Splendid looking pups by the way. A different ring color collar for each pup. How cute. I was not familiar with the breed. Does the breed avoid the downside of the long adolescence of labs?
The different colors of yarn "collars" are standard operating procedure for new litters. They help ensure that one puppy doesn't get two booster shots while another misses out; with a litter of ten, it helps each get a shot at nursing (the pups don't give up their spots voluntarily); and of course, some pups are sold as early as two weeks of age, so they have to be kept track of until they're ready to go to their new homes at 6 to 7 weeks of age.
Now, as far as the downside of a long adolescence is concerned, that's a hallmark, to a greater or lesser extent, of all domestic dogs (or maybe I should say adolescence without the sullen, "silent treatment" interludes, but certainly with the rebelliousness, exploring of limits, and general rowdiness). Wolf pups will play with their litter-mates, or with a stick, when young, but they get over it, and soon get on about the business of being adults. Domestic dogs, it has been posited, have a form of arrested development bred into them, largely because that's the kind of behavior most human owners prefer.
I would say that Weimaraners, along with Labs, are toward the upper end of the "extended adolescence" scale. Both are hunting dogs (the Lab being a retriever, specializing in all-weather water retrieving, extending even to breaking the ice on a pond to get a dead duck; whereas the Weimaraner was bred to be a multipurpose tracker/pointer/retriever, mostly upland, but will retrieve from water if it's not too cold), and are therefore bred to interact with humans. This is usually a good thing, but it can make them pests, too, since they constantly want to play, or to go for a walk, or a ride in the car, and constantly want human companionship (and human food, sofas, and beds, too, if they can get away with it).
I like those characteristics myself. Others don't. Hence, Torie, the existence of cats.
afternoon ping