von der burg Austerlitz Puppy Care

We love puppies. Who doesn't? However, loving puppies is simply not enough: the positive and negative effects that early life experiences can have on a dog are well documented. It has been documented that puppies reared in too sterile, bland, environments suffer detrimental effects that often cannot be overcome. Conversely it has also been well documented that puppies raised in enriched environments receive lifelong benefits not only to their emotional well being but also their physical well being.

Raising healthy puppies is not intuitive, as many breeders do far too little to ensure the health of their puppies. They fail to vaccinate when they should; feed a quality diet suited to our breed; worm infrequently; provide a clean and healthy environment; and provide too little positive human interaction. Breeders of this sort often fail to see, or simply don't care about,the health and emotional problems in their puppies. Puppy buyers sometimes overlook these important factors too, only to be surprised when their puppy is loaded with various parasites, has parvo or distemper, is impossible to house train, or has difficulty adjusting to it's new home.

Conversely, many breeders (often those with expensive, yet sickly, competition-type show or working dogs) subscribe to over-the-top health care with a “ if a little is good then more must be better” mindset, that will often render puppies just as compromised (sometimes more so) as those from the breeder who does too little. These breeders often vaccinate, against the recommendation of the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA), every two weeks or even (as hard to believe as it is) weekly. These puppies may never step outside their sterilized daily kennel (lest they become ill), may never play with other dogs (lest they get hurt), or eat regular dog food (lest they become ill from food made for dogs). Here at AGSD we follow all guidelines set forth by the AVMA, and since our dogs are bred for robust health they do not require such extreme measures to be in perfect health.

Our puppies are fully, but not overly, vaccinated. Our puppy yard is clean, but not sterile, and our puppies eat regular puppy food, no special diet required. Our puppies enjoy interaction with friendly adult dogs and the exercise helps not only their bodies grow strong, but also their minds.

Here at Austerlitz Shepherds we fully understand the importance of the first weeks of a dogs life, having raised many generations of our puppies into adulthood, we have seen first hand the benefits of an enriched, stimulating environment. Raising puppies in this fashion is time-consuming and it takes a commitment on the part of the breeder, something we are only too happy to give.

Provided below is a chart detailing the health care our puppies receive, followed by detailed information on how we care for the puppies from birth to 16 weeks. Each of our puppies or dogs is sent home with a detailed recored of all health care they have received, including vaccination, worming, and heartworm prevention.

Birth to 3 Weeks

Puppy care starts at birth. All puppies are born in our puppy room. The puppy room is adjacent to our kitchen, office and family room.This placement, in the busiest part of the house, allows us to be in constant contact with the mother and her puppies.

Since all our females have been with us since birth themselves, their trust in us is complete. This fact enables us to assist every mother with her whelping without causing her any worry or stress. This privilege offered to us by the dams allows us to see, at the very moment of birth, the first signs of the dog we will know in the future. Some puppies are “larger then life” and even at the moment of birth these robust individuals are squirming and fighting their way out of the placenta. Freed from their previously protective placental wrapper they join our world with a song of life, loudly announcing to the world their arrival. What a joy!

As each puppy is born they are cleaned, sexed, checked over, and marked with a ribbon. Each puppy is individually marked, so we can tell who is who right away and then returned to their dam for bonding. Once the whelping is complete the dam and puppies are allowed some private time to get to know each other.

Our whelping box is clean, warm, and very private. With four tall sides and a cover to keep the heat inside, the dams feel at ease. It is very important that dams are comfortable and confident in their whelping area: nervous dams “model” undesirable nervous behavior for their puppies. Our females were all born in our whelping area and since our dogs also socialize freely with each other (see how we house our dogs), they are not concerned or worried for their puppies safety in any way, but instead feel calm, confident and content.

Except with the largest litters, bottle feeding is unnecessary, but we often supplement the dam's own milk with bottle-fed goats milk anyway. These supplemental bottles facilitate bonding, forming the earliest association in the puppies minds that human contact is natural and desirable. These bottle feedings increase our contact with the puppies and allow us yet another chance to increase our knowledge of each puppies temperament. Food drive is easily evaluated during these feedings, something very important to our clients who intend pursue advanced training with their dogs. For example, some puppies will never refuse a bottle, even if they are already full, while other puppies will never accept a bottle and will only nurse from their mothers, while most puppies fall in between these two extremes.

From birth puppies are handled many times each day. While the mothers privacy with the puppies is paramount in the first two weeks, we manage to find many chances to handle each puppy without interrupting this important private time. Every time the dam goes outside to relieve herself, the box is cleaned, or bottles are given, we are able to handle each puppy. The benefits of frequent, structured handling of newborns has been well documented. Puppies handled in specific ways gain weight faster, show increased immune response (both as puppies and as adults), have an increased ability to handle stress (both as puppies and as adults), and learn at a faster rate then those puppies not handled. Since we are dedicated to producing the best dogs possible, early handing (sometimes called “Super Puppy”) techniques are a priority to us and every puppy receives this benefit. Since these techniques, if improperly applied, can cause permanent harm to puppies, only those experienced in handling newborns should attempt to apply them. This is not an activity for novice breeders!

In the first three weeks, incredible development is occurring inside the brain of the puppies. While to many these early days seem to be simply a string of sleeping, eating, sleeping, eating cycles, we believe that many important opportunities for positive development occur during this time. We never want to miss these chances to positively influence the development of our puppies, and we work diligently to ensure puppies receive the benefit of our expertise during this time.

3 Weeks to 6 Weeks

Personally, I enjoy puppies of this age the most; as puppies approach three weeks they really “wake up” as they mature: the first steps occur, the puppies' vision and hearing sharpen, and play starts. What fun! Puppies of this age are becoming aware of the world around them, and they start interacting with their dam, litter mates, and us. The puppies' environment goes through the first change during this time as they are given more room, as the tall sided box is replaced with a much larger box with lower sides (so they can see more of their environment). As the puppies mature, dams desire more time away from them (as all moms understand), so our puppy play room allows her a bed of her own, where her puppies cannot reach her, but still close enough that they know where she is. This allows the mother to engage with her puppies on her schedule, and sets up for a gradual weaning. Additionally puppies learn a valuable lesson: that while they may be left for a while, Mom always returns! Since adult dogs need to be comfortable being left alone, this is actually a valuable lesson for babies.

While Mom gets her separate bed, puppies get new things at this time too. Puppies are provided with a variety of toys, and we often notice the most toy driven puppies at this age, as they can start to carry toys quite early. We also provide the puppies with large boxes, crates, and cozy cubes, to imprint the puppies to a variety of surfaces, textures, and experiences. Toys are rotated frequently to keep the puppies engaged in their environment.

During this time the idea of keeping one's environment clean is introduced. Keeping puppies clean is very important; not only is it damaging to health to keep puppies in a soiled environment, it also sets them up for house training difficulties later. Our large puppy play area has room at one end for a toilet area, with paper or piddle pads, while the rest of the area has fleece footing. Puppies are encouraged to use the toilet area at the far end of the area to relieve themselves, and to play and sleep in the near end of the area. Obviously, keeping the puppy area completely clean is paramount, as puppies raised in close proximity to feces and urine are very difficult to house train. The puppy area is cleaned on a constant basis. Stool is removed immediately and papers are replaced frequently. The fleece footing (which helps the puppies “grip” as they learn to walk and play, which is so important to developing muscles) is replaced with clean footing each morning.

Puppies remain indoors during the ages of 3 weeks to 6 weeks. This is partially to allow us as much interaction as possible during this important time, but additionally this provides protection from exposure to illnesses that may be present outdoors.

Solid food is introduced at 3 weeks for most litters. Puppies are offered softened Iams Puppy: Original Formula mixed with goats milk four times daily. (For those breeders who always want to know our secret for consistently producing such robust, healthy puppies, that is part of our success.) Our dams, who have the ability to nurse on their schedule, drive the weaning process. Some completely stop nursing by week 4 while other “earth mother” types continue much longer. Puppies naturally nurse less as they increase the amount of puppy food they ingest, which lessens the load on the dam. However, early weaning is not desirable as there are many properties in the dam's milk that assist with the maturation of the digestive system and the immune system of the puppies. Additionally, we never separate our dams from their puppies early, there is simply too much she has to teach them during this time. Our system allows the dam to drive weaning (we feel she does know best), without taxing her, while providing all the nutritional needs of her growing puppies.

As the puppies love their meal time, we choose to use this opportunity to further the mental development of the puppies through the use of operant conditioning techniques.

During this time puppies are introduced to clickers and have several behaviors "shaped". Most puppies learn to come when called (all puppies are called "Biddie" until they have permanent names), to sit, and to offer focused attention during this early training. This prepares our puppies from the earliest time to embrace the concept of learning new behaviors, and teaches them to offer new behaviors freely. Since all puppies have much to learn when they leave us, we feel this head start on training is vitally important. We hope this early start with clickers will not only dispel the myth that training should not start until 6 months (something that does apply to pain-based training, but does not apply to clicker training) but will also encourage our owners to embrace the super effective clicker methods in future training. We happily provide continued support and training to our new families so they can learn positive ways to train their puppy once it moves to their home. Coaching and classes are also available to those who would like help learning to train their dog. Preference in placing puppies is always given to those owners dedicated to using only positive training methods on their dogs.

At 6 weeks puppies receive their first vaccination in preparation for moving to our outdoor facility.

7-16 Weeks

At seven weeks puppies move from their indoor play room to the outdoor puppy area. This spacious indoor/outdoor kennel is kept filled with puppy furniture (toddler toy furniture usually) that offers the puppies different footings, noises, heights, and opportunities for play. Our outdoor puppy area is located within our kennel; we prefer this location since it provides the puppies with constant stimulation. We are in and out of our kennel many times each day, so we can continue to work with each puppy. Additionally the puppies are exposed to the normal noises one would associate with a kennel: barking dogs (although our dogs bark very little), people and other new and interesting sights and sounds (such as mowers, hoses, chickens, and our neighbors four-wheelers). From their puppy yard the puppies can see all that goes on outside in addition to all their various relatives. We have several adult dogs who love puppies that are often called upon to accompany us on walks with the puppies on our property. These kind hearted dogs offer our puppies a chance to learn proper doggie manners and interaction skills they will need later as adult dogs.

Puppies also start receiving visitors during this age: prior to vaccination only family members interact with the puppies, but once they are protected from disease by their vaccination, the puppies receive their first “stranger” visits. We often have families who desire to visit with our puppies at an earlier age, but please understand that as “dog folks” we know only too well the problems some breeders have with infectious diseases in their kennels; and since most families visit multiple breeders we are simply not willing to risk disease transmission from another kennel into our own kennel via well meaning visitors. This protects not only our own dogs but also the puppies we send into new homes.

Puppies start leaving for their new homes around 9 weeks of age, after their second of four necessary puppy vaccinations. For those puppies who remain with us past the age of 9 weeks, such as those receiving our deluxe puppy training package, training and socialization continues with more advanced skills being taught and an increase level of interaction and socialization with a wide variety of dogs and people.

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