A field trip

I took the puppies to the office space in our house this afternoon. The floor in there is ceramic tile. It's an opportunity to offer them a different flooring to walk on and a different room to experience (I am working on the puppy rule of 7 for them).

Gael and Peeta were first. Gael didn't like it. He cried and hunkered down.I touched him and he did come over to me and kind of leaned against me. Peeta nosed around a bit and then come over to play with me. I took Katness and Prim next. They were almost not impressed. Katness sniffed around a bit after standing there a minute and then came over by me, lay down and started to go to sleep. Prim came over to me and sniffed around my foot and then tried to chew on my toes. I took Peeta out again with Haymitch so he wasn't alone. This time, Peeta went adventuring. Haymitch peed on the floor and didn't move much. He didn't cry but obviously didn't like it in there.

Now, Gidget on the other hand was very unhappy with me moving her babies around. She was anxious, paced and barked and barked. They need these kinds of things at this point so that later they can adjust better to changes and stresses. I hate seeing the ones that don't like it but they are the ones that need it most. We were only in there maybe 60-90 seconds at a time. Will do it again tomorrow. Same room. Hopefully they'll like it better next time. I may take some toys in there 1st.

I'm noticing this afternoon that some of Gidget's breasts are swollen. I tried to get puppies to nurse from them but no luck. I'm not going to try to give them any more solid food today in the hopes that they will nurse more on those teats. I'm feeding Gidget less and will probably cut back a bit more as it appears she may be producing more milk than they can consume. Also, it may encourage them to eat a bit more of the solid food.

I found a couple more teeth in mouths this afternoon. Just starting to come in. I'm not looking forward to them, at least not for playing. It'll make feeding easier but they are pretty ferocious when they play. Grabbing and shaking their heads. Once those tiny teeth come in, I'm going to be bloody. WIll have to make it a point to stop playing if they bite too hard.

They are such sweet babies. And Gidget seems to be wanting more attention. As I look back, she has wanted me but it was more a "help me with these things" kind of thing. Today, she got in my face and just seemed to say "I need some loving, too".

I'm still playing the sound desensitization files. The puppies are oblivious. I'll turn them up a notch tomorrow. I haven't run the vacuum in here since they were born. Will have to do that soon. I am so afraid to do it as my own dog is less than relaxed around it and I don't want him to set them off. I guess I could put him in another room... but that would be the easy way:-)