Post Whelp - when safe to train, expose to dogs

[kmaot]

Hello. Pups are thriving and are 2 weeks today. Thank again to all who have assisted in the process.

My female however would love to get back out and train. We are only going for walks on asphalt as I am concerned about bringing something back to the pups. I don't know if that is overkill. Is it?

When would be appropriate for us to resume activites such as tracking and some OB work etc <u>outside </u>of the home?

TIA

[Julie'somom]

Congratulations on your litter. I would go slow on trainning/tracking at this point in their developement. You do not want her to dry up yet... which could happen if she is worked too hard.You can still do some obedience with her just to keep her tuned up but I wouldn't put any stress on her with pups still this young. Having a litter of pups is enough of a stress for a bitch and there will be plenty of time for her to work later. She stilll has a lot of work to do with these puppies.....and as they get bigger so will her duties to teach them how to behave.

julies'omom

[selzer]

I agree. Give her another month. You can start the weaning process at 4 weeks and it is a process.

Be careful about diseases you can bring home on your shoes.

The reason they do a series of puppy booster shots is because the vaccines do not work if the puppies are still getting immunity from the mother. This mostly happens when they drink the cholosterum in the first day or two. The problem is that it wears off enough for them to get stuff at different rates depending on the individual dog. So we give puppy shots at six weeks or seven weeks, and then three to four weeks older, and again. The thing is we cannot know exactly when they are working under their own immunity or their mothers immunity.

When these puppies go to their new homes, you can heave a sigh of relief. If you are keeping a pup, then I would wait until after the second set of shots at ten to twelve weeks before feeling more comfortable about parvo and distemper, enough so to take the dam/pup where lots of dogs are, etc.