Birth - 3 days

All puppies, no matter the breed, have a gestational period of just 63 days from conception to birth. The puppy will go from just a single cell to a fully developed puppy weighing about 10 - 12 oz at birth in a little over 8 weeks. ! The miracle of birth is quite amazing.

In just a little over 2 months the puppies will be born, blind and deaf. Their eyes will be fused shut for about 2 weeks. Even after their eyes open, their vision is not the best for some time. Hearing is the last sense that your puppy will develop at around 3 weeks of age. Up until this point the puppies will navigate the whelping pen to find Mama by smell alone. At this stage - smell is their strongest sense. We begin just 3 days after the birth of your puppy with Early Newrological Stimulation as well as ESI, Early scent introduction. The Aussiedoodles I breed generally are born just under 1lb in weight. They are very small but have no trouble latching on to Mama for the essential first colostrum that Mom provides for the first 24hrs. This milk is extremely important and just as in humans its provides all of the essential nutrients, vitamins, electrolytes and especially antibodies that complete the immune system of the puppy.

For the first 3 days we let Mama rest with her pups and allow the puppies time to adjust to the outside world.

Day 3 - Day 16

Weeks 2-4

Weeks 5-6

Weeks 7-8

Puppies are really growing quickly now and are getting the hang of potty training. They are totally weaned from mom, eating solid food and headed on a path to being a phenomenal dog from Maple Creek Aussiedoodles. We begin leash training with them at this point so when you get them home they will be used to wearing a collar and will not fight the leash at every step. We continually have them meet new people (with strict precautions of course) and introduce new toys and games, We have begun our crate training, first in smaller groups until they are used to being in a crate, then gradually lessen the number in the crate until they are in the crate by themselves. All puppies have been dewormed a number of times by this point and we will give them their first vaccine before leaving us. They will also be microchipped for added security.

Many breeders try to match up the temperament of the puppies (after doing some standard testing) but we have read some interested articles on the subject and decided against using the protocal . There have been a few tests performed on the subject that indicate attempts at trying to determine the personality and drive of a puppy at this early age is not always that reliable. Midwoofery has a blog article that probably best describes the research - Temperament Testing Badass Breeder. As such we let everyone choose the puppy they would like to have. I thankfully have never had anyone ever ask to rehome a puppy or return a puppy back to me. We as so confident in the program we use that we believe you are receiving an above average puppy that will exceed every expectation you had about adopting an Aussiedoodle puppy. Maple Creek Aussiedoodles prides ourselves on our great reputation and our outstanding dogs!!

ENS and ESI Begins

The puppies are starting to get a little more mobile but don’t go far. They are starting to open their eyes and are beginning to see and hear, although their sight is not yet very refined. At this point we begin very early socialization. We are handling the pups daily - many times a day ! We also introduce new things to the pups every day - a new toy, new texture, new smell. Puppy culture follows the “Rule of 7” - Been in 7 different safe locations, eaten from 7 different containers and met 7 different people in 7 weeks. It is from a book written by Brenda Aloff - Aggression in Dogs, Prevention, & Behavior Modification, We try to give them as much exposure to new things and sounds, because research has proven the puppies become more resilient, stable , responsive, smarter and recovery time is much faster. When the puppies near week 3 into week 4 they are much more mobile, are starting to walk, wobbly at first but they master this pretty quickly. When they are moving better we move them from the smaller whelping area into a larger pen area where they will have room to play and investigate their new big world. We also play classical music for them at this point as research has shown that classical music has a calming, de-stressing effect on dogs. The research was carried out on shelter dogs, showing the benefits it had on them. Interestingly enough Hard Rock music had the complete opposite results.. A litter box is introduced at this point, its interesting to watch the progression to figuring out what to do!

The puppies are still blind and deaf at this time and the only highly developed sense they have is their sense of smell. This is critical for finding Mama in the whelping pen for milk. Mama’s scent has been imprinted in the pups and they have no problem finding her even though they can not see her. It is a this point we begin a daily ENS - Early Neurological Stimulation and ESI - Early Scent Introduction. I have linked both regiments to pages with further information. Early Neurological Stimulation was originally developed by the US Military for training their own military Service dogs. Through much research is was discovered that by performing 5 simple stimulations to newborn puppies it had great benefits for them as older puppies and adult dogs. They were much more capable of handling stressful situations than dogs who had not received the same stimulation.

ESI - Early Sensory Introduction exposes puppies to multiple scents over the same period of time - before the eyes and ears have opened. The pups are offered a new unique scent to smell everyday for about 5 seconds. By doing this it was found that it greatly increased the confidence and stability of the pups and contributed to successes in hunt tests, field trials, nose work, search and rescue, obedience tracking and more. The pups showed excellent performance in Search and Rescue and Detection dogs. This also aids them for work as Therapy and Service dogs.

We intentionally handle the pups daily after 3 days, they are raised to believe in themselves, explore and be confident pups with us guiding their emotional responses as they grow.

The puppies are really moving around now, running and playing with each other and investigating their new found environment. Their sharp little teeth have push through the gums and Mom is not liking it one bit!! We have started feeding them puppy food, we use TLC PET FOOD, (I will be attaching a link for you to check it out, we have found it goes above and beyond all of our expectations ) and weaning from Mom has begun. At first it is more of a gruel - softened food mixed with a milk replacer or goats milk until they get the hang of eating instead of sucking, much like a human baby. It doesn’t take them long to catch on. We are still introducing new sights, sounds, and noises, household noises and even sharp loud noises. We begin short car rides and have them spend more time away from mama. We begin teaching them to mand, to ask for what they want by sitting. They sit to be picked up, sit for a treat and so on. More textures are introduced, grass, concrete, carpet, wood, tile. They are getting the hang of the litter box and clean up is becoming a little easier! They are becoming their own little “person” and you can clearly start to see the very different personalities of each puppy. Some are little more free spirited and others are somewhat timid, they are all so different, but all very sweet and love cuddles - of course we oblige!