No milk, no pool, no time before they're gone!

New puppy habitat

Last week, I moved the puppies from their whelping pool into the guest bathroom. They are doing great in their bigger habitat. They have much more room to run around and potty. The room is 2/3 potty area and 1/3 play/sleep area. They had it 50/50 but it was too much room and they were going potty on the end of the play area. I didn't want them to get used to doing that so I decreased the play area and increased the potty area. Pink and purple are doing super great with paper training! The others are doing well but are more apt to going pee in non-paper areas. It's better now with the smaller sleep area though. We lock them in the bathroom with a baby gate which is good because Molly can't be in there all the time like she was before. Yet another step towards getting the puppies ready for leaving mommy and me. Both Molly and the pups seem to do really well with it. However, the pups are starting to be really vocal about what they want. And when they want out of the bathroom, they start the whining and the crying. It's so sad but I'm trying really hard not to cave in. I let them out usually when they are calm and quiet to reinforce those good behaviors. Getting them ready for crate training really is what it's doing.

OOPS!

This past week they've also been spending lots of time running around in the upstairs . They love it (hence the crying to come out of the bathroom)! They come out to play about 3 times a day and they just run and wrestle and chew on anything that looks interesting. Purple was climbing all the way inside Will's boot last night. It was pretty cute. She would get all the way in and then get nervous and pop back out, stare at the boot for a minute, and bark. lol. Green was keeping busying chewing on the fringe of the laces. She loves fringe/string/tassels!

Green chewing, Purple in the boot

Becks is still terrified of the pups although last night for a second he was barking at them and it ALMOST seemed like he wanted to play. Blue is completely fascinated by Becks and follows him around everywhere he goes. It's pretty cute but Becks still thinks he's poison to touch or even give eye contact too. He's a crazy mutt.

So, other than the big move, Not too much going on these days. We've all settled into a nice routine. They are all completely weaned and Molly is not producing anymore milk. That was an interesting process. We didn't feed for her about 36 hours and let her nurse only twice in 48 hours. That was all it took. She shut down production and now she's dry as a bone. Pretty cool really. We felt bad about not feeding her but according to the reading I've been doing, it's the best was to avoid acute mastitis (clogged milk duct) or causing damage due to distention of her mammary glands. That was really a concern since she had such a large litter and was having to produce so much milk to keep them all fed. By cutting off her resources, she didn't have anything to draw from to produce milk and thus, she stopped. We didn't feed Becks during that time either :-) So, at least she wasn't alone in her suffering. I'm not sure why that makes it any better.... but it does in my mind. lol.

Tomorrow the pups go for their first shots, another worming, and get a certificate of health. I get to juggle all 5 pups once again in the blistering cold. It's always crappy weather when we have to go to the vet, it never fails. Oh well. Still deciding if I'm going to take Molly with us. I'm thinking not because everyone needs to start getting used to the idea of being apart from mommy.

More updates to come after the big day at the doctor!

Green playing on the steps