Fear

i like to change things around to get pups use too all sorts of sounds and smells and textures. What sets breeders apart is the way they raise the pups. Take for instance a back yard breeder that keeps pups in a kennel. The puppies never get exposure to normal life. The sound of the vacuum, you banging pots to cook, the sound of the washing machine, the texture of tile floor. Twice now in my life I have had pups that came from this environment. Once was a greyhound I rescued. She had never been up steps. It took years for her to adjust to normal house life. It was very time consuming standing at the top of the steps begging this 80lb dog to take a step. The next time I had purchased a dog from another breeder. This was no "cheap" dog. This was a $2500 akc registered dog. Again this pup had no exposure to normal life. He was scared of the vacuum, me cooking, the washing machine. I felt the pup was always running from something. So when I started breeding I voweled to introduce them to everything. I already have the shop vac out to blow up the pool. So they get use to loud noises. They hear me cook. They smell the food. The washer is in the same room as them. They get use to the door bell. I talk about this now because everyday we are working on another sound or texture. You notice I have lots of pads in all colors and styles. So they sleep on something different all the time. The only consistency I stress is eating and potty time. And sleep time. I turn lights low every night so they get use to day and night time. Once they start eating solid food I feed same time every day. I also socialize them to people and animals. At 6 weeks they get use to visitors. They meet our neighbor dog. I'm not a fan of young kids handling pups but they meet my neighbors grandkids on the other side of the fence. They get to hear young kids playing. I also do not over stimulate. I don't want them running around like crazy pups. I do believe you can over stimulate and get them use to being wound up all the time. We play but they also get use to down time of being quite and relaxing.