Socialization Starts With the Breeder

The first few weeks of the puppies life, they stay in a whelping box in my bedroom. They stay here  so we can keep a close eye on them. We keep them close to make sure each puppy is striving during this fragile time period. 

We preform daily weights on the puppies & we temperature check mom along with a mastitis check.

We start Early neurological stimulation exercises and Early Scent introductions at 3 days old. We do this each day up to the 16th day. ENS consists of different handling exercises and ESI is introducing a new scent each day, We then record how each puppy reacts to the exercise.

The purpose of these exercises is to stimulate the neurological system & to improve the dogs response to stress later in life. 

Between the ages of 3 weeks and 4 weeks of age, the puppies explore a new item each day! We place the item in the whelping box/pen and we don't remove the item until all of the puppies have gone to sleep.

The purpose of this exercise Is to promote brain development & to give the puppies a safe item they can explore without fear. 

At this point the puppies have outgrown their whelping box and benefit from extra space. We have now added a potty area and we have moved them to a main area of my home to start socialization and desensitization. We are performing more extensive handling exercises so that the puppies get use to having their ears, feet, nails, and faces touched. At this time we will also start loud noise exposures to produce puppies who do not startle easy, and they will be introduced to kibble!

At 4.5 weeks of age the puppies move to the dog room. Here they will start crate training, litter training, & and will have a whole lot more space to play!

They will be introduced to things that move, different sounds, and different toys. We do not introduce all of theses things at once as we don't want to overstimulate the puppies.

Nailtrims are preformed weekly on the puppies & they are dewormed every 2 weeks.

Socialization is extremely important to us! 

From 3 days old we allow our children to visit the puppies.

At 3 weeks of age we start to allow visitors, we will safely allow family members to visit the puppies.

At 3.5 weeks old we start to allow the puppies to meet our other dogs in the home. At 4 weeks if the weather allows it, we will take them outdoors. 

Once the puppies have received their first set of vaccines, we will take them on 'field trips' to safe areas that don't have a lot of heavy dog traffic.