will now wake up and toddle over their to do their business.  As is to be expected at this age, they do not get it right one hundred percent of the time; but, we change their bedding several times a day to continue to show them their sleeping area is a clean place.  In contrast to the clean bedding, the scent is preserved with layers of clean newspaper on top of the soiled paper.  The scent naturally brings them back to do business their again.  With their progress, we’ll introduce a play area and toys for them in the next week.
 
We will deworm the puppies in the next few days and continue to deworm them every two weeks until they go home.  Deworming puppies is simply a standard procedure for us because young puppies are susceptible to worms.  We also will be taking a fecal to the vet when they go for their health check-up to be sure they are worm and parasite free.​

As the puppies are becoming aware of the world around them, we want to give them many varied experiences to build their confidence and socialize them well.  We keep the new experiences brief and positive in order to show them that new things are safe and interesting.  Much of their socialization to a home setting happens without any effort on our part because we raise them in our home in a room right off our kitchen.  They hear all the sounds of a kitchen and laundry room - washing machine, timers beeping, family dinner chatter (and just family chatter in general), mixer, radios, and more.  All the while, the puppies are learning how to interact with people and their environment.  

You may wonder why we have a focus on brief, positive, new experience for our puppies.  Puppies are naturally open to the world around them.  This "window of socialization" closes around a few months old.  If puppies learn young to accept new things, they will be much more flexible as an adult to accept new people and places.  When you bring an eight week puppy home from us (or any breeder), do not consider them "socialized."  We lay a solid foundation of socialization, but then the responsibility rests upon their new families to expose them in positive ways to new things.  One of the best things we have done for socialization is basic obedience training at a local dog training club; it's an investment you won't regret!

I'll close with snapshots from the week.  Notice in the first few how the puppies like to snuggle in the crooks of arms for comfort at this age; so adorable!  Thanks for stopping by!