How we raise puppies
Our puppies are raised with both Puppy Culture and Avidog.
Rearing a litter is a full-time job for both of us. (So we don’t do it often!)
Until Avidog’s demise, we were Avidog Associate Breeders. Whilst Avidog no longer exists, we continue to implement all the Avidog protocols.
We also implement Puppy Culture protocols.
If you’re not sure what all this is about, take a look below. (These are clips from one of our Labrador litters.)
Days 0 - 16
Early Neurological Stimulation or ENS is a prescribed series of secure positions or holds which each puppy experiences, every day. The goal behind this is to provide slight (very manageable) stressors, causing the neurological system to develop optimally. Conventionally ENS was done from day 3-16, but more recent research suggests it might be more beneficial to delay this to day 10-16.
Early Scent Introduction or ESI exposes the puppy to one novel non-food scent each day from days 3-16, for 5 seconds each time. We are careful to include game scent, here. This stimulates the optimal development of the nose and scenting abilities.
Day 0 - 21
We sleep by the whelping box from day 0 - 21. The early days can be challenging in terms of ensuring puppies survive and thrive and this close monitoring is essential.
We observe how frequently each puppy nurses. We rescue pups which get stuck behind guard rails or squashed.
Day 21 - 28
When pups are about 21 days old, they begin to stumble away from their sleeping area to toilet.
We take advantage of this by giving them a different substrate to toilet on. Half the whelping box becomes a sleeping area and the other half is a toilet area. Pups start to learn that there are sleeping places and toilet places.
This is the first step towards your puppy being almost completely toilet trained by the time you take them home.
Day 21 - 28
A new object is introduced to the whelping box for a few hours each day. We aim for a diversity of materials, textures, sounds. The pups are very curious and tend to explore readily.
Day 28
By 4wks old (day 28), the pups are getting too active for the whelping box. They move to our indoor weaning pen, which takes over a room of our house.
Many breeders would move litters to outside kennels at this age, as it is the messiest time. However, it is very important for socialisation reasons that pups remain within the house.
Along one side of the pen, are the litter trays - giving a clearly defined area for toileting.
Crates are always in the pen (doors off) so pups can get used to snoozing in them.
Day 21 - Week 8+
Our goal is to offer an enriching environment which exposes the pups to a wide array of experiences before they leave us. This means exposing them to items at different heights, items made of different textures, surfaces which are insecure and wobbly - amongst much more. This video gives a sense of what I describe.
Day 21-28
The Barrier Challenge is a Puppy Culture protocol which begins around day 21 and is repeated daily with each pup, until they are successful.
The pup is given a taste of their food, which is placed on the other side of a barrier. The pup can smell the food but can’t reach it through the barrier. However, the barrier stops just a tiny distance away. If the pup learns to go around the barrier, they will reach the food.
They pretty much all figure this out, but some faster than others. This teaches pups early problem solving and also the concept of ‘the quickest way to get what you want, is not always the most direct route’.
Managing and thinking through frustration are incredibly important skills for gundogs.
Weeks 5-8
From Week 5, pups spend time during each day in their outside pen (weather dependent!). This becomes another location for socialisation. For space purposes, this can be much bigger than their indoor pen and allows for larger play items like ball pits and tunnels. They are constantly supervised whether indoors or outside.
Weeks 5-8
We teach the puppies a strong ‘default sit’ which Puppy Culture calls ‘manding’. We do this by constantly reinforcing sits and by helping with lures where necessary. We use the clicker to mark the moment the pup sits and to deliver the food.
We have sessions individually with each puppy but, after a short while, it is possible to train them together by simply quickly reinforcing any sits that occur.
This is an individual session where I’m capturing any sits that happen and also luring them.
The ‘sit’ is an important behaviour for most gundogs. But this is also instilling the concept of self-control in the presence of reinforcers, which is a very important concept.
We also teach manding because a lot of new owners have trouble with puppies jumping up when they want something. We teach our puppies to ‘sit to say please’ so that new homes don’t have to deal with this.
When we appear at the side of the pen, we are often greeted by lots of sitting puppies instead of frantic scrabbling!
Weeks 6-8
We continue to stimulate the pups with new objects and experiences. Here, some 6 week old pups explore the ball pit.
Weeks 6-8
We go out at least weekly with the pups to pubs or cafés. Pups do not go down on the ground, but are able to take in a lot from our laps.
We take a couple of short car trips at 6-8 weeks, usually with a couple of pups at a time. This allows pups to experience riding in a car and the sensation of movement as well as being crated.
Since many of our puppies have to be crated whilst travelling to their new homes (if they fly or travel by ferry for example), it’s important to us to accustom them to both crates and travel as much as possible.
By Week 7, the pups all have a very strong whistle recall. This has been created gradually by blowing their recall whistle before each meal. (We use an Acme 212.)
The pups learn very early that the whistle ‘means’ food. Early learning is very powerful.
Week 7
Week 7.5
At 7.5wks, we hold the Puppy Culture ‘Puppy Party’. At this event, we invite dog-savvy friends and advanced students of Jo’s, to help us out!
The party is held at a village hall (or similar). The floor is disinfected and everyone removes shoes before entering.
This is also the age we carry out the Puppy Aptitude Assessments, using the Avidog assessment protocol.
We ask a fellow breeder or experienced dog person to assess for us. We use the information to match each pup to the best home for them.
We look for traits including:
Independence versus dependence
People focus versus environmental focus
Natural retrieving ability
Natural pointing ability
Resilience
Recovery from aversive experiences
Response to novelty (people, dogs, locations, objects)
There are no right or wrong results to these tests, since different types of home will have different needs.
Here, multiple training stations are set up for some organised chaos. After one round, there’s a break - then one more round.
Then the pups collapse in a sleepy huddle and the humans eat dinner and socialise.
NB: This video doesn’t use the Avidog assessment protocol because it hadn’t been devised yet. This was the assessment we used prior to Avidog’s.
Week 8+
Sometimes pups need to stay on with us past 8 weeks. This might happen for a variety of reasons, including new owners not being ready or due to pups having to travel abroad and the minimum age for this.
The Puppy Culture protocol runs right up to 16wks, so we continue with this - as we will be with our ‘keeper’ pup at the same time.
Pups will be vaccinated according to their age and travel needs, socialised, crate-trained, toilet-trained and worked with individually throughout this time. They will also attend puppy classes as appropriate.
