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Aufzucht

Nurturing

The puppies are born in our bedroom, where we have a special whelping box in which they grow up in the first few weeks of their life until they can walk and need more space. Then they'll be able to use the whole room and later the whole household.

We document every birth in a live stream on our Facebook page so that everyone can take part without stressing us or the mother.

As soon as they open their eyes and ears at 2 weeks old and begin to perceive their surroundings, they are given various toys to discover in the litter box. From now on they also receive regular visits from their family and our other dogs, the two cats, our rabbit and children of friends.

The puppies' socialization phase begins at 3 weeks old. At this time their basic behavior is build. If the puppy gets to know a lot now, within reason, and under safe conditions, it will benefit from it for a lifetime, because the stimuli that puppies will get to know will continue to be linked to relaxation in the future.

We're also getting them crate trained by providing several crates in our condo and by transporting them to the vet and on excursions; and potty trained so that they are completely housebroken at 6 weeks old and are used to sleep in their crate as well.

At this point their baby teeth are slowly breaking through and we start feeding them with high quality canned food, with organic vegetables and a meat content of 70%.

By feeding many different types of meat right from the start, we prevent later intolerance and allergies.

As soon as the puppies are "mobile", a baby gate is attached to the bedroom door, so they can explore the apartment during the day and get to know all possible household and everyday noises.
The garden door is also open so that they can explore the garden, do their business outside and get used to other noises such as children playing, bicycles, buggies, that pass by the garden, but also barking from neighbor's dogs. Since our dogs neither bark nor give mouth when the doorbell rings or someone walks by, the puppies are relaxed too.

Starting at 4 weeks old, we take the puppies outside in our front- and backyard several times a day, where they have a ball pit, and raschel tunnel, as well as a little dog pool to play with... and a small pond to fall in ;)

Our front yard is right next to the sandbox of our residential complex, which means that the puppies meet playing children, but also the postmen and neighbors - with and without dogs - that walk by. Thus, the puppies not only get to know new surfaces and surroundings, but are also familiarized with a wide variety of people and situations.

In the 5th - 6th week they get used to driving by regularly making trips to the nearby area, the forest, fields, vineyards and the dog beach.
To do this, the puppies have to pass the external staircase to use the lift and get to the underground garage where our car is parked on the car lift.
Depending on the weather, we visit the dog beach 2 times, which is a 35 minutes drive on the autobahn.

This way they are familiarized with other new places, strange smells, noises, different people and dogs and can explore the world in a playful way.

The trips to the dog beach are not only a must-do for us, but also an absolute highlight for the puppies!

After the car ride we have to pull them to the beach in a handcart for 1 km (video), whereby we already come across a few two- and four-legged friends.
At the beach, we will meet up to 100 dogs and their owners. Many people and children who play with their dogs, swim in the Rhine, sunbathe or cuddle our puppies enthusiastically.


These trips are incredibly important for the socialization and imprinting of the puppies, which is why we attach great importance to ensuring that they have fun and are not overchallanged.

Of course, we do not only go on excursions to train and socialize the puppies, but - apart from the puppy buyers - we also get visits from neighbors, friends and family (with and without kids or dogs), as well as past puppy buyers who come to visit the puppies with their big siblings, aunts or cousins.

 

In addition, the puppies get to celebrate at least one party with us, so that the noise level of partying people, loud music, and excitement does not disturb them. If none of us is having a birthday and there is no a World Cup to invite friends to - we will find another reason to throw a puppy party!

At 8 weeks old they get vaccinated, chipped, and examined by our vet. They'll also be examined by a certified ophthalmologist for hereditary eye diseases at 6-7 weeks old. Eventually, our breeding warden also checks the health, quality, and correctness of all documents of the litter. Each puppy receives a copy of the "certificate of litter inspection", and eye examination.

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