Our Program

ENS

Early neurological stimulation (ENS) is a series of gentle, brief, daily manipulations that are applied to puppies from birth to 2–3 weeks of age. The goal of ENS is to improve a puppy's neurological development and ability to cope with stress later in life.

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Benefits:

• Better social skills

• Increased adaptability

• Improved stress tolerance

• Better cardiovascular health

• Greater resistance to disease

• Improved cognitive abilities

Noise Exposure

Ears open around 2-3 weeks of age. This is when we start brief noise exposures. The first three days we have a series of three loud noise exposures. In between the series, we give the puppies time to adapt and see what the noise is, so that they learn there is nothing to fear. 

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Around 4-5 weeks we start playing various noises from airplanes, trains, construction, babies crying, doorbells, vacuums, etc. We start the noise out very soft and gradually build up the volume. This exposure helps the puppies instill confidence in all different types of situations. 

Socialization

All of our dogs live in our home with us. They are not kept in kennels or secluded to a seperate living area. We treat our dogs like our kids. So, of course the same goes for our puppies! 

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Our puppies are born in our home and raised in the chaos that comes with 3 young children and a house full of -oodles. They know people are good and love everyone. We are never short on socialization in this home. All of our puppies come home human focused & driven!

ESI

Early scent introduction is the introduction of new scents from days 3-16 of life. 

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Benefits:

• Improved scent ability

• Enhanced cognitive abilities

• Improved temperament

• Better social skills

• Preparation for specialized roles

  Dogs that are trained for specific jobs, like search and rescue, police work, or service roles, can benefit from ESI. 

• Accelerated brain development

Beyond the Box

Once the puppies turn 5 weeks, we begin taking them outside the whelping box. They start off by having supervised playtime in the puppy room and gradually build up to time throughout our home and to the special puppy play yard outside!

Our outside play yard was specifically designed for our young puppies to explore. We have a swing, stairs, different textured mats, a tunnel and more to help them understand that the world is a safe place, while also instilling confidence through new challenges. 

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We also set up different exposure activities throughout our home, from brain games to obstacle courses and more. 

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Through all of these beyond the box activities, puppies gain invaluable experiences that contribute to their emotional, physical, social and cognitive growth and set up them up for nothing but success by Take Home Day!

Potty Training

Starting at 3 weeks of age, we introduce a potty tray! All of our puppies go home potty tray trained. 

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Potty tray training teaches the puppies from a very early age that there is a place to potty and a place to play/sleep. 

Whelping Box Exposures

Starting at 3-4 weeks of age, puppies can now see and hear. This is when we expose the puppies to new immovable objects in a safe and controlled environment, the whelping box. This helps the puppies learn there is more than just mama & eating to life.

We take small household items, such as buckets, towels, stuffed animals, stools, package of wipes, etc and let them explore and discover new items, textures and sounds, while also stimulating their sensory & nervous system in a controlled manner.   

Puppy Massage

Puppy massage starts at day 1 but evolves over time. From birth, the puppies are held close to our heart and face to offer reassurance that they are safe. As they age, we increase puppy massage by adding in various holding techniques from rubbing their eyes, in their mouth, tugging gently on their ears, running our hand down their body to the tip of their tail, rubbing between their paw pads, tapping on their nails and even holding them like babies for a little belly rub. We do all of this, to help the puppies gain confidence to our touch - this promotes a positive relationship with grooming, teeth brushing, nail trims and even snuggling! 

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At 1 week of age, we start grinding their nails with a dremel and do this weekly.

Around 4 weeks of age, we start introducing them to grooming clippers, by running the clippers turned on all over their body. We also start introducing them to a high velocity pet blow dryer on the lowest setting. 

Grooming

We start exposing puppies to grooming at 1 week of life with nail trims and we continue exposure with brushing, combing, sanitary trims, face trims, bathes and blow drys. 

Grooming is BIG part of a doodle and poodle's life. We work hard to ensure positive experiences with grooming to help ease their way into a life full of grooming!