• If you're a past member of the board, but can't recall your password any more, you don't need to set up a new account (unless you wish to). As long as you recall your old login name, you can log in with that user name then select 'forgot password' and the board will email you at your registration email, to let you reset your password.

how do you prepare the puppies?

Karlin

Karlin

Administrator
Staff member
Bruce you spoke elsewhere about getting puppies used to stairs. I know some breeders use a checklist of activities and experiences for socialising puppies to people and situations. I wonder what you and Kris see as the things you need to introduce puppies to before they go to new homes?

I was thinking about this as Leo had never really been around young children or stairs when I got him. Stairs he mastered pretty quickly but he needed some luring with treats! He still tends to growl at small children whom I think he views as noisy puppies he is warning to behave. He treats puppies up to a year the same way if they get annoying to him. I do work on this of course and have my friends' kids treat him for example, and praise him when he gets stroked by children etc etc. But formative experiences are clearly so important and it seems to me the breeder can take a very active role in creating a psychologically healthy and confident pup.
 
Excellent question, Karlin. Abbey was two before she knew how to do stairs, she was terrified. She hadn't been around children either, so she obvioulsy missed out on a lot of socialization and important experiences when she was a pup. Getting her up to speed hasn't been an easy task at all, she's three now and it's still an on-going effort on our part.
That small window when they're pups is so, so important!
 
We don't really have a formal checklist, just a few things we do that's stored in our head.

1). We do teach them stairs. That's going to be a bit of a challenge in the winter as we like to use the outside stairs because they're lower steps. Will probably use the basemant stairs more.
2). Floor surfaces: We make sure they play on as many different floor surfaces as possible. In our house we have carpet, throw rugs, hardwood floors, and ceramic tile.
3). We will be taking them outside starting around 2 months for very short times to try to give them the idea of potty training. Very close supervision at that age. Later, they will be going out with the adults (again, very short periods of time and close supervision) as they learn a lot from the adults.
4). We spend time holding them upside down cradled in our arms. We think it creates trust in people.
5). They are, of course, exposed to the adults in the house and spend a lot of time playing. And of course there's Buck the cat who loves to play with the dogs til they start to get a little rough.
6). And what I feel is most important: they get moved to the living room at 3 weeks (or so) old to be socialized. That way they get used to normal family activity and noises. We also encourage the local puppy people to visit their puppy often, as much as once a week. While they are here they will most often play with the other pups as well as their own. All our friends and relatives also have an open invitation to visit pups. What we are trying to do is expose them to as many people of different ages as possible.

I'm sure there are other things I'm missing that we do without even thinking, but these are a few of what we feel are the more important things.
 
That's really interesting. Some of the checklists can be really detailed, including people of various ethinicities, people with motorcycle helmets on, people with open umbrellas, hooded coats, hats etc. I know races can be important for some dogs -- the dog we had as kids used to be afraid and therefore a bit barky to some races she had not been exposed to. It makes sense that it might be confusing to see faces of a different colour! Especuially when you consider some dogs are terrified of their owners if they are just in a hat! It was embarrassing a few times... :shock:. It helped that by the time we got to school we had friends of various races and she got used to seeing different coloured skins, then it was no big deal any more. :)

4). We spend time holding them upside down cradled in our arms. We think it creates trust in people.
Click to expand...

Plus how fun must THAT be!! :lol:
 
One thing my breeder did that I was impressed with is that she put the puppy pen in the kitchen where all of the activity was. You could have dropped a frying pan on Jake's head and it wouldn't have fazed him! :lol:
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top