Rearing our Puppies
We take great pride and enjoyment in raising our puppies and preparing them for their new lives. Whilst it is an exhausting and emotional process it is incredibly rewarding to see them go to their new homes and change the lives of their new families.
The first few weeks
Our puppies are all born and raised in our home and the living room becomes the maternity ward! Jeanette and Emily are with the new mum throughout her labour and assist wherever necessary. Our puppies are never left unsupervised even through the night there is always someone sat with them and mum.
We give every puppy a coloured collar at birth as this helps with identification and record keeping. We weigh puppies daily and record this to make sure everyone is gaining weight as expected.
4-8 weeks
The feeding regime carries on with 5 meals a day reducing to 4 for when they go to their new homes. We like puppies to have a routine, so they get fed at set times and this helps with toilet training. Likewise, we also start a bedtime routine, which is a good foundation for when they go to their new home.
Over the years we have developed a really stimulating puppy play area (both indoors and outdoors) to develop the puppies physically, mentally and sensory. This area includes; tunnels, dens, playhouses, nest swing, wobble boards, moving walkways, various surfaces and textures, ramps, paddling pool, wind ribbons, music, sounds (fireworks, traffic, alarms etc). All these things encourage the puppies to be curious, confident and self assured whilst also developing them physically by improving balance and strengthening muscles.
During this time the puppies also spend time with our adult dogs who whilst very gentle and take time to play also set boundaries which is an important part of the puppies learning.
Visitors continue to be welcomed and the puppies get lots of handling from different people. At this age they have their first bath, and we start a first ride in the car in preparation for when they leave to their new homes.
At 7-8 weeks we make our decision on which puppy will stay at home with us. Whilst families have known for many weeks a puppy will shortly be joining them it isn’t until this time that we finally allocate specific puppies to families. We put a lot of thought and care into trying to match the personalities and characters of the puppies to the needs and experience of the families.
Before our puppies leave they are all microchipped and health checked at our vets.
After 8 weeks
People often ask ‘how do you let them go isn’t it upsetting’ and yes, leaving day can be emotional but with happy tears as we know they are going to change the lives of specially chosen families. It’s fair to say at 8 weeks after all the work we have invested into raising the litter we are exhausted, and the puppies reach an age where they need more than we can give them.
When our puppies leave that is not the end of our involvement, it is merely the beginning of a long friendship and as a family we are available 24/7 to help and support our owners. We have a private Facebook page for everyone who has a Waldershelf dog and for early months we also have litter chat groups where we can advise when to put food up, how much exercise to give etc.
In addition to this support our puppies all leave with our Waldershelf Puppy Pack which has now grown to over 150 pages.
