Looking Back
Nova’s beautiful three-week-old puppies have been developing quickly this week. The puppies are becoming more aware of their surroundings and have started to play with each other during their brief “awake” periods.
Nova has experience assisting as a puppy nanny for one of Willow’s litters, so it’s no surprise that she is a wonderful mama. She is very attentive to her little ones’ feeding, cleaning, and care.
Since she has a smaller litter, it’s no surprise they’re getting a little chunky. Well done, Nova!
This week, the puppies were in the Transitional Period. We continued our ENS exercises, which cause tiny stresses to benefit our puppies by increasing their tolerance to stress and disease resistance, speeding up their adrenal system, and strengthening their heart rate and heartbeat. Monday was Day 16 of the puppies’ lives and the final day for our ENS and ESI exercises. This video is double speed of our last day of ENS exercises.
Puppy Culture
Critical Socialization Period (weeks 3 – 12)
The next period for Novai’s puppies is the Critical Socialization Period. We know that puppies have entered this period when they react to sounds. We raise our puppies following many of the Puppy Culture protocols. Following these protocols helps us reach our goal of “Raise Healthy, Calm, Confident, Well-Adjusted Puppies.”
Over the remaining weeks, we will be working on new experiences for the puppies, exposing them to as many new experiences as possible to raise the best possible companions for their forever families.
Emotional Intelligence
Because Goldendoodles are companion dogs, teaching emotional intelligence to young puppies and starting them with a great beginning is essential. With this intention, we follow seven key things to nurture a puppy’s emotional intelligence.
- Communication – giving a puppy his voice, i.e. Communication manding and attention/distraction protocols
- Emotional stability – the ability to recover quickly from fear as well as stress, i.e., startle recovery, barrier challenges, etc
- Habituation – familiarize the puppies with the maximum number of things during their Critical Development Period—in particular, Puppy Parties, sound protocols, household noises, and meeting different people and dogs.
- Enrichment—Teach the puppies that novelty and challenges are enrichment opportunities, not to be feared or avoided. For example, they can be introduced to new novelty items on an ongoing basis at an activity centre, car ride, outdoors, etc.
- Health – physical wellness and motor skills that will allow the puppy to develop neurologically and physically soundly. For instance, daily weight checks, grooming, proper nutrition, fecal checks, and deworming, vet health checks and vaccinations)
- Skills – learned behaviours that teach the puppy to function in human society, i.e., recall, manding, simple commands, potty training, crate introduction, resource guarding, bite inhibition, etc.
- Love – teach puppies to seek out the company of dogs and humans as emotionally positive experiences, i.e., Daily cuddles with humans and the puppy’s mom.
- Shaping emotional responses: happy and calm CER (Conditioned Emotional Responses). For instance, treats and encouragement during puppy training.
See How We’ve Grown
The puppies have grown so much that they’re running out of space in the basket I place them in when we clean their whelping box. They’re hard to contain, so I cover the basket to keep them inside.
Puppy Cuddles
Two of my grandchildren enjoyed holding the puppies. It is beneficial for the puppies to be handled by people of various ages. I am blessed with thirteen grandchildren ranging in age from nearly one to fourteen.
Nova’s adorable three-week-old puppies In order of appearance:
Girls – Pink, Yellow Collars
Boys – Blue, Orange, Black Collars
Note: Blue collar is a chocolate (not chocolate merle as I mistakenly describedhis coat colour in the video)
Looking Back at Week Three
Looking Ahead to Week Four
- Puppies will still sleep much of the day/night as they continue to grow rapidly
- Interact with littermates through play, which will help develop essential social skills
- Practicing walking on all fours strengthening their hind legs
- Becoming steadier on their feet
- Hearing will improve
- Puppy milk teeth will erupt
- Potty training started
- Puppies will be moving to the main floor towards the end of the week
