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how we train your puppy

Early Training: A Multifaceted Approach

Early training makes a life-long difference for puppies and their families!

Here are the 9 Top-Notch areas of training that we focus on at NY Dandy Doodles for our Micro, Mini, and Medium sized Goldendoodle Puppies before they are eight weeks of age.

Below: Our custom whelping box, where our puppies hang out for the first few weeks. Mom has constant access, but also the choice to nap outside the area on her cushion when she needs a break. She checks on her babies frequently and is tuned in to their squeaks and grunts.  At this stage, their eyes and ears are not yet open and they navigate both by smell and by heat sensors around their nose.

At about one month of age, the puppies transition out of their whelping box and into our custom puppy pen. This will be their home for the next month of life. Here their potty training skills advance as they learn to use the litter box, as well as early crate training skills for naps and bedtime, and, of course, lots of playtime and socialization with each other, humans, and visits from mom. We enlarge this space as they grow depending on their size, how many puppies are in the litter, and how well they are doing with keeping their floor clean and dry. Kora’s puppies in the video below are six weeks old and doing incredible with potty training!

1. Early Neurological Stimulation

phantom sable black based with red and white tri color mini to medium goldendoodle puppy for sale

Puppy training begins earlier than you might imagine. Starting around 3 days old, our Goldendoodle puppies begin training. That is when top veterinarians recommend beginning ENS (Early Neurological Stimulation.) This gentle stimulation training provides your puppy with life-long benefits including;

 

  • Improved cardiovascular performance
  • Stronger heartbeats
  • Enhanced immune system
  • Stronger adrenal system
  • Greater tolerance to stres

    Learn more about what Purdue University Veterinary Extension has to say about Early Neurological Stimulation here.

2. Early Scent Introduction

merle goldendoodle puppies for sale mini to medium size

 Also around 3 days of age, we begin introducing the puppies to a variety of odors. Early Scent Introduction includes long-term benefits such as

  • Improvements in confidence
  • Improved emotional stability
  • More optimistic attitudes
  • Fewer behavior problems

Early Scent Introduction is particularly valuable if you are seeking a therapy dog or service dog. This primes them for future training to alert you to life threatening situations such as a gas leak, an oncoming seizure, or abnormal blood sugar levels. Early scent training could also help prepare a puppy to be trained to locate an autistic child that tends to slip away. If you want your dog to compete in obedience or agility, ESI will certainly help your dog in training and performance.

 

Learn more about Dr. Gayle Watkins’ research and studies on Early Scent Introduction at this link

 

3. Early Potty Training

Our puppies begin potty training as soon as they can walk, which makes transitioning to housebreaking much easier. They are already toddling over to the potty space to do their business, and sleeping on a cozy dry “nest” in a separate area of their whelping box at 3.5 weeks old! Once they are a bit older and better able to navigate, we give them a litter box, rather than the pads.

 

 

Not only is litter training cute, less mess for us to clean up after, and way more sanitary for the puppies’ health, it makes the puppies aware of their systems’ functions and what it feels like when they have to go, and how to briefly hold it until they run to the correct location. These are super important skills that are a major aid in the more advanced concept of housebreaking! We use a custom litter that smells like grass to make it even more like the great outdoors. This helps them associate the smell of grass with using the bathroom, which also speeds up housebreaking when they come home. 

4. Crate Exposure

When our puppies transition out of the whelping box, we move their “nest” area into an open crate in their place space. This ensures that they learn a crate is a good, safe place to rest and snuggle while being comfortable and secure. They have constant access to the crate and choose to visit it for naps or hide out in it with a favorite toy. The crate becomes a high-prize area and they quickly learn to keep it clean and dry. 
 
The first pictures show our puppy areas. The litter box is seen at the far end, with their activity zone in the middle. The crate is left open for constant access throughout the day.

5. Night Training

During their last few weeks with us, we begin closing our puppies in their crate at night. This helps them to not only get used to sleeping in a crate, but assists them in nighttime potty training. (A whole new level of training, and most new puppy owners’ worst nightmare!)

 

We begin this process by removing excess water and food to be sure they eliminate as much as possible before bed. After making sure every puppy uses the litter box, we tuck them all in and then get in the early morning to help them all use the litter box first thing. Our puppies learn relatively quickly to stay dry and wait until morning to do their business. Gradually, we put them to bed earlier, and let them out later, until they are sleeping for 6 to 8 hours straight all night. Yes, it’s exhausting and time consuming, but we believe that it is so very worth it!

 

By the time our puppies are ready  for their furever homes at 8 weeks old, they know that nighttime is for sleeping, and will be able to sleep the whole night through at your home once they have accustomed to their new surroundings. The feedback we have received from our clients on how their new fur-babies sleep is amazing!

6. Playtime

First image: Izzy and her puppy “play bow” while our youngest daughter feels so big atop of the puppy tunnel in our enclosed play zone

Second image: Birch relishing the joys of autumn.

We make sure to give the puppies a variety of stimulating toys and surfaces on which to play each day. Our puppies love to play, and some even begin retrieving before they leave our home at 8 weeks. Balls, ropes, soft toys, tunnels, and crinkly objects are all part of their playtime experiences. Tug and chase are excellent ways to build confidence, muscle tone, coordination, as well as camaraderie and social skills, both among their siblings and with humans. Along with playtime we built a small staircase sized just right for our pups to learn how to maneuver steps and heights. They love to hide out under it, and play King of the Mountain.

 

Weather permitting, the puppies also get playtime outside in our fully enclosed play zone once they are old enough to do so. We also try to let them have free time on grass daily in our large backyard when possible, and practice early re-call. In the winter when they’re housebound, we will bring a shallow pan of snow for them to experience first-paw while in their warm environment.

 

The puppies also receive gentle and safe interaction with our older dogs once old enough to play safely together. The puppies try to follow them everywhere, often scrambling and tripping over each other in their effort to keep up.

 

Click below to see a video of the puppies happily learning to follow… (may take a minute to load).

 

7. Habituation

In addition to being exposed to the life and noises of our homeschooling family, we introduce the puppies to habituation recordings. These recordings include sounds such as ringing doorbells, busy construction sites, traffic and street noise, fire trucks, playground sounds, fireworks, farm animals, barking dogs, varieties of music, and others. This helps them get used to a wide variety of sounds they might hear later in life. Early exposure to these sounds helps minimize fearful responses for them as adult dogs, and builds their confidence and resilience to better face the many things they may later encounter.

 

8. Car Rides

Sleeping multicolor Goldendoodle puppies in crate in car.

This car ride made all of the puppies sleepy!

Your puppy will be taken on at least one car ride before he or she comes home with you. Whether going to the vet, out for a joy ride, or to your kids’ soccer games, you want car rides to be an enjoyable and normal part of life for your puppy.

9. Manners Training

Aspen does a perfect “sit” for his photoshoot.

We use Puppy Culture training, including Manding Exercises to reward puppies for “sits.” This helps them to sit when they want something from you rather than jumping up on you, scratching, or biting for attention. (It’s the cutest thing to see them sit like this!) They are still puppies, so please do not expect perfection from them. But, they will be well on their way to good puppy dog manners, especially if you follow their sitting behavior with lots of positive encouragement.

 

 

Looking for more? We offer advanced puppy training at select times throughout the year for older puppies starting at 8 weeks of age. This daily training is super involved as we work on advanced crate training, leash acclimation, potty skills, and much more with your puppy in our home.

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