The boys have changed a lot this week.  All of their eyes are open and they are responding to sounds now.  In order to give them more attention and exposure to normal household sounds, we moved the puppy pen from the spare bedroom upstairs down to the kitchen.  The rest of the pack was pretty curious at first, especially the older girls who have have their own babies in the past, but the novelty has pretty much worn off for them.

Each day I’ve been putting a new object in the pen, like different dog toys and safe household things like an empty soda bottle, to give them stuff to check out.  I’ve played some CDs of various noises, but for the most part Dave’s taste in music gives them exposure to a wide variety of sounds.

Yesterday I added a litter box to the pen to start giving the puppies the idea that they shouldn’t eliminate and sleep in the same place.  Right now Muse is still doing a pretty immaculate job of keeping the pen clean, but this will change when we introduce solid food.  Whenever we handle a puppy for any reason, we put him into the litter box when we return him to the pen.  I’ve found that doing this consistently help puppies catch on pretty quickly to use the box when they need.  This eventually translates to easier housebreaking and crate training, as well as a cleaner puppy pen.

Here are some photos from this week.  Group photos aren’t working so well since the boys are pretty active now, but I tried to include everyone below..