Cavoodles at 4 weeks old, Eyes and Ears Open and Learning Doggy Social Skills

Well now you can see how well these really little puppies are truly starting to take shape.

They are now four weeks old the eyes are open the ears are open and they are both seeing and hearing so they can now develop relationships with each other.  This is a really interesting time in their growth cycle when they start to develop their individual personalities and learning their social skills within the litter.  When you look at mum in the first photograph you can see their relative size to her and whilst she is only small she is now fleeing more than two of her and the demand is more like three or four times her own demand due to their growth rates and by next week I suspect she will be weaning them and in anticipation Pat has already started supplementing their feed with Farax.  Yes that is right, Farax exactly the same as we feed our babies starting off with 1 teaspoon between the whole litter and gradually building up.

During the next week's is a crucial period where much time has got to be spent with the puppies bonding them to the humankind.  Whilst there are five of them plus mum plus dad making seven there is too many for one-on-one bonding but it is such an important period for the lifelong attitudes and temperament that had been instilled into their parents and Pat will be making sure that every contact with her and her close helpers will be a good experience and they will think all humans are great to be around and giving them love and kindness.

In the overall plan it is quite important that they do not bond with the breeder because then they would have to break that bonding in order to bond with it the new owners and by doing this when they are taken into the new for ever family and they are just the one without the competition from the other siblings they bond very tightly because the new family becomes their litter and the family and their mother and father as well.  This is one of the unique features that we had developed in our breeding stock that gets passed down to the offsprings and why they are such beautiful inside companion dogs.

As this week progresses they will gradually start to get into Farax and a little ground up puppy chow mixed in with the Farax and a very special milk replacement that is low in lactose.  Once these puppies go home they should never be fed milk again and that includes all milk products like cheese etc because dogs are usually lactose intolerant.

 Here we can see them really enjoying the outdoors being in the sun, slightly shaded gaining their first experience on grass stimulating their curiosity to explore and learn new textures and some of them are already in the process and going to sleep as exploring is a very tiring business.   they are also soaking up the natural  vitamin D3 from the sun

Here you can see Buddy the father checking out his handiwork.  Very often the mother's will be so protective poor old dad doesn't even get a look in but gets hundred away however Buddy and Lady are such beautiful even temperaments that he is now allowed to help looking after them.

This last all dark puppy's was only taken a week ago and was taken inside without a flash so you can see the difference that lighting makes and I would say that the colouring in the shade on the grass is closer to the real colouring however the white spots are not really white sports but that is where the bright shafts of sunlight coming through between the leaves as they are fairly full-single colour. 

Here now is a short extract from one of Pat's eMails to me so you can get a better handle on the litter from Pat's perspectives.

The puppies are starting to try and 'play fight' now, getting their mouths around one another's noses etc, little growls and barks happening. I just watched one little, not so little, girl 'squat' to do a wee! So cute. Lady is so funny when I change the bedding following me to the laundry to check out I am not putting a puppy in the washing machine! and to the rubbish with the newspaper also. She is starting to look for more time with me again, coming in several times a night to jump up on the bed and run all over my head  just to say hello, then jumps back down to come back to puppies, but if I shut the door to keep her in here with them, Buddy has found out he can jump on the door to let her back in! Thanks Buddy, does absolutely nothing to ensure I get a full night's sleep. He just settles and sleeps, typical man.