This would normally be the week where the puppies socialise heaps, but unfortunately it was very hot, and we didn’t get the puppies out anywhere near as much as we’d like to.

While up until now the puppies had been confined to a pen outside, they started to have greater access to the backyard during the last week.

On the 13th of December I took both Kelinni and Boomer out, and they each met about 20 people each.

On the 16th of December, we had a somewhat different socialisation experience.  My partner volunteers for the State Emergency Service and they were having a Christmas lunch in a park. In lieu of carrying puppies in the park for several hours, we brought a puppy pen and had the puppies on the ground – something that we never do!  However, I think the risks of parvo were minimal: We placed the puppies on a tarp, so they didn’t have direct contact with the soil, the park is in a medium-high socio economic area where most people would vaccinate their dogs, the Christmas lunch was deep in the park, and because you have pay to drive to get your car in, there’s probably less people that attend this part of the park with their dogs.

The puppy pen set up. We chose to sit back from the rest of the group in respect for non-puppy-lovers.

The socialisation opportunities were huge – and actually bigger than I expected. I actually just thought there would be a bunch of men at the Christmas function, and I really wanted more socialisation with my puppies to men. But it turns out there where heaps of kids there, too! So it was very much worth attending.

Children: Perfect for socialising!

One of the things I didn’t anticipate about this experience is how I’d get to observe the puppies’ natural behaviours in a pen. Because they have been carried everywhere, it’s been hard to judge how they were actually coping with the whole experience. I was most impressed that all puppies confidently approached people through the puppy pen, and that they were relaxed enough to play and sleep with all the people around. It felt like all my socialisation work was paying off!

At this event, each puppy met about 26 people. (Most people interacted with the puppies.) This brings their socialisation tallies up to:

• Alfalfa had met 90 or more people.
• Man had met approximately 85 people.
• Jakkalberry had met approximately 80 people.
• Kelinni had met approximately 105 people.
• Daisy had met approximately 70 people.
• Boomer had met 110 or more people.

When the puppies turned 6 weeks old, they became totally weaned, with Clover being separated from the puppies permanently. But Clover hardly visited them anyway, so it’s not a big deal. Next week we need to put more attention into crate training. All puppies are used to getting fed in their crates individually, but they haven’t had the door locked behind them! This is a learning experience for the next week.