Nursery and Neonates . . .

For about the first 3 weeks the puppies focus mainly on staying alive! They nurse (supervised) every 90 minutes, their eyes open around day 13, and ears shortly after, and they complete important neurological stimulation exercise, and just try to grow and develop.

Believe it or not, "training" begins just hours after the pups take their first breaths. Each Pickwick puppy is handled throughout the day with cuddle sessions, stimulation of GR gene, Early Neurological Stimulation exercises, weighed daily, and of course help with elimination and clearing of nasal passages with bulb suction and sometimes nebulizer treatments. The ENS and GR gene protocols are daily from Day 3-16, individual cuddle sessions multiple times per day, and the overseeing and help with nursing is every 90 minutes to 2 hours during the first weeks. After 2-3 weeks the feedings push toward 2-3 hours apart, then by week 3 we are closer to 3-4 hours apart. 

Eventually, it's time to leave the puppy room and graduate to the puppy pen in the den! 

Puppy Pen Scenes . . .

Puppies start to eat real food (gruel ... wanna be food!), learn to walk, and begin working on things like resource guarding, bite inhibition, clicker training, and how to learn. They play hard with their siblings and train hard with their humans. Socialization begins (always conducted safely) around week 4 with the first of the puppy parties and, later, outings in their stroller to safe environments like church, choir, work, home depot, and such.