The highlight of the week was the puppies meeting some of the rest of the pack. Here are Aoife and Finian
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As it went, Phillie, our incredibly clever 20 month old, opened a latch and gate and let the older dogs in to meet the puppies.
It was not what we planned, but what the heck. It worked.
The puppies are now 12 weeks old and getting ready to go out into the world.
It is amazing to note how much they have matured in the last two weeks. They are beginning to run like wolfies and they look like wolfies and they eat like wolfie puppies.
This is 44 pounds (20 kg) of a super-premium food: Eukanuba Lamb and Rice. Todays quiz question: Feeding 14 puppies, how long does it take to go from this, to this:
The answer will be found below - no peeking until you have your answer.
They do continue to grow well, adding between 3 and 6 pounds per week (they grow in spurts).
The answer to the question: How long does it take 14 puppies to eat 44# of food is:
2 days (just for the puppies) The 9 adult dogs eat another 12 pounds of food daily. And you thought you had problems with human adolescents !
The process of matching puppies with "really good" new homes has become rather
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frantic as the departure date looms. Some people, after visiting and meeting the big dogs just decided that an adult wolfie is REALLY BIG, indeed some people think "too big". Somehow the dog just seems bigger when you are sitting on a couch and they approach than when you were standing at a dog show and they were lying down.
Our selection process consists of initial correspondence, where we try to dissuade them with wolfie damage stories, followed by the submission of a 6 page questionnaire. If the prospective owner seems really nice and has the requsite fenced in yard and a reasonable plan for exercise we then invite them for a chance to meet the wolfies, up close and personal. (As wolfies are dogs, sometimes the "personal" is a bit too personal.)
After the visit here we arrange a visit to their home where we verify everything they said in their questionnaire and answer questions that come up. We are hugely appreciative of the volunteers who sometimes drive 2 hours to get to the prospective new home to check it out. At the same time we are getting a written recommendation from their current vet and verbal recommendations from two individuals the family suggested. Around week 12 we sit down and try to match the needs of the prospective families with the temperaments and traits of the puppies we have. This is not easy.
Assuming all is well, the prospective family sends us well worn T-shirts. We tie a knot in the middle and let the puppies have at them the day before the selected puppy is to be picked up. This way the puppy can get a scent of the new family and can take a scent of its littermates to the new home. After the 3rd immunization comes the big day. It is joyful for the new family and quite sad for us. Other than losing a puppy to illness, this is the worst part of having a litter.
This ends the weekly journals of the Presidents' Day Litter. While writing the journal has been fun, it has also been a lot of work. We will try to publish an update at around 4 months, and irregularly after that.