Well the newest litter of Dew Claw Dogs, affectionately known as the ‘Little Psychopaths’ continues to grow and get more coordinated, adorable, and larger every day. A big part of what we are doing with them right now is teaching them to interact with us, talking walks together around the property. Teaching them to come when they get called.  Of course they are also developing coordination, confidence, and strength as they run and play. Free time with people, their mom, and other loose dogs is important to these learning and growing puppies. Daily puppy play time is hands down one of the cutest most fun jobs at Dew Claw right now.  But this is the time when we are laying the groundwork that will allow these young dogs to grow into happy active team members. Here are some pictures from puppy play time today, click the image to see full sized.

 

And although it will be some time before the move into the big dog yard now is the time to plan.  Plus it would not be fall at Dew Claw if we were not doing a major kennel maintenance project.  Some years we replace all the dog houses, other years we have built new pens, or done major repairs.  Today was the end of a long week of projects, all involving the use of a rented excavator and lots of big dreams. Recently we posted about the addition of a off grid cabin that we purchased on property that boarders ours.  Well the big project this fall is a new loop from our yard around our new property, looping past the cabin and heading back to the kennel. Making trail is some serious groundwork, not just literally (hours of chain sawing, brush clearing, rock moving work before the excavator even got here).   This will provide us another option for rides and tours, and open up the new cabin for Aurora viewing with evening dog sled rides. We are all super excited and looking forward to having guests enjoy the new trails this winter.  In addition we did work on the trail heading out from the kennel, making for a much smoother trail in and out of the yard. Then finished off by using the machine to re-grade the dog yard AND (looping back to the puppies now) setting up spaces for when the Little Psychopaths get older and are ready to join the big dogs.  Now that is a weeks worth of serious groundwork! You can click these images to see full sized.