A family Affair

It takes a village to raise a child, so the saying goes.  But how many people does it take to raise a puppy (or a litter of puppies?).  According to Ian Dunbar it takes 100 people by the time the puppy is 16 weeks of age to properly socialise a puppy.  I'm sure there must be a 100 people in a  village? Well my family is not made up of 100 people, but when we are all together it is loud enough to be classified as a village! 

This past weekend the puppies and I headed up to Invermere for 2 nights for Thanksgiving dinner.  This will probably prove to have been the key socialisation exercise for creating stable, outgoing adult shelties.  The puppies drove 3 hours in both directions, kenneled together in the car.  They slept the entire way.  Then when we arrived the puppies were xpend in the kitchen surrounded by all my family members.  When we were all together there were 10 adults and 4 nieces (ranging in age from 2 months old to 5 years old).  At times it was absolute chaos.  Dishes clanking, people laughing, children screeching, babies crying, balloons bouncing, dogs barking (oh ya, the puppies also met 3 other dogs) and all the other activity that accompanies a large group of people. 

How did the puppies react? Well they loved it of course!  The puppies were cuddled and played with, they play bowed and barked at the family dogs, they chased the kids feet as they ran by, they played tug with anyone who would grab a toy.  They were the center of attention and they knew it!  I think I will need to do a visit like this with every litter of puppies :)

Here are some pics from the weekend and 2 videos from today:

my 5 year old niece with puppies

large bi black girl and sable girl

my Dad snuggling the small bi black girl

my nieces with the puppies

small bi black girl

sable boy

Spryte crashing after playing fetch and tug with my nieces