The puppies are in their 7th week. This week has produced some key changes in the behavior of the puppies.
There seems to be three stages of development evident in the litter.
The most “mature” pups are able to move into new spaces and be secure within themselves with me.
For example, we train cutting horse so each day I “run the flag” for my husband. This means that I run an electronic device that moves a “flag” back and forth across a “wire” that stretches across the ring. Two puppies (Happy and Cleo) come with me across the pen to the chair where I perform this action. The rest of the pups watch at the gate.
All the pups are walking down to the barn to get the puppy food and walking back with me. The other day we had an “issue” during this walk. Their Dad took off after a barn cat. I don’t allow that! So I began calling him off.
This commotion caused the pups to scatter in an interesting way. Two pups stayed with me ( Happy and Summer. Two pups ran back to the house (Lisabeth and Cleo) And the rest ran to their Mom.
Thinking about this and watching the pup behavior this week, I think we are seeing 2 more different levels of maturity. The pups that are secure as long as they are with their Mom. And the pups that are secure in their home turf.
In the beginning all the puppies were most secure in their den (home turf area). As they develop, they begin to move around the farm with their Mom. (Secure with Mom stage). A little more experience and development and this is transformed into the Secure with My Person stage.
This week has seen Summer going through some of this transition. She has been out with her Mom and now is coming with me. She is moving around the farm ( within the space of the house and backyard) by herself.
Lisabeth is wavering back and forth. Some times she has some independent and some times she reverts back to her previous “security blanket” level.
Jewel is also making this transition and she is anxious to become more independent. Happy is the leader of the pack in development. Very secure. Very calm and Very polite. Cleo can be very independent but can revert back to needing more security.
If you have kids, you know that all this sounds normal for little kids. Some days, some moments they are very mature and then in a heart beat, they can need to be held by their Moms and Dad.