Fun day today with the pups watching their reaction to the great outdoors. Had hoped to get them out yesterday but it never warmed up much and I always want their first experience outside to be a pleasant one. Today by mid afternoon it was gorgeous. I took each out individually for their first official photo shoot. They all did well.... explored a little, used their noses and at times took cover under the bushes. I'm usually about 10 feet away from them when I position myself for photos and it's easy for them to lose track of me at this age. Sight still isn't very well developed. It's obvious in fact that their distant vision is pretty poor. And being the baby puppies they are, if they can't see me and get worried they're on their own, they'll begin to howl. I allow very little of that though and step in a little closer. It's all about building confidence, not traumatizing them for the sake of a photo. As such I don't really rescue them either. I step in just far enough until I can tell they've picked up on my movement. Then let them use and develop their senses of both sight and sound. As I walk toward them I call their names (collar colors) and encourage them to join me. They all aced the join up!!! In fact they got pretty good at skipping that step and quickly learned to follow me when I'd set them in my chosen spot for a shot. I think our photo sessions help with recall in the long run. And each week photo sessions become more difficult as they get faster and develop a pretty good ability to stick with me as I try and gain enough distance from them for a decent photo. I wonder if all pups would respond the same of if it's just the velcro nature of the Doberman. Right now photos are pretty quick and easy.
Even so, I don't think I'm going to get them uploaded tonight. Tomorrow's project is set!
I ordered a truck load of dirt, which I received notice today, will arrive tomorrow. As a result I had to quit all things puppy (except feeding and kennel care of course) and get back to leaf duty. Another 5 hoppers and a huge pile of leaves into the burn pit and tended to. As far as the dirt goes I'm actually afraid to see how huge of a pile 18 yards of it is. I assume I'll have a dirt pile for awhile and lots of spreading to do this spring. And hole filling. Because... dogs! I still have at least one digger here and she can dig some massive tunnels in short order. Longest I've measured to date was roughly 7 ft long and about 2 ft wide. Being relatively horizontal they're difficult to fill. And the dirt spread so far and wide I can never retrieve enough to actually fully fill them. Historically most of my dogs have gone through phases of digging but fortunately they generally grow out of it.
So that's it for tonight. Hope everyone had a nice Valentines day. I'll get busy on updating the pup pages tomorrow. At least I got the pages themselves created.
Even so, I don't think I'm going to get them uploaded tonight. Tomorrow's project is set!
I ordered a truck load of dirt, which I received notice today, will arrive tomorrow. As a result I had to quit all things puppy (except feeding and kennel care of course) and get back to leaf duty. Another 5 hoppers and a huge pile of leaves into the burn pit and tended to. As far as the dirt goes I'm actually afraid to see how huge of a pile 18 yards of it is. I assume I'll have a dirt pile for awhile and lots of spreading to do this spring. And hole filling. Because... dogs! I still have at least one digger here and she can dig some massive tunnels in short order. Longest I've measured to date was roughly 7 ft long and about 2 ft wide. Being relatively horizontal they're difficult to fill. And the dirt spread so far and wide I can never retrieve enough to actually fully fill them. Historically most of my dogs have gone through phases of digging but fortunately they generally grow out of it.
So that's it for tonight. Hope everyone had a nice Valentines day. I'll get busy on updating the pup pages tomorrow. At least I got the pages themselves created.
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