Nowadays everyone is aware how our childhood can have an immense impact on us, later in life. The love and care our parents provide for us, will positively or negatively affect how we are as an adult. If we tell you that the same thing happens with puppies and their mothers, that doesn’t sound too strange, right?
The first 12 weeks of a puppies life shapes and defines their personality as adults. In these 12 weeks, every impression and experience is important, since it cements their core memories and gives them the tools needed to interact positively with the world around them.
We call this process of providing experiences and learning moments for puppies ‘socialisation’. This can be achieved through the simple act of talking to them, handling them or making them used to loud noises. The rule of thumb is: try to provide as many new experiences as possible in this 12 week period!
In the time that we have been active as breeders - over the course of the last decennium - we have tried to expand our knowledge on puppy psychology and which upbringing guarantees the best results for our puppies. To do this, we experimented with different techniques and shared knowledge and information with other breeders around the world. We actively exchange knowledge with breeders in The Netherlands, Spain, Thailand, Czech Republic and the USA. The biggest factor in our success however, is Puppy Culture.
Puppy Culture is a handbook for breeders, which describes what to do and when to do it. Using Puppy Culture, we are able to tell when our puppies are most susceptible for positive interactions and handling, but also when any form of interaction could have an adverse effect! Puppy Culture allows us to read the body language and signs our puppies give us, so that we do the right thing at the right time.
Many breeders perform some form of socialisation but it truly is solely about getting the timing right.
Why is this timing so important?
Puppies go through 2 “fear periods”, in which they can be completely traumatized by their surroundings. In these 2 very short periods many things like a loud bang, driving in a car, vacuuming, interaction with other dogs or less than careful handling… can instil a lifelong trauma in the puppy. Have you ever met a dog that is afraid of fireworks, being approached by strangers, etc? This behaviour is most likely caused by a negative experience in one of those 2 “fear periods”.
We take great pride in being able to recognise the mental development and developmental stages that our puppies go through, to give them the best possible base to become stable adults. The result? Let’s see some often-heard comments from our customers about what they loved in their puppy’s personality/character:
Working with puppy culture IS labour intensive. It demands constant monitoring and awareness and providing the right stimuli at the right time. For that reason, we will never breed more than 2 litters at once and we leave plenty of time between breedings, both for the health of the mothers as for ourselves to always be on top of our game.
It is absolutely impossible to raise multiple litters that are a few weeks apart, because these puppies are in different stages of their development. Unless you have personnel or are alert 24/7, you cannot provide a stable environment and prevent anxieties and/or fears in later life!
Our 2023 Queen litter provided us with the perfect opportunity to expose them to fireworks just before their critical 8 week fear period which coincided with NYE 2024!
For an inexperienced puppy owner, this might be hard to tell. The signs of a puppy going through a transformative period can be very obvious, but also barely noticeable. It doesn’t help that the timing differs between breeds and even between littermates in the same breed!
We will give you a short overview of the ‘timeframe’ and when we are on high alert.
5 week mark: Around 5 weeks of age, our puppies go through the first fear period. In this period, we make sure to be careful to not expose them to noises, banging, other dogs or give them any new experiences that might cause a fear-response. This period lasts a few days.
8 week mark: Around 8 weeks of age, the second fear period occurs. This period is more critical, because the brains of the puppies are now developed enough to create life long memories. During these few days, we are highly cautious about everything that can leave a negative impression. Being separated from the litter and being driven around in a car at this point, WILL cause trauma. For this reason, we never sell puppies under the age of 9 weeks old. If we feel the puppies are not mentally developed enough to leave the litter, we will keep them with us for up to 12 weeks of age.
We also would like to advise caution here. Many backyard breeders and puppy mills want to sell their puppies ASAP to make room for more litters. The legal age in most countries at which you can sell a puppy is 7 weeks, so it’s very possible you will buy a puppy in the middle of this critical moment.
9 to 12 weeks: As stated, we sell puppies as of 9 weeks of age. Most of the formative period has been covered and we did our best to provide the best possible foundation for your new family member! For the remaining 3 weeks, we will give you pointers on what to do and warn you about potential dangers. We also love to hear from you about how your puppy is doing! Let us know how the trip home went, how the integration went, if there are issues… We love to help you in this final stretch of puppyhood!
12 weeks and on: The socialisation period has now closed. Of course your puppy can and will still learn, and new impressions will still have an effect! However, the formation of core memories has finished. Over time, new impressions will leave less and less of a mark and training your dog will require more and more effort. What was learned in mere seconds before the 12 week mark, can now take multiple weeks to learn, Or they possibly won't learn it at all!
The same applies to negative experiences in the critical periods, once the negative experience has been imprinted into the puppies mind (fear of the car, vacuums, fireworks etc) it can be almost impossible to remove it.
