Day Twenty-Two 

 It doesn't take much to make me happy with these sweet puppies but hitting the potty patch is definitely smile worthy. I would say that they hit the potty patch about 50% of the time. I hope they get better at it. I added a second potty patch today.

I didn't get a chance to take many pictures because we were busy swabbing the puppies for the DNA test. This requires the puppies be separated from their mother and each other for about an hour. I had puppies in crates laundry baskets dog beds and any other thing I could find to coral them. Luckily most of them were very accommodating and curled up and went to sleep in their new environment. 

My good friend and co-breeder Chris had plans to come today to help with the swabbing but she woke up very sick. I know she is very disappointed that she had to miss the fun. My other good longtime friend LaDonna who is the breeder of Tiffin's mom Harlow came to see the puppies today and helped with the swabbing.  Each puppy has to have three brushes put in their mouth between the cheek and gum and moved around to collect the DNA. Hands need to be sanitized between each puppy. I hope we got enough DNA from each of them to get results but if not, we will have to do it again.

Tiffin is being very protective of the puppies and is not happy with visitors coming to see them. I am hoping when they get a bit older, she will mellow out. So unlike her to growl or bark at anything let alone a visitor. She eventually got comfortable enough for LaDonna to hold the puppies, but she made sure she watched what was going on. 

Here are a couple of short videos of them playing.