Transitioning from Whelp to Puppy stage
- Posted on 12th February 2015
- in Our Litters
- by jvfairbanks
Today marks the day that is the end of the transition period for the two litters. with everyone’s eyes and ears now open we are moving from the newborn, also known as Whelp phase to that of the puppy stage. The beginning of first socializing with their litter mates and learning to walk. This also marks the start of the passage from the transition phase to the socialization phase which begins at the middle of next week.
This week is a week of huge changes and the end of the transition stage they will have all the tools (but still at a very young level) for life: smell, taste, sight, hearing and walking. They will begin to eliminate by themselves and start mouthing and chewing as the gums have little puppy teeth that will start to emerge at the end of next week. During this week the become much more sensitive to their environment than they were before. You have to nurse their little spirit during this time. Watching them they crawl forward and back and you can see them watching their nest and gauging distance and the beginning of the inquisitive puppy emerges. I love their wobbly, clumsy walk at this age and their trying to balance their head up when first on all fours.
They are also beginning to form their pack social order as they all try to establish their order at the milk bar first. Around this same time they start to sniff the air for the first time. Picking them up and holding them close they sniff and try to suckle and figure out what is a human.
This is also their time of getting their first grooming; a nail trim is in order and an initial brushing and soon an eye trim for the eye guard hairs. We handle them so they will be comfortable with basic grooming and we watch how they respond to being handled and touched.
The next week they open up more to the world and move into the final stage with us, the socialization period. But more on that in the following weeks.
