Puppy Culture
All of my puppies are raised under the guidelines of the Puppy Culture program, which is a fabulous social and neurological stimulation program (available for purchase at www.puppyculture.com) for young puppies to help them learn manners and be properly socialized from an early age. With the foundation of Puppy Culture for your puppy’s life, you will notice that they will be easier to train, it will be easier to form strong emotional bonds with your puppy, and they will develop into a confident and well mannered dog. Keeping up with Puppy Culture is strongly recommended after your new puppy comes home with you. I will have done my best to introduce them to as many new sights, sounds, experiences, and social situations as I possibly can, but it will be up to you to continue on with your puppy’s training throughout the course of his or her life. Standard Poodles are a naturally intelligent breed, and they thrive off of the benefits of Puppy Culture.
House Training
Potty training doesn’t have to be as stressful of a time as everyone believes it to be, if you follow some simple steps. It is my goal to get you and your puppy set up for success, so that when they leave me to join their forever-family, they will have a strong foundation on the basics of potty training, that you can keep up with when the puppy comes home. I begin with starting them on a litterbox full of alfalfa or pine pellets. These pellets, which can be purchased at places like TSC, are a natural potty training tool that helps your puppy learn how to keep his or her crate (or “den”) clean. Dogs don’t like to have a messy den. Since your puppy will already be started on crate training, it makes sense to have a litterbox in his crate with him. The pellets smell like the great outdoors, which makes the dog associate going potty outside. Within a couple of months of having your new puppy, there should be significant progress with potty training if you continue to follow this method. Here are some other helpful tips:
The Do’s and Don’ts
Don’t scold, punish, or yell at your puppy when they have an accident in the house. I know this goes against our grain of “training” the puppy. The reason for this is because when a dog has an accident in the house, if we yell at the dog for it, the only thing he learns is that it’s not ok to go to the bathroom in front of you. So the dog will start to hide his accidents (still in the house). The dog doesn’t understand that you are yelling because he went in the house, only that he did it in front of you. So this means that it will make it harder for your puppy to trust you to go to the bathroom in front of you outside - on a leash or where you can see him. It’s confusing for the puppy.
Do take away water an hour before bedtime to reduce the need to potty in the crate.
Do praise your puppy when he goes potty outside, or when he gets your attention to let you know he has to go to outside, he deserves praise.
Keeping up with crate training is going to naturally teach the puppy how to keep his den clean, and when he is old enough to really hold it for several hours at a time, he will rely on the litterbox with pine/alfalfa pellets less and less, until it can be removed entirely. Every dog I have crate trained has been successful. They love their crate because it’s a safe, clean place that they don’t have any negative connotations with.
What your Puppy Comes Home With
Your puppy will be coming to you with AKC registration paperwork for either full/breeding registration or limited/pet only registration. Your puppy will also come with a vet certificate/clearance for good health, an updated vaccination and wormer record, microchipped, and their dew claws removed with their tails docked long to show length. Your puppy kit will include a small bag of puppy food to help them get started at home, and a soft cuddly toy that smells like their litter mates to help ease the transition. If you are interested, I will also be happy to show you how to groom your puppy. If you are having your puppy shipped, they will also come with the crate for shipping and the vet clearance to be able to fly.
Puppy Prices and shipping
For all puppies, there is a $500 non refundable deposit that is due to secure your puppy choice, it goes towards the overall purchase price of your puppy, which ranges from $2000-$3500. (pet price is $2000, full breeding rights are $3500.) The amount of time and energy that I put into raising good dogs is reflected in their pricing structure. I understand that my dogs are an investment, as I have already invested so much of my heart and soul into them. I do offer financing options.
Puppy Selection Process
Because the puppies are raised with Puppy Culture, they have a lot of milestones to hit before they are ready to be temperament tested at 7 weeks old. All puppies will be ready for their puppy selection after they have been tested at 7 weeks. At that point, I will go down through the list of deposit holders and make my recommendations to each new owner based off of their lifestyle, family needs, and preferences for a puppy. It is my goal to make sure that the puppy and his/her new family are a good fit for each other. Each deposit holder will be able to choose their puppy at the 7 week mark, with my recommendations taken into consideration, and then they can go home at 8 weeks after they have had their first round of vaccinations at my vet. The most important thing to consider when choosing a puppy is their temperament, which is why we wait until the puppies are 7 weeks old before we make our picks. Picking a puppy based off of how cute he looks in a picture is not something that I endorse.
