Day 24 A.M. & P.M.

All is well!

Daisy seems fully recovered and all of the Wildflowers are doing just fine. They still spend the majority of their time sleeping, as is appropriate for fast growing babies.

But their periods of play are extending — also appropriate.

This is Lupine — the flowers stay in the Nursing Alcove and so they get played with when the puppies spend time in there.

I like having different places for them, with different experiences in each place.

This is Buttercup.

I also need them to have a place to be when I clean and change out Puppy Central, which I do at least twice a day; the Nursing Alcove works great.

This is Paintbrush.

This is Mallow — he is now close to 3.5 pounds.

The Heavyweight Champion of Puppy Central is Clarkia, who is now over four pounds.

The platform stays in today and I added a small crate. Learning to be relaxed in a crate is an important skill — the presence of a crate with no door is the first step in that process.

This is a look at Puppy Central this morning.

I will be doing some revisions to their potty zone in the next day or two — they will soon be ready for something a bit more targeted, so to speak.

I do not put puppies in or on the new things — their job is to be curious, explore, and master the new things on their own. This is Clover.

I have noticed the puppies’ tails are all up as they are moving more and faster, as if the tail provides some kind of balance.

If we try to force puppies into new experiences, we risk associating new experiences with fear and anxiety — that is the opposite of what we want.

If we create opportunities for appropriate experiences — and let the puppy be the expert of their own comfort level — we support both competence and confidence.