Well adapted pups

The pups have learned to go up and down the stairs quite easily and have recently softened their bite or stopped altogether (deciding to lick instead) during chew play. We are still reinforcing the bite inhibition with a quick "ouch" and pulling the hand away if they bite too hard. Seems like a pretty logical reaction, so it's not like we are undertaking some behavior program to do this.

Overall our plan is to just ignore or gently correct things we don't want, and praise, reinforce things we do want. At this point, that really just amounts to not eating/chewing certain things.

Here's another interesting quote from a dog behaviorist:

In wild dogs the bitch doesn't make any big deal about thunder by comforting pups, she
simply ignores it- and who ever heard of a wolf or coyote or any wild dog being afraid of thunder
or lightning? They are not afraid because they learned not to be as pups during the same 3 to 6
week period. Comforting an apparently frightened pup when fear has not yet developed is
reinforcing the startle response so on the next noise the response will be more exaggerated. The
breeder must encourage the startle response and must let the pup return to normal behavior on its
own which is the normal thing for any developing nervous system. It is what the dog will need to
do as an adult. Deprived of the sudden noises followed by the low level startle response and the
quick return to normal will mean an over reaction to noises followed by a prolonged fearfulness
when the pup passes the 7 to 8 week milestone when fear is escalating. And this is the stuff gun shy
dogs are made of. But again, the exposure to the sudden loud sounds must be during the 3 to 6 week
window when fear has not yet developed.

Seems we've done well so far handling the pups, giving individual attention, exposing to other dogs (that they live with) making noise in the house, etc.

The full article that includes that quote is here:

PRODUCING BEHAVIORALLY SOUND DOGS: Dr. Ed Bailey