About our Program

A lot goes into raising a service dog.  More than 60% of a dog's personality comes from it's parents.  Those personality traits are solidified within the first 8 weeks of life.  Dogs grow the most, intellectually between 8 and 16 weeks.  Our puppies are taught with positive reinforcement coupled with canine psychology.  We talk to the dogs like their mom talks to them, teach them in ways that are biologically understood and give them experiences and confidence from day one. 

Ruby underwent multiple tests, physically, mentally, and even emotionally.  Ruby is a service dog in training.  She's been in training for 2 years.  She will continue to hold the 'in training' title, now that she's fixed, until the stitches are out and she completes a refresher course.  

Ruby got a clean bill of health for heart, joints, hips, bone structure, muscular structure, eyes and ears.  We made Ruby skip her first heat, and we worked on building strong immunity through hand made, natural food, exercise and love.

Ruby was DNA tested, and free from any defects or genetic traits that could be passed to the puppies.  We also opted to skip Ruby's first heat (at 1 year old) to ensure she had a solid clean bill of health and all the tools physically needed to produce the highest quality, healthy puppies.

Tito - Ruby's one time love, was thoroughly vetted and checked for both physical and behavioral issues or conditions.  Tito is a strong, loving, people and children friendly, AKC registered Standard Poodle with a wonderfully sweet disposition.  

Upon doing the .. deed... Ruby was awarded the best medical care.  She had an ultrasound to ensure everything was doing well at 5 weeks of pregnancy, and at 8 weeks of pregnancy the babies got an Xray to count heads.  Ruby remained healthy and happy throughout the pregnancy. 

Side note: We had a freak power outage when ruby was 7 weeks pregnant.  I spent the night feeding her ice cubes and moving her between the cars AC and the house to ensure she never overheated.. it was a long night, but she was perfectly fine.  I have nightmares but she, and the puppies were fine. 

Starting from birth, our puppies have been in training.  Every single day the puppies have been on a schedule.  

Birth to three weeks:

We start in the morning with kennel cleaning, puppy socialization, puppy training and handling, and breakfast. 

"Puppy Training" at this age is being held, head high for 5 seconds, head down gently for 5 seconds, and then having your toes tickled gently with a q-tip for 10 seconds or so per foot.  This may sound strange but what we are instilling, from birth is that being slightly uncomfortable isn't a bad thing.  

Service dogs need to not be afraid of the unknown, and need to recover from sudden things that are  unknown quickly.   

At this age if ever any of the puppies showed distress with the current holding / situation we would have put them back with their mom and let them rest.  

The first two weeks of life they were only handled sparingly to ensure the bond with mom was strong and healthy.  The puppies were weighed and measured every two days to ensure they were growing and maturing in a healthy manner.  To see the weights visit any of the puppies blogs.  

Our eyes and ears are open! We can see and hear the world! 

Puppy training at this age was a little different. 

The puppies were a little too much for Mom to feed.  9 puppies is a LOT.  So we started supplementing, starting with 1 feeding a day and continuing with two feedings a day.  The puppies continued the training as per the "Super Dog Program"

We added tactile training, the puppies were placed on cool surfaces, warm surfaces, glass, wood, tile, grass, dirt, and more to acclimatize them to different tactile experiences.  We continued the weights and measurements every two days. 

Medically:

The puppies were evaluated by Dr. Paul.  (a local FANTASTIC vet I can't recommend more, she's super knowledgeable about not only current western medicine but also has a deep rooted knowledge of homeopathic medicine as well).  

The puppies were given a preventative de-wormer, and a clean bill of health. 

The puppy formula we are feeding the puppies as a supplement: We use 1/2  of this <<Formula>>

We hand made the other half of the formula using a natural goat milk based recipe free of processed oils.  (If you look at most puppy formula it starts with vegetable oil... really!)

Once on solid foods, we started blending in Acana puppy food.  We blended the dry food with the milk in a paste for them to eat, slowly we are adding more and more dry food to the mix. 

At their current weights they are VERY healthy and growing exponentially.  

Now the real work begins, for the puppies at least.

As we work on potty training - they are going in an out of the dog door on their own now, and at least 85% of the #2's are outside.  (#1's are super hard to hold as they ARE only 6 weeks old)  

We are working, individually, daily on harness training, walking, some basics and love.  We don't use any form of negative reinforcement at this age, only redirection.  

Chewing on something you shouldn't be? It's taken away from you and the proper chewing toy is given to you.  Potty on the floor? It's cleaned up and you're send outside to take a look at all the great places you could have gone potty.  (The dog door is open though, so you're free to go back inside if you want.)

Puppies at this age can not regulate temperature yet, so crate training hasn't been introduced yet.  

We expect within the week to have walking on a leash, and sit commands ready.  It's going so quick now that treats are a thing! Yay for Puppy teeth.. wait..  

Potty training is our world.  Sure there are accidents, it's super hard to corral 9 puppies into doing the right thing every time.  We train with patience, though.  Some helpful tips / How we train.  When a puppy has a wet accident (pee).  If you see the puppy doing it, snap up the puppy, (don't hurt them but also don't play, pick them up with purpose) saying "Oh no we don't no potty. NO POTTY. " Stern but not loud.  They are listening to your tone.  Then deposit them outside and let ALL the anger go and praise.  They hear, when it's inside you are angry, when it's outside you are happy.  
For more Potty Training tips: 

This is where the real hard work, for me at least, gets involved.  Every day the dogs go for 3/4's to a full mile walk each.  During the walks we work on: 

Heeling in the correct position

Sitting when we stop

Encountering Scary things

Encountering other people

Encountering other dogs

Encountering children

During this time we also work on Sit, and a bit on Stay.  Though they are still too young to stay for any length of time, our stays are more like pauses.  Under 4 months old your dog is like an 8 to 10 year old child.  While there are some 8-10 year old's capable of complex situations, we need to keep each puppy in the positive training space.  So we don't push too hard on complex skills.  

At the same time as this training, we are working on bad behaviors too, no chewing on the wrong things, no barking at the squirrels outside, no digging.  But again all of this is done in positive manners in teaching the way their biologically able to understand.