Day 29 - Early weaning?

It is getting to be such a bear to get Fury to feed her kids. They wake us up every morning screaming and either my roommates or I go out and tell Fury to "feed your babies" which results in her hopping in there and doing it. I can't imagine the little teeth are comfortable for them. I usually follow each milk session with some puppy mash, but now that they have all their puppy teeth in, I'm going to try to supply them with more hard food and some water - of course dumb ol' Fury likes to eat it instead of them. There's got to be a balance here. :)

Here she is, cleaning up after feeding DURING feeding time.

The puppies are getting far more adventurous these days. They get let out to have run of the house for an hour or so probably 2-3 times a week. I am always quite thrilled at how they handle new experiences with no problems whatsoever. I will be glad when the rain stops and they can explore the backyard - both for house cleaning purposes and because I think dogs need to be outdoors. :)

They are also getting much stronger personalities. I'll go into that more when I get my photo set from Chris that he took last night. Today I watched as Firma tried to "work" Fury - kind of paralleled her out wide and watched her eye, and when Fury wouldn't play with her and turned around, she heeled her. Very cool. They're starting to remind me they're stockdogs. I'm also about ready to start taking deposits from parties rather than just keeping a list. I'm still looking for homes, though. I am hoping some of these puppies go to versatility homes (I'm primarily interested in working/conformation as I'd like to see them get championships if they turn out, but want to see them do what I bred them to do, too).

I had a scare on Friday: I've been thinking that Dactyl (whom we really call Daca, Dax, Daquiri) looks funny and I realized it was that her eyes are a bit wonky. Be being me, I did too much Internet research and was sure I was looking at PRA (progressive retinal atrophy) - she was going to go blind!

Daca's possibly wonky eyes?

Yishai came over to inspect her, and saw nothing wrong, but as I tearfully told him that if she was going blind, I'd probably have to put her down, he said, "Well, then, she's my puppy." I told him, "You can't do that." Yishai wants an adventure dog - to take with him mountain biking/hiking/on trips, etc. He's interested in stock handling and agility with it. He can't take the hurt puppy just because she's hurt. But that's the kind of guy he is. "Blind is not that bad. I won't let you put her down for that."

Here's my dog guy with his little pals. After I took this picture, I went and took a shower and when I came back he was asleep in the same puppy pile. Awww.

Anyway, on further consult, pretty much everyone says either, "I don't see anything wrong" or "it's typical for them to not fully be developed yet" so I'll hope for the best. Everyone is probably right. CA Sharp (our unofficial breed geneticist) said not to worry, as did one of my mentors. They'll get their eyes checked about a week before I ship them off to new homes - there's a CERF clinic here then. Living in the middle of nowhere makes these kinds of things hard sometimes.

Also, I would like to say that the week 4 photos are going to blow your socks off with their sheer cuteness. Be prepared.

Here's Yishai puppy wrangling for the photoshoot.

Chris Bersbach, puppy photographer extraordinare after photoshoot with all six Furies in his lap.