Nearly 6 Weeks Old

Since the pups are getting too big and wiggly to be placed in a box on top of a scale, we decided to weigh them in a cloth with holes cut for the legs, attached to a fish scale. This was Neil's idea and worked well!

White Feather gets a turn.

The wormer is sweet with a butterscoth flavor, making it palatable for the puppies.

Hana got more on her face than in her mouth.

Since we will be out of town on the puppies' 6 week birthday, we weighted and wormed them today, two days early.

The puppy feeding routine changed a few days ago. Instead of free feeding, they are now getting food 3 times a day. Some of them were beginning to over eat. Interestingly enough, up to this point, Tuloon has not been regurgitating her food for them as she did in 2007. As soon as the constant supply of food was gone, she began to do this. Now it is necessary for us to keep her away from the puppies for 2 hours after she eats so she has a chance to digest some of her food, as she desperately needs the nutrition. The regurgitation of food by the mother canine is a primitive instinct that some dogs retain.

Puppy toenails were cut this week and many trips into the big back yard for play time were made. The puppies are now pairing off and running in different directions in the back yard which makes this activity challenging.

We have also spent hours preparing for our departure to the UK and have three very capable people taking care of the sled dogs, house dogs and puppies while we are away. Leaving for any length of time with 20 dogs is hard work and can only be possible with the help of our reliable and well trusted dog handlers. Even with this help, leaving the dogs doesn't happen very often so page after page of instructions have been drafted. There is a lot of maintenance and routine that goes into managing this many dogs and it is extremely important that the routine be followed otherwise there will be upset in the kennel which makes it harder for our helpers to manage them, not to mention harder for us to get things back in order when we return.