Gosh, puppies grow fast, so all those little things that need to happen to ensure happy, healthy sled dogs also have to happen quickly.
Today we had Dr. Jeanne Olson remove the puppies' dew claws. Dew claws on adult sled dogs can be easily torn in crusty snow conditions and a wide variety of other circumstances, so removing them within the first few days of life prevents a wide range of potential injuries. Lucky and the puppies all handled the car ride very well. Of course Momma -dog was anxious when she heard her babies squeal during the quick and simple procedure, but she recovered very quickly. She truly is a marvelous dog.
We are continuing the neurological exercises, and I've been able to find a bit more information about the process. For example, it was developed through some research conducted by the U.S. Military in the 1970s. In an effort to improve the performance of military dogs, the "Bio Sensor" program was developed. It later became known to the public as the "Super Dog" program.
Janece and I made a 3 minute video recording of the process, which we've posted on-line for those who may be interested. I've also imbedded the video in this Blog entry. It's a rather large file, but we think it shows the procedure pretty thoroughly.
More information about the exercises and their results can be found at in the on-line article "Developing High Achievers".
We are starting to find names for the puppies. I thought a "night sky" theme would be fun as it is consistent with our "Stardancer Historical Freight Dogs" kennel name. The puppy with the white right-front leg is now "One Star" or "Star" for short. The sable female is "Cassiopeia" (Cassie). The biggest, boldest puppy - our 'piggy puppy' is Polaris, after our guiding light the North Star. (and because we don't want to fall into the habit of calling him 'Piggy'). The male with no brown cheek patches on his face is "Midnight Son". "Capella" is our third female, and "Orion" the third male.
Janece has to return home on a flight very late tonight (actually, 1 o'clock tomorrow morning as in "Yawn, early o'clock"). I still have another full week of R&R to enjoy the puppies and do a few things around the house. That pretty much brings us up-to-the-moment in news from the Stardancer kennel.
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