How I Raise My Puppies
First Time Alone, with Stranger, With Toys
To help you compare this first testing of drives with how the pups developed, I include the summary of who went where for what after the notes on each litter.
I illustrated four litters, including the latest (NN).
This is one of the litters from which I kept a pup so you can, if you desire, follow how they grew up and, eventually, produce and compete.
Also see the temperament test results. (The Search & Rescue testers couldn’t come to test this litter so we incorporated some of those tests into the temperament test).
LL Litter (GloryToo bred to Quasi, session done at 38 days)
GloryToo, from the GG litter, is the mother of the LL litter
My friend Cathy, who trains with Search & Rescue, came to play individually with the pups and evaluate them. I took 431 photos.
Here are Cathy’s comments, in the order we did the pups (order determined whoever I could find, awake, when we were ready for the next one). It took us over 2.5 hours to do everyone.
Yellow male: Sleepy, but once he woke up played well. Really liked the fox (soft tug) toy. When tugging used lots of head shaking; pretty good bite 6-7 (out of 10). Very social; stopped playing to give kisses. Liked the Cuz ball but showed no interest in the tennis ball.
Rainbow Female: Noticed and started playing with toys immediately. Readily wanted to interact with Cathy and gave nice eye contact. Wanted to use her nose rather than play with toys. Found treats in Cathy’s pants pockets twice and later found treats in Cel’s pockets. One of the pups yesterday at the children’s library found the treats in Cel’s pockets and we think it was Miss Rainbow. Things were too chaotic at the time to remember who did it. Didn’t do a lot of tugging; nipped a little. Liked Cathy’s wrist watch. Very social; liked to interact and kiss.
Pink Female: More interest in tennis ball than previous two pups. Liked ball much more than soft toys. Not much interest in the soft tug toys; only did a little tugging. Liked Cathy’s metal watch with leather band. Liked to be with Cathy and interact.
Green Male: Immediately started playing. Bounced, pounced, played with gusto. Loved the balls and had deep bit on them; retrieved a couple of times. Loved the tug: deep bite, loots of head shaking, wrapped body around toy. Liked Cathy’s watch. 10’s all the way!!!! Didn’t really pay any attention to Cel – was really focused on Cathy.
Orange Female: Started playing immediately. Liked the soft toys – good tug, lots of head shaking and getting feet on toy. Good eye contact while playing. Good bite on toys. Deep bite on ball, retrieved a couple of times. Aggressive going after toys: pounced, lots of energy. Stopped occasionally to visit with Cathy – licked a lot. Lots of energy in play.
Gold Male: Real good eye contact. Loved the ball and retrieved once, full bite on ball. Wasn’t much for tugging; grabbed soft toys and wanted to take them somewhere. Lots of energy but not much playing with Cathy; wanted toys for himself. Quick on his feet, very agile & fast.
Blue Male: Good eye contact. Definitely preferred hands to toys. Liked the watch. Preferred to be with Cathy and chew on her rather than play with toys. Did go after ball and had good bite. No real tug. When did pick up toy or ball had a good bite, just not that interested in toys. Very happy, acting silly and having fun. Found the treats in Cathy’s pocket.
Red Male: Retrieved the ball immediately – fast pivots and returns to Cathy. Very agile at backing up. Would retrieve backwards – if ball was rolled in front of him as he sat by Cathy, would pounce then back up to his original position and offer it to her. Good mouth on ball. Found treats in Cathy’s pocket. Good eye contact & interaction. Liked to bring all toys back to Cathy eventually if not right away. 7 – 8 on tug, with headshaking. Tried to get body on toy. Growled once when tugging. Liked Cathy’s watch. Really enjoyed himself.
White Male: Not a lot of interest in toys; didn’t really engage. Good eye contact. Lots of kisses. More interested in visiting with Cathy than in toys. Liked Cathy’s watch, especially the leather band. Not high energy today.
Mr. Gold went to Idaho for Search and Rescue, obedience, tracking & agility competition. Mr. Red went to Missouri for obedience, tracking, barn hunt, rally competition. Miss Rainbow went to a biologist in Alaska to search out wolverine lairs and bat nests for research. Miss Pink went to Montana, Mr. Green stayed in Sheridan and Mr. Yellow went to Cheyenne, all as pets. I kept Miss Orange (Lovely).
to JJ litter first time alone (Soleil, from the GG litter, is the mother of the NN litter)
to NN litter first time alone (GloryToo, from the GG litter, is the mother of the NN litter)