At four weeks old Prue's puppies are getting stronger on their feet and are starting to pounce at each other, and bite and shake toys - They are proper little time wasters - as all I want to do it sit in the puppy pen and watch them!
They now have a bigger puppy pen so that they can stretch their legs and exercise. Physical fitness also improves mental fitness. The larger pen also reduces any conflict within the litter allowing them space to move away from each other if they want to. I've now created a toilet area with puppy pads to teach the puppies to use the puppy pads inside - however, because of the lovely weather we have introduced lots of time outside so the puppies are learning to toilet outside too. We are working on taking them out when they start to wake up after sleeping as this is a time when they all need to go! .....but this is obviously a work in progress as they are so young.
A large pen with environmental enrichment has a huge impact on the puppies, however adding learning and problem solving activities can improve that enrichment affect even further
Learning and enrichment activities produce puppies that are more stable, less prone to stress and less easily frightened.
We have started adding new challenges to the puppies lives.
The problem solving activities we have introduced are;
1. We are starting to feed the puppies away from the play pen, requiring them to navigate the slightly raised lip of the lip of the puppy pen to obtain their food. We are obviously aware that Labrador puppies have joints that are very underdeveloped so small raised platforms have also been introduced.
2. We are also introducing simple barrier activities, placing a bowl of food one side of a barrier and the puppy on the other. The puppies can get to the food easily by navigating around the barrier - but the puppies need to work this out for themselves. The difficulty of this task can easily be adapted and changed for each puppy depending on their level of independence.
Puppies need to learn how to cope with frustration, and be able to think and work things out for themselves in order to cope with everyday life. These activities teach the puppies how to cope with frustration. Frustration is a huge factor in aggressive behaviour. If all puppies were taught how to cope with frustration from a young age, the incidences of aggression in our family dogs would be a lot lower.
They now have a bigger puppy pen so that they can stretch their legs and exercise. Physical fitness also improves mental fitness. The larger pen also reduces any conflict within the litter allowing them space to move away from each other if they want to. I've now created a toilet area with puppy pads to teach the puppies to use the puppy pads inside - however, because of the lovely weather we have introduced lots of time outside so the puppies are learning to toilet outside too. We are working on taking them out when they start to wake up after sleeping as this is a time when they all need to go! .....but this is obviously a work in progress as they are so young.
A large pen with environmental enrichment has a huge impact on the puppies, however adding learning and problem solving activities can improve that enrichment affect even further
Learning and enrichment activities produce puppies that are more stable, less prone to stress and less easily frightened.
We have started adding new challenges to the puppies lives.
The problem solving activities we have introduced are;
1. We are starting to feed the puppies away from the play pen, requiring them to navigate the slightly raised lip of the lip of the puppy pen to obtain their food. We are obviously aware that Labrador puppies have joints that are very underdeveloped so small raised platforms have also been introduced.
2. We are also introducing simple barrier activities, placing a bowl of food one side of a barrier and the puppy on the other. The puppies can get to the food easily by navigating around the barrier - but the puppies need to work this out for themselves. The difficulty of this task can easily be adapted and changed for each puppy depending on their level of independence.
Puppies need to learn how to cope with frustration, and be able to think and work things out for themselves in order to cope with everyday life. These activities teach the puppies how to cope with frustration. Frustration is a huge factor in aggressive behaviour. If all puppies were taught how to cope with frustration from a young age, the incidences of aggression in our family dogs would be a lot lower.
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