How Our Puppies Are Raised
Our puppies are born in the bedroom - while mom is supervised during whelping, we pride ourselves on maintaining good, natural breeders and whelpers in our program and for the first few weeks of life, mom does most of the work. We ensure the puppies have soft but stable footing for good traction as they learn to walk. At three days old, we start Early Neurological Stimulation and continue through day 16. In addition to ENS, puppies are handled daily by family members.
When the puppies begin to open their eyes and learn to walk, their world expands - we start adding new objects to the whelping area each day and take little trips to other parts of the house. They get short visits from other dogs in the family and get more space to move around and start playing with each other and soft toys. We continue to handle them regularly and give positive exposure to different noises. They continue to sleep with and nurse from mom. We rearrange their pen daily with different objects, surfaces, obstacles etc. to help with muscle and neurological development as well as growing confidence.
When the puppies reach four weeks old, the fun really starts! We move their pen to the living room so they are regularly exposed to daily household noises and activity, and introduce a litter box. Including a litter box in their pen helps to learn to be clean dogs - even before formal housetraining starts, they are learning to choose to move away from their living area to a designated potty spot when they feel the urge to go. This makes housetraining in new environments much easier!
They start going outside, playing with other household dogs, and meeting other people who come over to visit. We take field trips to known areas so they can get exposure to different surfaces and different locations. They are introduced to children, cats, and other animals as available. They go on regular car rides even when there is no final destination and are introduced to crates in and out of the car. While our bitches tend to wean very late and allow nursing until the puppies leave, we start introducing them to solid food.
The puppies also start some training - we teach them to follow a food lure and introduce marker cues/shaping. They are given various challenges like wobble boards and blow up exercise equipment, barriers, mazes and strange surfaces in addition to a variety of sounds.
They start going outside, playing with other household dogs, and meeting other people who come over to visit. We take field trips to known areas so they can get exposure to different surfaces and different locations. They are introduced to children, cats, and other animals as available. They go on regular car rides even when there is no final destination and are introduced to crates in and out of the car. While our bitches tend to wean very late and allow nursing until the puppies leave, we start introducing them to solid food.
The puppies also start some training - we teach them to follow a food lure and introduce marker cues/shaping. They are given various challenges like wobble boards and blow up exercise equipment, barriers, mazes and strange surfaces in addition to a variety of sounds.
As the puppies grow, they are exposed to more new places, people and things. They get on a regular eating schedule, start sleeping without mom and spending time in crates. They are continuing to work on housetraining and other behaviors. If you are waiting for a puppy, you can expect to know which puppy will be yours at 6-8 weeks depending on the litter and the specific puppy. These decisions are based on temperament and structure first, and then we try to take each puppy person's preferences in account. Puppies are microchipped and receive their first set of shots and a veterinary evaluation at this time as well. At eight weeks, puppies are ready to go to their new homes where training and socialization can continue.
While we do not follow any puppy raising protocols to the letter, we do utilize Puppy Culture and Avidog as resources and recommend them to puppy owners seeking more information on socializing their puppy!