My dogs live as full family members with us, children and cats in the house. They accompany us to restaurants, to visit friends, to the market, to foreign cities and new environments. Our puppies should grow up to accompany their families in their daily routines. This requires confident and flexibel dogs. To encourange this development I feel obliged to raise and stimulate our puppy in the best way. In order for the puppies' brain nerve to develop and improve, they must be gradually confronted with appropriate stimuli after birth. A low-irritant environment leads to a deficient development of these nerve tracks and prevents the brain's potential from being fully developt. This can affect a dog his whole life.
We lay the basis with a mating of two confident, healthy and adaptable parents. It is the character, his health and nerve strength and not his titles which win us over. And of this we convice ourselves personally. Last but not least we like stud dogs to be kept like we do – at home with their familes and closely linked to their lifes.
Pregnancy, birth and early puppy development
A lot of stress for the bitch during pregnancy can have an direct impact on the puppies. We especially focus on a stress-free time during pregnancy. Before the birth we set up the whelping box so the bitch can get used to it. She should love her box and of course receive a lot of cuddles in it. After the birth the puppies spend the first time in the whelping box, which is set up in a quiet spot so the new family can adapt to the new situation at her own pace.
After the little ones open their eyes, become more and more mobile and the ears open up we move the whelping box to our family area. From the very beginning we cuddle up a lot with the little Bramley trees to get them used to people as early as possible and create a positive respone to human contacts. After a few days our puppies will be exposed to a special program which includes smallest stress stimulus (tickling of the paws with cotton swabs, supine position), in order to development brain function and enhance the ability to react to stress in an optimal way. This so-called "Super Dog Program" was developed in the USA for police dogs. If you would like to know more, please refer to the newer literature on the early development of puppies.
Puppy Area
The puppy area correspondence with the needs and development of the puppies and will be enlarged according to their age. We introduce them to a puppy potty to introduce them to soil as potty area right from the first time they leave the whelping box. For tactile and senory development we install a lot of playground equipment, various surfaces, fluttery objects and of course toys. From the fifth to the sixth week on they have direct access to the garden with a lot new stimuli.
Socialization
Puppy Enrichment is one of our main goals : They are confronted in a positive way to new objects, sounds, people and situations. In addition, the puppies learn not to pay attention to everyday noises : Vacuum cleaner, playing children, visitors, strangers, fluttering ribbons, television, other dogs, cats - the list is long. To ensure this we raise our puppies in the lively family area. Even if it means more work for us they stay in the middle of our lives in order to learn as much as possible for their lives.
We pay special attention to enough rest periods. Relaxation in everyday life is especially important for working breeds, which usually do not have to be invited twice to do more work.
Excursions
From the seventh week on, the little Bramley tree's are not limited to exiting things at home, but may also explore the wide world outside the safe kennel. Excursions into the forest, to the country, to the water, to busy roads are some of the things they get to know.
We think it is important that the puppies can experience excursions alone, without mother and siblings, with the breeder and/or the new owners. We are especially happy about the help of the future puppy owners, who can build up a strong bond to their puppy at an early stage. Another positive aspect of exploring the outsides are the car drives.
Visitors
Visitors are not only very welcome, they are vital for socialization of our puppies. That even means to have a full whelping box full of neighbours children for cuddling sessions ! Puppies need as many positive experiences with different people as they can get- young and old, big and small people.
We encourage future puppy owners to visit often and stay in touch with us after they leave the house. All Bramley tree's belongs to our family forever – we are happy to help with questions and tipps.
