The puppies were 5 weeks old Sunday and things are ramping up! This is a period when their little brains are open for so much learning and we try to take advantage of every moment. It lasts until 12 weeks of age, so if you are bringing a puppy home, please be prepared to take advantage of the last 4 weeks when they are soaking it all up!
Even though the time frame for Early Neurological Stimulation and Early Scent Introduction has come to an end, we continue with several new exercises, games and training sessions during this 5-8 week time frame.
Gentle Handling Exercises
These are completed one on one with each puppy several times a week.
Here I am with Peter (outside photos) and Pevensie (middle) going through the exercises
Rub and tug on each ear
Cover eyes
Open mouth and run fingers on gums
Rub belly in a circular motion
Run hand down back and back up again
Tug and twist on tail
Touch all paws and push in between pads
Tap nails
Run fingers around neck and collar
Touch their nose
Each point of touch is intended to desensitize the puppy to all kinds of touch, prepping for times when you may have to give the pup a pill, adjust their collar, trim their nails, etc. Exercises are carried out gently with increasing pressure as the puppies age another week.
Noise Desensitizing
Running the vacuum, the washer, flushing toilets, blenders, dropping books and pans, noisy toys... and all the things that puppies will encounter in life at home and abroad. It's impossible to expose puppies to every sound they will ever hear but exposing them at this age to a plethora of possibilities sets them up for success. They learn early on how to startle and self-recover, or perhaps not even startle at all. But we want to produce resilient pups. I haven't seen too many startle reactions since we moved them into the middle of the living space of 9 busy people. I don't think much fazes these pups.
Novelty Item Exposure
Every day we place something new in the pen. It could be anything from a toy to a blanket, soccer ball, tin foil, bubble wrap. Again the idea is to expose the puppy to a variety of new items and be able to approach and explore with confidence and without fear. Fear marks the need to maybe work with that puppy on a particular point - noisy items like tarps or plastic bags for example. If a pup show a particular fear it's important to take some time individually with that pup to demonstrate that, if master is saying go ahead, it's safe and it's ok to trust master.
Pevensie (left), Lilly and Beaver (middle) and Susan and Aravis (right) checking out a soccer ball.
Edmund (left) Along with Tumnus, Peter, and Lilly checking out tin foil.
Operant behavior
We take time to acclimate pups to the clicker, something that marks good behavior. We also say "Yes!" to mark verbally and reward with a treat. Clicking and "Yes" comes right before the reward (treat or praise) is offered. The marker solidifies in the puppy's brain that they did something good and good things are coming. Through operant conditioning, desired behavior is rewarded and is likely to be repeated, and undesired behavior is unrewarded, ignored, and will rarely occur.
The first games we play are called the box game, where we click and reward whenever the pup touches the box. And this moves onto manding, or sitting automatically for human interaction (different than training for the "sit" command). These exercises help a pup to understand that in order to get what he wants, he needs to go through the owner - "what do YOU want so I can get with I want?" There are so many exercises to continue this behavior training for the pups but these are some of the first.
Working with Peter (left), Aravie (Middle) and Tumnus (right)
The Barrier Challenge
We also set up a simple barrier challenge (food or a person on the other side of a fence with one open side) to help a puppy develop their ability to deal with frustration. It in no way demonstrates a puppy's intelligence at this young age, but allows them an opportunity to exercise their abilities to problem solve. We never give in to whining and crying, this allows the puppy to feel that you will always be needed to get them out of a difficult situation. Some get it immediately and others need a few minutes of self-pity before they solve the problem.
Tumnus and the barrier challenge
Peter and the barrier
Aravis and the barrier
So many more things are coming in the next few weeks! This is only the beginning. Temperament testing will begin during week 7, when a puppy's personality has fully emerged. All these weeks heading up to that will only help develop each puppy's unique strengths and characteristics. Puppies will be heading to their forever homes the week of January 23.
As always if you have any questions please email me at bramblymountainfarm@gmail.com
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