Smiling German Shepherds: Four Weeks Old

Playful puppies

The puppies are four weeks old today. They have become much more playful in the past three or four days and are much more active. They have discovered the joy of chewing on things and it has become necessary to wear shoes when sitting with them as they seem to enjoy biting toes and pant legs. They have also become much more alert, they hear us coming and are eager for attention.

Today was also a day of first for the puppies. In addition to their normal routine of the weigh-in, the puppies had their first pedicures. Their nails had been getting long and were very sharp so we clipped off the sharp edges. All the puppies did fantastic, there was some wiggling but I'm not convinced it wasn't just because they wanted to play with everyone else. We also gave each puppy their first dose of wormer today. We have been fortunate to find a wormer that has a good taste which makes the task a whole lot simpler, even Maddie willingly drinks hers from a cup.

The puppies all gained a lot of weight this week and seem so much bigger than they did a week ago. The puppies have been eating puppy food with warm milk in the morning and again in the afternoon. They also have free access to dry food throughout the day and have begun eating it as well. Maddie is still willing to nurse them but only for limited amounts of time. She doesn't like to be far away from the puppies for long periods of time but seems to enjoy watching them from the top of the step or behind the closed door of her room.

It is hard to capture the personalities of the puppies in a picture, I hope to take some more video over the weekend but for today these will have to do.