Home grows again

My friend Sunny (who is the breeder of several of my girls including Cayuse) visited this weekend and I took advantage of her.  She got to supervise the puppy's latest field trip while I expanded the pen to the outside.  Here are some photos of the excursion:

Smart little pups!

In an effort to ease housebreaking later, and to make my clean up easier, as soon as they have space I start trying to get them paper trained.  When I moved them I set up an area with newspaper.  Then came the work part - I have to clean and deodorize every area except where I want them to go as often as I can catch them.  This is a "fun" job since it involves stepping in the pen, which means lots of puppy "help", chasing the rag, climbing on me and so on.

But, I am pleased to say it already seems to be paying off.  Today they all ate then ran over to the area and made their little messes!

Next step - opening the door to the outside and moving that habit out of the house.  I didn't want to do it this past weekend because it was a bit warm here, and the house stays cool if I close it up when the outside temp exceeds the indoor.  This week the temps are supposed to be back to normal, so I will start getting that set up.

New Digs!

We moved the pups officially yesterday.   They have had a few field trips, but it was time to get them to more wide open spaces.  I almost delayed as I want to get more things set up - more crates, some toys and things to climb on, and of course the outside run.  But in the end I decided to just get them moved.  They are now in the family room, which is actually a great room that includes the kitchen.  Lots of traffic, noise and even a television!

Sassy checks out the new pen - and the pups

Moving is tiring!

Getting used to the crate already!

Half of the pups - more space makes those full group photos more difficult to get!

They are starting to escape!

 

The whelping box that is.  I have had them out - supervised - a few times and they think that is a great idea.  Now they are very loud and insistent.  The temporary boards I have added are not working  as more than a deterrent for the most determined of the group.  

Checkers making a break

So this weekend I think they will move into the family room.  

Here's a few more pictures:

Brown Boy

Blue Boy

Checkers - aka the Mouth

Puppies try food

They are growing like weeds, and Cayuse is thin and not putting on any weight at all - we can certainly see where it is going - the dynamic dozen are the ones putting on the weight!

So I decided to start introducing more food.  We did a little yesterday, and the really, really thought that was a good idea.  Didn't get a chance for photos then.  But today I did.  They make a big mess, so it isn't pretty.  I did notice some of the boys decided that they "owned" as much as they could cover their bodies with - both literally and by covering that portion of the bowl to claim it.