Over the years it has become obvious that many people when picking up a puppy or visiting our ranch expect to tour our indoor facilities. Unfortunately, licensing and bio-security protocol make this a forbidden practice. In an effort to add transparency, satisfy curiosity and include our long distance puppy families, we are accumulating a collections of snap shots of everyday life of our breeding program.
Life begins in the whelping box. The whelping suite is small, and dark with solid walls to make mom feel safe. Mama dog has access to food and water, but allowed outdoors only with supervision. The whelping box has two heating units at different temperatures to keep the puppies comfortable and content (they are the black rectangles in the picture). The traction provided by the whelping box and special surface of the warming units is extremely important to the development of the puppies. The picture on the right shows a skeleton of a puppy and clearly demonstrates that the bones and joints are far from developed. This is why we never whelp in the kiddie pools that have become so popular. |
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At about 2 weeks puppies are ready for a new environment. This puppy room offers them more space to explore, the introduction of toys and a potty spot. The tan blanket is covering a heating unit and the room itself has central heat and air. In the picture on the left mom is laying in front of the door that leads to their outdoor play yard and on the photo on the right you can see that mom has access to her own private suite so that she can spend time away. She also now has unrestricted access to the outdoors.
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Indoor puppy gyms for extra exploring and playtime when the weather conditions keep us inside. Of course the outdoors is way more fun weather permitting.
The picture on the right shows a young puppy fast asleep in a crate. While I am not a huge fan of crating dogs, it does have its place and the puppies learn early on it is a safe and comfortable place. |
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Outside is way more fun! We have numerous outside pens for puppies with different sizes and different play equipment appropriate for their size and development.
In the picture you can see they can go back inside for rest, food and water. This enforces their training: indoors is for quiet time and outside is for play and potty. At about 6 weeks we start outdoor walks and leash training... sometimes they wear the leash and sometimes they get to take a friend for a walk! |
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