Day 28 Chinook Centennial Litter Pup-date

A wayward pup has a very effective way of waking you up. It's cries; the shrieking, concerned, left-behind, chorus and; frantic mom whines would wake anyone. After the first escape, Kate of course, I replaced the yellow floatie with the much larger in diameter red one. And yes, before dawn, she did figure out how to free climb up and over. After moving the pups to the outside pup-pen, I took the front pig-rail off. That should gain me 4" height to the escape route and make negotiating the floatie a bit more difficult.

I haven't mentioned another litter triumph. By the second potty, these guys were paper trained. I put the paper down, woke them up and immediately placed them on the paper to "go". They got the hint and from then on 99% of the time they run to the paper. to do their potty thing. That doesn't always mean that more than the front feet are on the paper but hey- huge success for something I had never tried before since I was always told puppies don't know when they have to go just like human babies. As long as I quickly remove or cover soiled paper, whelping box life is good. If there is anything off the paper, Koyuk makes sure I know about it. If it is nursing time, I not only know, I have to deal with it and give her clean linens before she will go in.
Koyuk napping in the shade while I took my lunch watering/weeding break.

 After an adventurous night, the puppies too spent a great deal of time napping...

 and eating...

 and wrestling...

and playing with Trask... (Koyuk was elsewhere - probably asleep preparing for another long night - when Trask jumped into the pup-pen. All was wonderful fun until the sharp little teeth attempted to get milk from his "different" nipple. One yelp and he was out of there).

 and working on an escape route.

Yup - Kate again.

With a little extra weight from a brother...

she was up and over.

Kate so reminds me of her mother. Koyuk managed to figure a way out of every barrier I created for the Iditarod litter. In my experience, Chinooks don't necessarily want to go anywhere, they just don't like barriers. At 7 months, McKenzie found an easily repeatable route out of the 7' high kennel. She could also open any out-swinging or sliding door and any crate or x-pen latch. Once when I had the x-pen covered and I thought tightly locked closed, she scooted it across a porch until she could just step out the bottom and down the stairs.

Koyuk tore down the towel barrier behind me as I took dinner to the puppies. She then proceeded to eat much of their food.

Treadwell almost made it to the milkbar but the slippery food trough hampered his attempt.

 Plan B

 plenty of extra food in the mixer.

 All of the puppies got their chance at the new dining accommodation.

until mom took over with her long tongue.

I wonder what laughter and mayhem  tomorrow will bring or tonight for that matter.