Boomer sleeping.

The puppies continue to grow and be healthy and happy. At 3.5 weeks they began to be offered solid food (mince beef) to start the process of weaning. They now only get access to Clover after they’ve been offered ‘real food’. (The idea is that they will fill up on mince before having a drink.)  Clover is no longer getting several big meals a day, as we want to encourage her to cut back on the milk production.

First meal!

We added a TV to the puppy’s pen, as in recommendations from a recent study on fearful behaviour and puppy TV-viewing habits.

Two puppies in the pen with a TV running.

The puppies started going outside for the first time, though it’s very overwhelming and they pretty much hide! However, they’ve grown too big to ‘help’ me clean their pen, so outside they go.

Indeed, the puppies outgrew the small pen in the bedroom, so moved into the large pen in the dining room. I clean this pen really well with bleach, vinegar, and water before adding puppies to it. It’s in the centre of our house, so they get to experience noise from all areas of the house. The TV moved into this pen, too.

This is how our puppy pen is set up this week. (Note: The big blue crate isn’t permanently there – this is just what we use to move them from inside to outside and back again.)

In terms of meeting new people, there were only 3 new visitors to our home this week. That’s okay, because our big socialising times happen next week!