We Are 1 Week Old Today!

What is fun about being 1 week old?

• Well, we are mobile. We are professional “Scooters” meaning we have learned how to use our front legs to pull ourselves from point A to point B and very quickly I might add. Some of us are even practicing tucking our back legs up and underneath our bellies to get even more distance in our strides. This usually results in a sort of weeble-wobble effect ending in a more paws to the sky look, but we keep trying.
  

*Now is an excellent time to allow us to experience different surfaces. Make sure they are small enough to allow us the option get off quickly if we don’t like it, but big enough that our bodies can take it in mentally.

• Since our eyes and ears are still closed, our sense of smell is on point. We are like heat and milk seeking missiles. You will often see us moving our heads from side to side as we scoot across the whelping box. That is how we use our keen sense to home in on our destination.
  

* This is a terrific opportunity for us to create a positive association with those smells that may seem not-so-pleasant when we are adults. (i.e., rubbing alcohol typically used for blood draws, tobacco, other animals that may end up as our housemates, etc.).  Because we are “Scooters,” putting these items in containers that can roll away from us is a great idea. That way it again gives us the choice to continue to interact with the smell or move away from it at our discretion. Here in this picture, there are mostly dried cotton balls that had alcohol on them inside an old vitamin bottle with holes in it. The bottle will gently roll away leaving us the option to chase or retreat.

• We are very trusting at this age. Unlike some other animals, like a fawn for example who is required to be aware of danger as soon as its legs hit the ground, we do not come into the world with that immediate need.

*This trust is the perfect time to gently show us what having our paws or ears rubbed is like. It is a great time to carefully clip our nails and rub our bellies. In a nutshell, it is the perfect time to introduce us to the joys of being handled by different people and in different ways. Again, always making room for one of us to say “No Thank you” is of utmost importance.

What is fun about being 1 week old? The world is new and wonderful, and we are learning to explore it!