Why we keep our puppies a little longer and how we create the super dog through stimulation and socialization.

By: Owner Breeder, Malissa Diener 2008

Birth to about 8 weeks of age is a powerful, influential period in puppy development. During this time, puppies are most strongly impacted by their dam (mother) and learning how to react to the world around them. Experiences during this fist stage of life can have a lasting impression on dogs personalities and adaptability to everything they encounter throughout their lives. This stage is the perfect time to take steps to help prepare pups to grow into well adapted confident dogs.  Desert Bloom Puppies get immediate imprinting from the smell and feel of our hands on them the moment they enter this world.

In the first two weeks, or the neonatal stage, the dam is puppies primary influence. While able to smell, taste and feel tactilely, their other senses are not yet fully developed and movement is limited. Even though somewhat limited in the sensory department, puppies can still be influenced during this time.  We handle our puppies daily, petting them, snuggling with them and holding them.

The US military spent years researching and honing an early canine training method known as the bio sensor, or "Super Dog" program. The program consists of five exercises performed daily from three to five seconds each when puppies are from 3 days to 16 days old.  These simple exercises, resulted in dogs that were more confident, less affected by stress, generally more interested in their environment, easier to train and in better health. Each Desert Bloom Puppy is given the five exercises daily.

At the transitional stage of two to four weeks puppies eyes open, hearing develops and teeth begin to erupt. They are now able to stand, walk and bark, though the mother is still the primary influence. This is a critical imprinting stage and the puppies should become accustomed to being handled by people.  Our pups continue to be handled by our family every few hours, with us talking to them, and exposing them to different sounds, floor textures and more.

As their hearing develops early familiarization with common sounds can begin. We play recordings of babies, thunder, gun shots, and more sounds to help our pups take all those sounds in stride. By playing these sounds as a low background noise whole pups are involved in another activity, such as eating, helps them get used to the sounds and thus less likely to become stressed later on.

The primary socialization period lasts from three to six weeks and by this time puppies senses are developed. Pups at this age are more attuned to their surroundings, interact more with their littermates and are ready to learn appropriate dog behavior. This includes learning vocalization and what body postures mean and how they affect their dam and litter mates.  The mother guides the pups in basic dog manners, leadership and submitting to her.

At four weeks the pups are getting used to being handled , imprinting can begin.  The pups can now be exposed to myriad of things they will likely encounter later in life. Basic crate training begins. Keeping an open crate in the puppy area allows our pups to nest and follow their den instinct by going in the crate at their own will. Our pups are in a crate for the short drive to and from our salon daily. 

We feed our puppies out of all different shaped and colored bowls, to accustom them to eating from different things. We use interactive toys at feeding time to help promote active, problem solving minds.  We begin to teach them to walk on a leash and handle having on a paper collar. We also introduce them to different walking surfaces, to help prevent skittishness on unfamiliar footing.  New toys are constantly introduced and our puppies are encouraged to play, bark and explore.

Each new experience is approached in a calm , positive way with lots of praise and rewards to encourage our puppies to advance to new experiences with confidence.

The second socialization period begins around six weeks and continues to twelve weeks. This is the beginning of a rapid learning period that has a lasting impact. Continued interactions with the littermates help our puppies to hone their dog social skills. Meanwhile by coming in the salon daily they are introduced to new sights, sounds, and sensations that will carry on into adulthood.

Introductions  to new animals, children and adults and many more new sounds, and stimuli enhances the puppies ability to remain confident in new situations.  Puppies removed from the earlier than 8 weeks of age miss out on this essential socialization while in the safety of their litter mates.   This could lead to problems interacting with other dogs and apprehension to new situations. 

We encourage our pups to eliminate on the wee wee pads and in the fall months we set up the puppy area to have access to the doggy door. Our Arizona summers don't allow us to have the pups go in and out at will, so the wee wee pads are our second house training option.

A puppies first weeks of life play a major role in the development of the mature dog. Pups removed to early from the litter and not given appropriate opportunities to learn from their dam and littermates commonly develop behavior problems. By giving all our puppies the best possible start provides a solid , confident base for taking on new experiences and crating a balanced well adjusted adult dog.  Now isn't that worth waiting for :)