Two Days Old

Two and Three Days Old
Wednesday, Jan 5th & 6sth, 1999

Here are some shots I took with some Fuji 800 ASA film. I used flood with flash fill. They are two days old here and had their dew claws removed that afternoon. We went ahead and did it a little early because they were so well developed already. On Wednesday, we began the "pie tin" routine. It is something we picked up from friend and fellow tracker, Grace L. Blair, M.D. Grace wrote a pamphlet called "Infant Puppy Education" for her group, VIP (Versatility In Poodles). In it, she describes a series of tests and exercises for puppies from one day old through sixteen weeks. It is very small but packed with wonderful ideas for stimulating their senses and learning faculties. We used these ideas with a previous litter and were fascinated by the different reactions each puppy demonstrated. One of the goals of the these exercises is to stimulate the learning ability at a very early age. The pie tin exercise is done by placing a pie tin on a large piece of soft material like fake sheep skin. You then place a puppy in the tin and time it to see how long it takes to figure out how to get out. They cry and make a fuss until they finally figure out that if they crawl over the lip, they are rewarded by a nice soft, comforting surface. Not this cold metallic surface they now find themselves on. You can help them if they can't get out. Most of the pups took about 10 seconds on the first try. A couple took about 20 seconds. One stopped short just as it was climbing out and appeared listen to the cries of her sister who had just been placed back in the box and was unhappy about not finding a nipple right away. Perhaps she felt the vibrations of her sister's cry or it was just a coincidence. Either way, found it pretty interesting. We went back in our notes from the last litter and found that we didn't start this up until they were six days old but Pepper and Cricket took a whole minute to get out! I found that hard to believe. If you are interested in getting a copy, you can do so by visiting the VIP website at http://www.vipoodle.org/ . There is an on line version of the pamphlet at http://www.vipoodle.org/PDF_Files/TheInfantPuppy.pdf too. I would encourage you to make a donation to Versatility in Poodles, C/O Miriam Hillier, Treasurer, 4 Emerald Court, San Mateo, CA 94403 if you find the material of value. VIP does a lot to support canine health research.

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Click on any of the pictures below to see larger versions


Here they are all lined up. Red, Blue Boy, Green, Turquoise and Pink	Same order, different moment.	Again, same order, different angle.

Green Girl working hard.	Blue Boy	Blue Boy