Bark to Basics Canines
Our breeding program specializes in raising Goldendoodles and Labrador Retrievers. Our objective is to breed healthy and well-tempered puppies that have the health, aptitude, and temperament to go into pet homes as well as to go on to become service dogs. To achieve our objectives, we subject our breeding dogs to rigorous health and temperament testing and we raise our puppies on our advanced curriculum which exposes them to enriching experiences appropriate to their developmental stage. We use temperament testing to provide information to our families that will allow us to match them with a puppy that will be the best fit their lifestyle.
Advanced Puppy Curriculum Overview
All of our puppies are raised on our advanced puppy curriculum. This specialized and targeted curriculum allows us the opportunity to provide families with alert, friendly, fearless, inquisitive, and happy and healthy puppies. From this group of puppies we are also seeking to identify and select the puppies that display the qualities and aptitude needed to enter into our diabetic alert or psychiatric service dog programs or to enter other programs. We are aiming to maximize the potential of each puppy by stimulating its learning ability, nerve strength, and natural instincts. Our curriculum of daily learning exercises and evaluations was put together from years of our own education and experience and from training from specialists in the fields of breeding, obedience, and animal behaviorists.
We strive to raise our puppies in an enriching environment. Studies have shown that puppies raised in enriched environments tend to have more brain cells and neural connections, an improved ability to learn and remember, greater emotional stability, and better resistance to stress. Since we want only the best for our puppies, we provide our puppies with adequate space to exercise, a stimulating living area with various sounds and textures, and opportunities to problem solve.
Not only do we assist momma in caring for her puppies from birth, beginning on day 3 all puppies begin Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) exercises. Exercises require handling puppies one at a time while performing a series of five exercises. The handler starts with one puppy and stimulates it with the following exercises:
Tactical stimulation (between toes)
Head held erect
Head pointed down
Supine position
Thermal stimulation
In addition to ENS exercises, puppies also undergo Dr. Gayle Watkins Early Scent Introduction protocol in which each day we present each puppy with a new scent. According to research, dogs that are taught and engage in scenting have a more optimistic attitude toward life and have fewer behavior problems.
From two to four weeks of age, the puppy’s eyes and ears begin to open and they begin to be more aware of their environment. Puppies have the physical ability to startle, however do not yet feel the emotional fear response associated with startling. Startle recovery exercises begin during this age and include exposure to loud noises such as blow dryer, vacuum cleaner, cabinets closing, and other household noises.
Enrichment activities begin at 3 weeks and include opportunities to experience objects with varied sounds, textures, and the ability to manipulate the objects. Puppies will play with items such as a folded tarp, water bottles, boxes, soft, crinkly and squeaky toys, mats and tins containing various scents, balls of various sizes, objects with wheels, and opportunities to climb and stand on elevated objects.
Our advanced puppy curriculum also includes:
Beginning potty training with the puppies at 3 wks. old:
Puppy pad/ wood chips
Kennel training
Proper behavior around humans and their clothing:
Voluntarily sitting to be pet
Not jumping on or biting at feet/shoes
Exposure to various clothing (hats, glasses, coats, etc.)
Beginning basic obedience training at 7/8 weeks:
Introduction to marker words
Leash exposure
Sit, down, and wait
All exposures and training with the puppies are kept positive. Puppies are closely monitored in order to gather information and to assist puppies with support as needed. Our goal is for each puppy to have positive quality exposures that will assist them in becoming healthy and confident puppies. We want them to feel safe and secure in their environment and have the understanding that people are loving, caring, and can be trusted.
At 7 weeks of age, our puppies undergo a puppy aptitude test created by putting together our own experiences, and training from the works and experiences of Avidog University and Badass Breeders courses in order to assist you in selecting a puppy that fits your family lifestyle and dynamics.
Beginning week 9 puppies transition into the Bark to Basics Canine Obedience Center, LLC’s puppy obedience program. This program provides additional training with the commands and skills started in their advanced puppy curriculum and adds the commands of watch me, stay, place/bed, come, leave it, and touch. Please note that due to training fees, an additional charge is added to original price of the puppy for puppies in this program. Additional charge is based on the number of weeks the puppy is in this program.
For a general breakdown of our advanced puppy curriculum by phase, please visit our puppy curriculum page. Please note that our curriculum is evaluated and adapted with each litter so activities done with one litter may not be identical to activities done in another litter. Every litter is unique and treated as such. Some litters may need to move at a different pace then other litters and our curriculum is adapted to accommodate.
