{"id":1217,"date":"2012-04-02T09:08:22","date_gmt":"2012-04-01T22:38:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/?p=1217"},"modified":"2014-03-29T22:11:20","modified_gmt":"2014-03-29T11:41:20","slug":"dog-breeders-dont-produce-lemon-puppies","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/puppies\/dog-breeders-dont-produce-lemon-puppies\/","title":{"rendered":"Dog Breeders: Don’t Produce Lemon Puppies"},"content":{"rendered":"

This post is part of the series in response to Dunbar’s 2012 Australian seminars. See\u00a0index<\/a>.<\/small><\/small><\/p>\n

Dunbar is big on socialisation, and thinks that breeders should put a lot of effort and attention to socialising their puppies.\u00a0 While breeders will select the best genetic combination, socialisation and training will seek to fix any deficiencies in the genetic package.\u00a0 He thinks many breeders are \u2018not doing their job\u2019 and are producing \u2018lemon\u2019 puppies.\u00a0 Good breeders, through socialisation, produce puppies that like being handled and like all people.<\/p>\n

\"Pregnant<\/a>

Clover: Pregnant but active.<\/p><\/div>\n

Puppy buyers need to know that all breeders are not created equal, even if producing pedigree dogs.\u00a0 A pedigree is not a socialisation history, and (to Dunbar) a socialisation history is more important than their pedigree.<\/p>\n

Breeders are responsible for training puppies until they are 8 weeks old.\u00a0 They should be selling well-socialised, housetrained, and chew-toy trained puppies. \u00a0(And if they are, they can charge twice as much for one \u2013 Dunbar\u2019s motivator to breeders!) \u00a0By 8 weeks, the critical period is half over! So breeders really need to be doing something.<\/p>\n

A puppy that is exhibiting fearful behaviour at 8 weeks or earlier is problematic.\u00a0 At 8 weeks, a puppy should run up to all people \u2013 men, women, and children.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Before birth<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Puppies<\/a>

It’s important for puppies to meet many different people before 8 weeks. These puppies are meeting this young girl and learning to be happy and confident in her presence.<\/p><\/div>\n

Dunbar stressed not to read into this too much, but suggested that mothers be kept active before birth.\u00a0 It is possible that puppies may begin to learn tolerance by being bumped around in utero.\u00a0 (He did not suggest that bitches be palpated or manipulated, but just encouraged to live actively.)<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Neonatals<\/span><\/p>\n

When puppies are just born, they can smell and feel.\u00a0 This means that they can begin to build tolerance (or perhaps habituation<\/a>) to touch.\u00a0 Dunbar believes this is particularly important for breeds known to dislike touch or be fearful \u2013 such as spitz breeds, herding breeds, and toys.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

100 People before 8 Weeks<\/span><\/p>\n

In their first 8 weeks of life, a puppy should meet 100 people.\u00a0 (The puppy buyer should then follow up by getting 100 people to meet in their new home in the first\u00a0month.)\u00a0 The breeder should throw frequent \u2018puppy parties\u2019 (and encourage costumes) and otherwise get people into the kennel in whatever way possible.\u00a0 Parvo is not a huge risk, and risk can pretty much be obviated by asking visitors to remove their shoes.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Predicting and Preventing Behaviours<\/span><\/p>\n

Socialisation and training should be based around preventing predictable behaviour problems.<\/p>\n

Toilet training is a frequent problem.\u00a0 Breeders should be maximizing a puppy\u2019s natural desire to toilet away from their bed.\u00a0 At 3.5 weeks, puppies will naturally try to get as far from their bed as possible.\u00a0 At 4 weeks, these puppies habitually go to the toilet area. \u00a0If puppies are not given the opportunity to live away from their waste, they will learn to live in it.\u00a0 Toilet training can start by setting up a long term confinement area<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To make sure puppy buyers are keeping up on socialising, they can be invited back monthly for socialization parties.<\/p>\n

Dunbar also mentioned that puppies should begin learning basic commands (come, sit, down, and roll over) with the breeder.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Further reading: Can breeders breed better?<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Ian Dunbar thinks too many breeders are not doing their job and are producing puppies that are ‘lemons’ – not suitable as pets. Breeders, read what you should be doing. Puppy buyers, select a breeder that follows Dunbar’s guidelines.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[56,38,50,12,11,376,375,21,20,49,405,47],"class_list":["post-1217","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-puppies","tag-breeders","tag-breeding","tag-development","tag-dog","tag-dogs","tag-dunbar","tag-ian-dunbar","tag-puppies-2","tag-puppy","tag-raising","tag-selecting-a-breeder","tag-socialisation"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1217"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4151,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1217\/revisions\/4151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1217"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1217"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/leemakennels.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1217"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}