What Is Life Like In The Nursery?

The puppies are always raised right here in our home. We are not interested in kennel raised puppies.  We believe that it is very important for a puppy to be experiencing the sights and sounds of a regular home from the very first time their ears open and they can hear, or their eyes open and they can see. We’ve utilized different rooms of the house at different times, but most often we set up the whelping box in our living room. The puppies are handled daily by adults and children alike so they are used to being handled from Day 1. My children adore the puppies and they are used to a lot of love when they come from our house. Not that we have to do much to encourage it, but we make a special effort to have our children handle and play with the puppy to encourage early socialization with small children. 

Week 1-2: 

The puppies are born and we contact everyone on the waitlist to let them know that the puppies have arrived and send pictures. This is always a fun and exciting time!

The first few days are mostly spent eating, sleeping, and snuggling their mama. 

Day 3-16 we start something called Early Neurological Stimulation or ENS, as long as there hasn’t been extra stress for the litter. ENS is something that the military created for use in their canine program. It was originally a program called “Bio Sensor” and later became known as the “Super Dog Program” After years of study the military learned that these early neurological stimulation exercises would have a lifelong lasting effect.  Their studies confirmed that there are specific time periods early in life when neurological stimulation has optimum results. The first period involves a window of time that begins at the third day of life and lasts until the sixteenth day. It is believed that because this interval of time is a period of rapid neurological growth and development, and therefore is of great importance to the individual. ENS is believed to give dogs a superior advantage by utilizing six different exercise created to stimulate the neurological system. I will take each puppy one at at time and complete each exercise once a day. Each exercise is done for 3-5 seconds each. 

Tactile stimulation - holding the pup in one hand, I will gently tickle the pup between the toes on any one foot using a Q-tip for 3-5 seconds. 

Head held erect - using both hands, I will hold the puppy perpendicular to the ground, (straight up), so that its head is directly above its tail. This is also done for 3-5 seconds. 

Head pointed down - holding the pup firmly with both hands the head is reversed and is pointed downward so that it is pointing towards the ground for 3-5 seconds.  

Supine position - hold the pup so that its back is resting in the palm of both hands with its muzzle facing the ceiling. The pup while on its back is allowed to sleep. Time of stimulation 3-5 seconds.

Thermal stimulation—Using a damp towel that has been cooled in a refrigerator for at least five minutes I will place the pup on the towel, feet down. I do not restrain it from moving off the towel if it desires to do so. Time of stimulation 3-5 seconds. 

These five exercises will produce neurological stimulations, none of which naturally occur during this early period of life. I have found that sometimes pups will resist these exercises, others will appear unconcerned. These exercises gently stress the puppies for very short periods of time to help them learn how to recover quickly from stressful situations which really benefits them later in life. These exercises impact the neurological system by kicking it into action earlier than would be normally expected, the result being an increased capacity that later will help to make the difference in its performance. These exercises do not take the place of routine handling or play with the puppies. This is all done in addition to those things.  

ENS has been shown to improve cardio vascular health, or the puppy’s heart rate, stronger heart beats, stronger adrenal glands, more tolerance to stress and greater resistance to disease, they do betting learning situations than puppies that have not had the benefits of ENS. Puppies that have had ENS tend to be more calm in test environments where they were introduced to new situation that could be stressful to them. They made less errors and vocalized their distress less than other puppies that didn’t have ENS. 

Week 3-4

The Puppies move from the initial whelping box set up to a bigger weaning pen to give them more room as they start to toddle around on their wobbly feet. This happens between week 3-4 depending on the litter. Some litters start walking around earlier than others. Before they start walking I want to make sure they have a cosy environment where it is easy to find their littermates or mom and snuggle up together. 

The Enrichment Effect: Puppies receive an expertly enriched environment, the benefits of which will last a lifetime. This continues every week until puppies leave.

Litter box or potty area is added to start the foundations of potty training, reinforcing the need to keep their home clean and that there is an appropriate place to potty.  I use a animal bedding pellets and alfalfa pellets or pine shavings.  

Week 4-5 

If they haven’t already, the puppies are moved from the whelping box into a bigger weaning pen where they are given age appropriate toys and enrichment. 

Puppies are started on Puppy food - Depending on the maturity of the particular litter, this is just dry kibble that has been ground up into powder and then mixed with warm water, or classic kibble. We like to start adding probiotics as well and NuVet vitamins at this point. This helps out mom so that they aren’t completely depending on her milk although they still nurse as much as mom allows during this time. 

We begin crate training this week! We begin crate training with the crates placed in the weaning pen with the doors removed. We place a comfy bed inside the crates to encourage the puppies to pick that spot to sleep. 

If it is nice outside the puppies begin going outside for small amounts of time to get used to new sights and sounds in a safe environment. 

Week 6 - 7

Puppies go to the vet this week and get a complete head to toe examination

Puppies get their first set of shots and their biweekly dewormer. 

This is generally Puppy Pick Week! Your puppy visit is scheduled and you get to pick out your new family member. I can usually tell you the different personalities of the puppies to help you pick out which one would be the best fit for your family. Sometimes I will have a litter with very similar personalities and it will be hard to tell them apart but there is usually a pack order of leaders and followers

Puppies are given novel objects to play with to continue expanding their curiosity and confidence with enrichment seeking abilities. 

The puppies have access to dry kibble at all times. They like to chew on it as their teeth are coming through. 

Week 8

Transiting to their forever homes

Most of our puppies will be going home right around their 8 week mark. 

We continue to work on being comfortable in the crate. If the puppies are still in our home past 8-10 weeks we begin having them sleep in their crates with the door closed during the night. 

The puppies continue with their free feeding schedule but the food and water that they have all day is removed at 8pm to make sure they have an empty bladder before going to bed  

To reserve your spot on the pick list to get your own precious bundle of love please click the button below for our puppy application.