Puppies are born with their eyes and ears closed, and are almost ‘blobs’ and personality-less. However, they can feel hot and cold, and they can smell, and that’s enough for us to begin to habituate puppies to touch and begin socialisation.

Clover and 3-day-old puppies.

Early Neurological Sitmulation

We always commence early neurological stimulation on our puppies. This is a program that runs from day 3 until day 16.  However, the program very much advises that puppies are not overly stressed by this program being modified in any way – i.e. extending the times or the frequency of any of the stimulation. Because of this, I do not perform these stimulation exercises on days where we are expecting ‘puppy visitors’.  These puppy visitors often handle the puppies in a way that tick many of the exercises, anyway. Because of our attempts at bottle feeding, puppies also did not undergo neurological stimulation on these days, as this process was deemed to be stressful enough for the pups. (Watch a video about early neurological stimulation.)

Some include an extra component of early neurological stimulation which includes introducing puppies to new smells. I don’t actively attempt to do this with my puppies, but they do receive exposure to new smells as mum is fed different foods in the whelping box, from different people handling the puppies, and also different products on these peoples (e.g. fabric conditioners, hand moisturisers, etc).

Meeting New People

The puppies have met 22 people in the first week – including men, women, and children (from 2 years up to 10 years). We are on target to meet 100 people before 8 weeks, which is Ian Dunbar’s target for puppy socialisation.

Meeting Dogs

The only dog the puppies met in the first week is Myrtle. Myrtle was given Clover’s blessing to come near the pups, but Myrtle’s not really interested in them. She quickly sniffed toward the whelping box, because there was clearly something different happening in there, but she much rather hang out with humans on the bed than bother with her whelping box half siblings.

Being on VetBed!

I don’t like using heavy bedding in the first few days after whelping, as Clover is a furious nester and I am concerned about her burying her puppies and hence suffocating them.  However, after a few days have passed and she’s settled down, I decided to put VetBed down.  For those that haven’t seen VetBed before, it’s a thick ‘plush’ like material.  Well, the puppies thought it was a bit too plush, and started looking for nipples amongst the VetBed!  While this was somewhat amusing, the puppies were frustrated and cried a lot about it.  In the end, though, I actually think this was quite a good little mental exercise for the puppies, who had to use their brains to work out that ‘fluffy’ does not necessary mean ‘mum’!

My plan is to make a weekly post on the puppies and their progress, and the activities we engage them in on a weekly basis.