Off to their new homes!

The Lovely Litter have been collected by their owners and are settling down into their new homes. Obviously, in these exceptional circumstances, with the coronavirus pandemic, I thought long and hard about the correct course of action. First and foremost, I wanted to meet the needs of the puppies.

They are now 8 weeks old and this is generally agreed to be the correct age for them to go to their new homes. Some breeds or types of dog take longer to mature than others, but at 8 weeks, Border Collies are developing really well! They are confident and resilient, if they have had a good start. These puppies can tackle new situations and find solutions to problems.

Socialisation

What is socialisation? This is the process of familiarising puppies to new and varied situations, so that they learn to cope with these and become confident, outgoing dogs. Sadly, many dogs are not exposed to new things until they are a few months old and are therefore fearful and reactive to anything and everything. People often don’t realise the importance of this process and the ongoing impact it has.

Puppies without this resilience will struggle to cope and this makes them harder to manage. Unfortunately, these are often the dogs that end up in rescue centres, as they need experienced, confident owners to handle them and help them recover. Rescuing a dog is therefore often a real challenge, because there are issues to overcome.

A good start

Happily, the Lovely Litter were born before the Lockdown. By the time the last visitor came, these puppies had been introduced to over 100 different people and had seen many of these people several times. They had met their owners and been cuddled many times.

I am also fortunate enough to have the space to create an interesting and varied set of experiences for them. They are regularly around my other, older dogs. These puppies have had time to play and explore.

Therefore, they should be fine. Certainly they all coped fine on their own for the first night and are loving having somewhere new to explore! Of course the handover was a bit challenging, because we had to maintain social distance, keep the owners in a separate, clean area and with minimal touching by them. That was fine. So off they went! Kennel Club provide ongoing advice to dog businesses – an update can be found here. I decided that 5 deliveries was the same as 5 collections and easier to manage.

Keeping in touch

As with the majority of my previous litters, I know that these owners will keep in touch. Most are already known to me and I know that they will come back to me, or talk to each other if they have any concerns or queries.

I am confident that I will see most, if not all these puppies again – we had planned a reunion in May, which I know the Sweetie Litter were excited about. This will probably happen in September now.

Will you and Ounce miss them?

This is the question I am constantly being asked. See the video for proof that Ounce is not pining away at home! This was filmed yesterday. She’s been completely, absolutely fine. The very last time she fed the pups was on Monday night, but she had hardly been feeding them for a week or so.

And me? Well no. These puppies don’t belong to me, after all. I am lucky to have had owners arranged for these pups almost as soon as they were born. So I am merely their guardian. I am responsible for their care, until they are ready to go.

I consider it to be the best ‘job’ in the world – raising healthy, happy dogs who will go on to have fantastic lives, bringing (almost!) constant joy to their families. Lucky me! Plus, I already have 5 amazing, wonderful dogs of my own. And Chris of course! Happy Easter everyone, stay safe xx.

Remember..

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