I took the puppies for their first trip out to the yard when they were three weeks old, and have had them out every day or two since then. We’ve had typical May weather here in Western Washington, with brilliant, beautiful sunshine alternating approximately every 10 minutes with torrential downpours, and obviously that makes it challenging to introduce puppies to the great outdoors!
The day before yesterday, the sun came out in the late afternoon so I quickly packed them all outside, at which point the breeze picked up and the clouds rolled in and it suddenly got quite chilly. Poor puppies were miserable. So I packed them back up and back in the house they went.
Late this afternoon the sun came out and seemed to want to stay out, so after the big dogs had their playtime, and the grass had really dried out, I took the puppies out and what a difference a little sunshine and two days’ maturity can make! This time they were running and playing like big dogs, and clearly having a wonderful time. They loved running after their mother as she meandered around the yard browsing for tasty dandelions. What fun!
This is my first spring/summer litter and even though the weather isn’t quite perfect yet, how nice it is to raise puppies in the sunshine! I’ve added some photos of the puppies enjoying the sunshine to the litter’s photo gallery.
