hand-shyness easy cure

At this age the puppies tend to run towards you with tails wagging when you stick your hands into the pen to say hi or pick someone up.  However, they also learn pretty quickly that it makes a good game to scamper away from the hand reaching for them.  There can also be a bit of shyness around this time as the puppies adapt to so many changes & new experiences in their young lives. 

Tuuli, too, is shy of most strangers and the cure is the same for 4.5-week-old puppies as for 4.5-month-old puppies - yummy stuff!

Everyday when Tuuli has her regular socialisation jaunt to some noisy place or other, there is always a nice stranger or two who want to say hello.  I always have a pocketful of tasty treats and I always get the strangers to give Tuuli one or two treats.  This way she will learn that hands = good stuff, even strangers' hands.  It's not an instant fix in a shy puppy, but it does the trick eventually.  I'll keep doing this for a long time to come just to reinforce the message. 

With the 4.5-week-old gang, the magic potion came yesterday in the form of a little bit of minced raw chicken.  Om nom nom!

Never one to shy away from a hand, Hopea is, predictably, the first to tuck into the chicken mince.

It attracts the attention of Brown Wolf, who puts up a "Keksi paw" to get my attention.  Daniel will be pleased to see evidence of Keksi's signature move in all these puppies.

Pretty soon everyone wants in on the chicken action.

On the menu today is scrambled egg.  That's always a good puppy day.