Quick Weeks 2 and 3 update!

Weeks 2 and 3 for puppies is pretty much keeping them clean and making sure Khali is catered for and that flies by so fast... suddenly puppies are heading into their Week 4 already! This is when it gets REALLY busy...

When they become confident in navigating themselves around and are able to find their way back to the group I move the litter box away and give them more room, and I switch out a blanket to litter mat and proper bed to get started on potty training... I know this sounds crazy-early but by week 3 pups are no longer relying on Khali to go potty, and will wake up and do their business. Giving them a proper bed encourages them to know the difference between sleeping and soiling areas (which they like to do naturally). So our puppy area has 3 zones: pillowed bed on litter mat surrounded by potty sheets. The first bed gets tossed but we are on our second bed and so far it’s stayed clean, and I use rotating mats so there’s always a clean one ready end of day, and the potty sheets attract the biggest mess (and quite satisfying to see getting used) and are easy toss and get changed as needed over the day. The goal is to make it easy for pups to do what they would do naturally, which is keep their sleeping areas clean!

This is also the most intensive puppy bonding opportunity. Making sure puppies recognise people as sources of love is started when they’re still using smell over eye sight, so they get individually handled and snuggled and nails trimmed and are allowed to snooze on us...all so they get comfortable being away from litter mates and think of people as family, not just food sources. Next step will be to increase their roaming areas to include crates with comfy mats so they feel a little more comfortable crashing in cozy crates to sleep.

They're also just starting to get their front teeth coming through so we are prepping for introducing wet puppy kibble, and they’ve already dipped noses into Mums water and discovering how their tongues work!

So that’s just a quick overview of current stage, and yes personalities are developing too 🤐 but keep an eye out for Week 2 and 3 portrait shots next 💕.