'Puppy Culture'

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Puppies  that are raised using 'Puppy Culture'  protocols benefits both puppy and their new family.  It establishes a common language between puppy and their humans enabling them an easier way to communicate with each other.  Another aspect of these protocols are learning impulse control or delay gratification.  These protocols dramatically influences the puppies' ability to cope with stress, decreases the tendency to anxiety; which in turn develops them into a well-balanced adult. 

Puppy socialization is one of our top priorities.  Early socialization  should start before the puppy goes home to their new family.  It should start with the breeder while the puppies are still in the whelping box as early as 3 weeks of age.  This early socialization has a huge impact on how they develop as an adult.  Socialization is more than just exposure to new people. Exposure is different sounds, smells, to novel sights and objects.  They should experience various  surfaces such as grass, gravel, lino, tile, wood to name a few.  It is important to experience different types of handling and touches.  This will make them more cooperative when visiting the vet.  Meeting adults, children, dogs, cats, and farm animals is very  beneficial.  Maintaining focus around all types of animals and unfamiliar humans is crucial in developing a well rounded adult.  An adult dog who can cope with their environment no matter the circumstance and enhance the lives of their families for many years.

Puppies are born with a brain that is not fully developed, allowing us, as breeder, to use stimuli to advance the puppies intelligence, health, to name a few.  At day 3 through day 16, we perform ENS exercises on each puppy once daily.  Watch the above video to better explain the importance of these exercises on the future behavior/temperament of the puppy as an adult.  We also handle each puppy several times a day, stroking them.  Stroking, along with mom's licking the puppy, stimulates the formation of GR receptors (Glucocorticoid Receptor) genes.  These receptors are what tells the body to shut down a stress response.  If they have more GR receptors, they will recover more quickly from stress.  This will benefit the puppy their whole life.  

We also perform ESI exercises, introducing  puppies to different smells ranging from mossy earth to hand sanitizer.  These ESI exercises are performed along with the ENS exercises from day 3 through day 16.  This greater sense of smell is beneficial to dogs that are used for search and rescue, cancer detection, military dogs, medical alert dogs, and dogs that trial in upper level obedience trials.

Puppies have no fear until 3 weeks of age when their hearing skills are developed.  Starting at 3 weeks, it is very important they are introduced to a variety of noises, sights as light level, moving objects and vibrations.  This should be a part of their daily life.  We introduce them to a WIDE variety of sounds at this time.  We have CDs we use with hundreds of sounds that are specifically geared for desensitizing puppies to sounds.  We also add numerous enrichment stimulation items to their play area.  One of these items is the Adventure Box.  This fun filled enrichment allows the puppy to experience the sense of touch, sight, motion, and sound.  We want them to go home fearless and a puppy that will adapt to any situation.