The pictures on this page are of Piper’s 6 1/2 week old puppies. These puppies are doing extremely well. They had all mastered the doggy door and the two steps leading to our side foyer before they were 5 weeks old. This is the earliest of any litter we’ve ever had!
They started with crate conditioning right at 5 weeks and began learning to wait for a release cue before eating their food at 6 weeks 1 day. They’ve had their first 3 days of obedience lessons and are already sitting for attention, learning the “down”, and acclimating to a leash. All of this and they are only 6 weeks 4 days old!
Scroll down for information on how puppies at this age are developing and to read more on what they are doing.
Piper’s 6 1/2 Week Old Puppies: The Boys
Mr. Orange
Mr. Brown
Red
Mr. Blue
Mr. Gray
Miss Green
Miss Purple
Ms. Purple has a stain on her face next to her nose. It will probably shed out before puppies are 10 weeks old. It is not her natural color.
Pink
Miss Yellow
Piper’s 6 1/2 Week Old Puppies: Developmental Information
Starting around the time puppies are 5 weeks 2 days, most, if not all puppies, know how to use the doggy door fairly fluently. They can also safely navigate the two steps to get in our home.
During the time that we were training the doggy door, we were heavily dependent on using their meals to entice them through the door and up and down the steps. Once puppies are trained to the door, we can begin using our puppies’ food for other purposes.
A Start in Crate Training
By the time puppies are 5 weeks 4 days, they are ready for our next stage of training: crate training. Crates have been introduced to puppies with either the doors removed or penned open since they were four weeks old. It is now time for a more serious use. We begin feeding them in their crates.
At mealtimes, we put individual bowls of food in each crate. We do this while the puppies are in the side foyer with access via doggy door to our outside puppy play yard. We then call the puppies in the crate area. All crates have closed doors and we put one puppy at a time into individual crates, close the door and let them eat. There is a video of this process on our Raising Puppies page. We let them out and gather the bowls. We lead them back to the side foyer so that they can let themselves outside to potty.
Socialization, Desensitization, and Evaluation
During these last weeks that puppies are with us, we have three primary goals. The first and second have already been discussed on our Five Week Old Puppies page: socialization and environmental desensitization. This continues in full force until puppies leave us. The third is in preparing for puppy selection time.
We spend a lot of time evaluating, analyzing, and thinking about the best way to match puppies to families. From the time puppies are four weeks of age until they are 7 weeks, everyone who works with our puppies takes detailed notes on each puppy every day. Different temperament qualities show themselves under varying conditions. Also different puppies respond differently to people with different personality types. Our evaluations and note taking is in preparation for the 6 1/2 week old temperament document. This document is a compilation of various tests done by different people over the course of several weeks.
The pictures on this page, along with this document are very important, especially to those who live long distances from us (which is most families). These families are unable to see the puppies for themselves until puppy pick up time and so therefore depend on the information in this document. Actually, the temperament document serves a very valuable purpose to everyone getting our puppies. It contains more information than anyone could gather in a one or two hour visit for themselves. We, therefore, put a lot of time into it.
For more information on how we raise our puppies, see our Raising Puppies page.
We’ll continue keeping you posted on how Piper’s 6 1/2 week old puppies are growing on a weekly basis. See our Available Puppies page to get to pages of Piper’s puppies at other ages.