Have you ever heard of Puppy Culture? If you follow our puppies it won’t be the last time you do because we use its protocols to raise our litters. Both Shiloh and Lizzie were Puppy Culture (PC) puppies and it is clear the benefits PC had on them.
Puppy Culture is a series of videos outlining the puppy enrichment program developed by Jane Killion, a professional dog trainer and Bull Terrier breeder/exhibitor. In it, Jane shares the science pertaining to puppy development in the first twelve weeks of life with practical application in the form of enrichment protocols and emotional resiliency exercises for breeders to follow. It’s a comprehensive, organized program. It is becoming a worldwide movement among breeders and for good reason!
Why then? Those first weeks of life are an extremely influential time for a dog when by doing the right things at the right time a breeder can raise confident, enrichment seeking puppies, thereby changing the outcome of their lives. What more could a breeder desire for their precious wee puppies?
When we first heard about Puppy Culture from a fellow breeder our thought was, “We already do most of it anyway.” And then we kept hearing more and more about PC. We strive to always learn and improve how we do things. Krystal joined Jane's Puppy Culture Discussion group on Facebook and saw some of the videos and photos that breeders (and PC puppy owners) were sharing. This piqued our curiosity so we decided to invest in the expanded set.
Not 30 minutes into the first DVD we realized how wrong we had been! Yes, we did Early Neurological Stimulation, sound habituation, Rules of 7, and lots of enrichment with all of our past litters. What we didn’t understand was the difference between passive and active enrichment exercises and when they should be introduced based on behavioral markers. We learned much more about startle response and recovery and conditioned emotional responses (CER).
Jane presents science through multiple interviews with experts: veterinarians, canine behaviorists, trainers, and breeders. Puppy Culture is recommended for breeders and new puppy owners by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior.
The critical socialization period is 3 to 12 weeks of age. Most people think of “socialization” as exposing their puppies to as many new people and experiences as possible while still young. Although this is part of the process, it’s not enough. Our goal as breeders needs to be to raise dogs that have the emotional intelligence to connect with humans.
Emotional intelligence can be taught and nurtured in very young puppies and one of the goals of PC is to teach breeders how to do this through various exercises:
Health – physical wellness that will allow a puppy to develop in a neurologically and physically sound manner (weight checks, grooming, proper nutrition, etc.)
Emotional Stability – the ability to recover easily from fear as well as stress (startle recovery, barrier challenges.)
Habituation – familiarity with a maximum number of things (Puppy Party, sound habituation protocols, meeting different people, dogs, animals.)
Enrichment – the emotional response that new things and challenges are opportunities for enrichment rather than things to be feared or avoided (novelty items, Adventure Box, off-premises socialization.)
Communication – giving puppy its own voice (Communication Trinity – power up the clicker, box game, Manding; attention/distraction.)
Skills – learned behaviors that allow them to function in human society (recall, Manding, litter box training, crate training, leash walking/heeling, resource guarding, bite inhibition.)
Love – the desire to seek out the company of both dogs and humans as emotionally positive experiences (daily cuddles with humans and mommy, shaping emotional responses, Happy and Calm CER (Conditioned Emotional Responses.)
At about 10 weeks old the puppies then go home with their families. This gives them two weeks still in that critical socialization period to adjust to their new family’s lifestyle and be introduced to more people and experiences.
The Puppy Culture program is an incredible amount of work for a breeder, but it is 100% worth it. When you welcome a Highland Glenn Havanese puppy into your family you will be just as thankful as we are for PC! As Jane says, "The proof is in the puppies."