The Jet x Tubb puppies are doing great. They're starting to show their personalities, growing like weeds, and they love to play!

Their potty training is going really well, too. They do a good job of sleeping in the crate or occasionally in the puppy play area, and then getting up and finding the newspaper when they need to go to the bathroom. They also love attention, and it seems like they've been wagging their tails from birth!

We were able to get a few pictures of the puppies playing, so we thought we'd add those while we try to get individual shots over the next few days. Enjoy!

Below is a slide show of some pictures we took of them playing.

Well, I guess the time has come for our Layna x Homer puppies to start making their way to their new homes. 

"Lucas" (black male - puppy in picture) has found an excellent new home, and we can't wait to see how he grows and what's in store for him. The rest of the puppies will be picked up or flown out to their new families over the course of the next week - check back in for pictures and updates!

Though rewarding, the process of raising puppies definitely has arduous and slow periods of time - especially if one gets sick, isn't drinking well, etc....sometimes it seems like Groundhog Day...But, nevertheless, time has flown by again, even during the most droning days.

I think the phrase should be:  "Time flies all the time, and even faster when you're having fun!" The days can get away from us sometimes - use your time well!

Though we try to implement certain elements of potty training through most of the whelping process, over the past few weeks, we've really started to cement their understanding of where to sleep (crates), where to play (carpeted area so they don't slide around), and where to go to the bathroom (newspaper area over easy to clean surface).

We've also been fortunate to have great weather lately, so we've been teaching them to go to the bathroom outside. We're happy to report that the puppies are quickly learning to come straight to the newspaper area (by the puppy gate and near the door that leads outside) when they need to go to the bathroom - they cry to let us know, we let them out and they do their business.

Regarding crate training, we keep the gates open to two large crates and allow them to come and go as they please - if they fall asleep outside of the crate, we just encourage them to go in to sleep. As time goes on, we occasionally start to close the gate during the day when it's time for them to take a nap, and then eventually start closing the gate to the crate for short amounts of time during the night. As they get bigger, we start to separate them out - maybe 4 per crate, then we introduce smaller crates and do 2 per crate, then before they turn 8 weeks old, we start keeping the puppies in individual crates during the night. 

Keeping the process gradual like this really allows the puppies to make an easy transition to sleeping in their crate peacefully at night. Though the potty and crate training may not be completely finished by the time they leave our house, they'll hopefully be well on their way.