allalapaha

Day 37, it was the puppies first night outside! I woke up at 6 am to check on them. All puppies were huddled up together in there dogloo. And, of course, the first one out to greet me is ravage, (He's always trying to be first.) Once all the other pups saw the coast was clear, they all came out to greet me. Von Falconer recommends the "following response", this is where the pup is placed on the ground and one should walk 10 feet away slowly. Once the pups cries out "I'm lost"!, you should clap your hand and move back and forth until the pups comes after you. You must hold there head for 3-5 seconds then walk away again. This is repeated for up to 5 minutes per pup. It was interesting to see how they responded. At first all pups walked around a bit, and then cried out for help. After the fifth or sixth time doing the exercise, all pups began following me, once I would walk away. I can see how this would be important as you would want a dog to FOLLOW you as pack leader and not think it could do whatever it likes! I will continue this exercise everyday, for 2 weeks, until they have mastered it.

The sound conditioning is also very interesting.

Of course, this has been going on since day 29, but in the begining, the pups would all act suprised to hear a loud noise all of the sudden. But after repeated noises, they didn't respond any more! This is brilliant!!! If you have ever owned a dog that was scared of lighting ( I've even read of dogs who have gone to the bathroom in the house they were so scared!), then I'm sure you understand why this would be an important step in raising ANY LITTER!!! Sad to say most are not, that's probably another reason so many dogs are left in shelters!!

I feel like I'm writing a book here, but I must tell you how some of the pups responded. It was pretty funny!!!

Zelda, she was cute as always, and did well. Zelda is a fire cracker and has to bite my shoe and pant leg.
Chrono was next, what does he do as soon as I put him on the ground? You guessed it, he starts biting the plants around him!!! He also did fine.
Ravage was outstanding as usual. most pups took 4 to 5 times to get it right, Ravage...second try.
Most pups were the same, very cute, running after me with wobbly steps.
Lots of fun, I wish we could keep them all, but I know I can't, I can't have all the fun:)
Aaron

Two words......Puppy poop.

I don't think puppy poop is cute any more!!!! Tonight, we let the puppies run around as usual. I wish we could have taken a picture of it, but we had six of the 8 puppies pooping at the same time. It looked like synchronized swimming except it was 6 puppies pooping!!! Nonstop fun over here!!!!

Well, I was a little thrown off by this, but, it doesn't surprise me that much. Someone requested a female from us, and it turned out to be a scam, he wasn't even interested in her, he was just trying to get money from us.
If you google Steve Avans, you can learn more about him, also see other scams that are popular. That helped us, now we know what to look for. It's just sad, poor Gidget. She is really my favorite, I hope she gets a good home soon.

Well folks, that's it! Butter Bean has produced puppies with Sugar, and all of their puppies went to great homes! I truly think all pups went to homes that match the personalities of their owners! I am confident that you will be most happy with your new animal. Remember to be the "alpha", you are the boss! This actually makes the dog feel more secure!

Please let us know if you need assistance, we would be happy to help!

Aaron and family

Anita, that's great to hear! We get that a lot with this breed, but be patient and educate them on! This will help the breed a lot! Again please let us know if we can help you out with anything, and be sure to send pictures if you can to our email address! I will try to put up pictures of the dogs maturing in the "members only section" soon.

Aaron