Cola and Kit's three Icelandic Sheepdog pups turned five weeks old today! Next week they should be getting their first set of shots - after their first car trip. Another beautiful winter morning in Michigan's Thumb. My friendly ant-eating Flicker has been visiting again today - perhaps it can't find any ants this time of the year. Clicking on photos will enlarge them.
It is really hard to take photos of them when they are up and active. Usually before and after they eat they play, rather roughly, in my opinion, and then they don't really settle down until their blood rushes to their stomachs while they start digesting their meal. Then, THEN I can manage to get a few shots that aren't blurry because normally when they're not sleeping, they're always moving. Sleeping is when they look really adorable.
In the last shot above Katur is practically falling over from exhaustion. It will be quiet now for a couple of hours. Peace, perfect peace. Kria is the hardest one to take pictures of. She often finds a dark corner and quietly disappears into the shadows. When they play they are learning how hard NOT to play. Rough play encourages the hurt pup to crawl away stopping the play. That deprives the aggressor of a playmate. As long as no pup is actually being hurt, they can continue to play thus encouraging appropriate play. Yes, it's a thing. It works. That's one reason why it's really important to take young puppies to a puppy kindergarten (as soon as they've had all the necessary vaccinations). Supervised appropriate play time teaches puppies to moderate their behavior and to grow into well mannered adults. Letting them off leash and to their own devices, especially in a dog playground, is probably not a good idea. Just like with young children, play time must be supervised. Let them play until or unless a playmate is being hurt, then, again just like with humans, distracting the offender is the wisest way perhaps to deal with 'bad' behavior.
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