Our Purposeful Puppy Program ©

Growing Great Golden puppies are raised with a specific daily Purposeful Puppy Program curriculum to give them the best possible foundation in life! Since research has proven that the rest of their lives are greatly impacted by how puppies are interacted with during the very important first 8 weeks of life, we've taken special care to give each puppy everything they need to have the best start to their wonderful lives! 

Here's a brief overview of our Purposeful Puppy Program & how we raise each Golden with love + purpose.

These first few days of life the most important connection is between mama & puppies. We focus on keeping the puppies close with their mama, warm, & eating well. Our moms are very comfortable having us nearby so we will do daily weight checks on puppies, sweet snuggles & just keep an eye on puppies & mama to all be thriving. Our clean, calm, & quiet whelping rooms are temperature controlled & set up for the comfort & well-being of our Goldens. If we're not right with them, we have camera observation.

This is called the neonatal period of a puppies life (3-16 days) & when we begin with a daily series of 3-5 second handling exercises. This is called Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) which carefully creates limited amounts of controlled stressors for the puppies’ little systems. These limited stimulations jump start their neurological system, improves cardiovascular performance, creates stronger heart beats, stronger adrenal glands, more tolerance to stress, & a greater resistance to disease. The military has been using these methods for decades (known as the "super dog" or "bio sensor program") & research has more than proven that there is a special bio-sensor that  turns “on” in dogs only during days 3-16, which is why it’s so important for us to capture every beneficial aspect of this amazing protocol for our pups! This exercise includes things like thermal stimulation, rubbing their toes/paws , moving blood flow by head held upright & held downward, & in in a relaxed position on their backs. As the puppy grows, we gradually increase pressure & add in additional handling exercises. The most important part of this early interaction with our puppies is the calm exhale. At the end of their handling, we hold each puppy close to our heart & face until they settle into a "calm" & actually let out the sweetest exhale. This is our signal that they are at peace & have had a positive experience associated with being handled & close to humans. How a puppy feels about each interaction is just as important as the interaction itself. Our goal is to raise healthy, happy, compliant, & human-focused dogs that have the best foundation to unlock all of their amazing potential to be the dogs they’re designed to be! These above protocols are credited to Dr. Carmen Battaglia, the Empowered Breeder Program (founded by Janette Forrey), & a few we’ve added from our own research & experience with Goldens specifically, to form our unique Growing Great Goldens Purposeful Puppy Program curriculum.

Early Scent Introduction (ESI) (credited to Dr. Gayle Watkins) is also a daily purposeful interaction with each puppy introducing a new scent to them by holding it near their nose & recording their responses. They either move toward the scent (+) or away from the scent (-). Scents include herbs, spices, outdoor smells, etc. & is proven to turn "on" their noses in a more intense way, increase nose awareness, & support confidence in our puppies. A dogs nose is one of the most powerful tools they have, we want to make sure they’re able to really work at full capacity! We also have pheasant, duck, & turkey wings on hand for scent association for those interested in future training of hunting dogs. 

This is when the puppies start really moving around and enter their transitional period (2-3 weeks). They are eating, sleeping, crawling & scooting around their safe little world, their whelping box. Days 18-20 is when a puppies eyes & ears begin to open & some of the puppies start to get up on all 4 legs. Early Sound Introduction Desensitization begins at the developmentally appropriated time when their ears open, which is typically around day 18. A few times throughout the day we perform loud noises during feeding times or play times. A variety of sounds including clapping, knocking on door, doorbell ringing, banging on pot, gunshot sounds, fireworks, vacuums, storms, a variety of genre’s of music, babies crying/screaming, loud laughter, different types of voices, sirens, traffic, & more. These are never performed to startle or too loud that puppies are ever scared. Instead, it’s performed/played just until they notice the sound. As they grow, we can increase the volume. This can be (& should continue to be done!) throughout the next year or two of their lives, especially for things like storms & fireworks. We simply lay the foundation & set you & your puppy up for success, you’ve got to grab the baton & keep running!   

Now that their eyes & ears are open & they're a bit more mobile, we start to introduce items in the safe space of the puppies' whelping box & reinforce a calm, safe, & stable place for them to explore each item. They get exposure to stable things like a helmet, jars, wooden blocks, boxes, socks, apples, pillows, & more!

By this week we've graduate the puppies to our 10 step handling exercises with increased pressure & stimulations such as a vibrating toothbrush on their paws & mouth, gentle finger tugs on collar & ears. They’ve been getting little nail clips each week too- grooming is part of their everyday lives, we start them early so they’re totally relaxed to endure such pampering. By daily associations with these things during this developmental time their little brains pattern positive associations with common things we don't want them to be triggered by for example: grooming, heavy petting (as with young kids or therapy situations), no startle to loud noises, etc. Puppies are situational, so we will begin to introduce these things in different scenarios as they grow too. Again, these are all wonderful things to continue with your puppies when you get them to solidify the proper responses in their new homes & situations too- make every interaction a positive one!

This week the puppies also enter into their prime socialization period & this continues until they're 12 weeks old. They're a little more stable on their feet, they'll become aware of their surroundings & develop coordination as well as more voice & sight recognition. Lots of tail wagging & playing with their littermates & mom will help them learn the important proper ways to communicate & interact as a dog. With increased curiosity they begin to approach things & people with less fear. It's so important that every careful interaction with humans, animals, & objects is safe & positive. To encourage confidence, we begin using a marker word "yes." This week they get to venture outside the whelping box & we move their safe space into different areas to carefully transition them to associate safety with new things to explore. Each interaction is fun, friendly, & enriching to their development.

With the eruption of tiny puppy teeth, mama starts to naturally wean which means we can introduce "puppy mush" & our emergency recall that we build into the puppies. With more food, comes more poopies...so guess what else we add this week?! A potty tray to begin building a place to "potty" & a place to "not potty" - the very beginning of potty training. We use pine pellets (alternating with dirt & grass too) under the tray to smell like outside. This important early association makes your job just a tad easier & we’re happy to do it! 

Did you know that we are programming an emergency recall into your puppies?  At every feeding time (like their happiest part of the day!!), we repeat the phrase "puppy, puppy, puppy" quickly about 5-6 times. Positively associating the phrase with food, a sort of imprinting begins. After a week or so we begin to test it & you will see them all run in our direction, we always reward it. Our hope & this has been proven already with our own puppies recently, that this serves an an emergency fail-safe for you as your puppies can easily sneak out of doorways & get into things they shouldn't. We've got further instructions for you in the puppy packet you get along with your puppy on go home day to keep up this recall or trade it out with a new "word(s)" by using the "treat game." This has literally been a proven life-saving part of what we gift to you in your puppy & we'd love for you to keep it up with very little effort on your part (we've already done the hard work for you!).

As your puppy grows we incorporate polite manners at meal time, requiring them to sit calm & still (with human eye-contact) before being fed or picked up. Among many other wonderful pre-programmed self-soothing, self-regulating, & self-controlled behaviors that you'll get to maintain, we make sure puppies have alone time in small increments as well. This week we intentionally begin allowing visitors of different ages, sizes, ethnicities, with/without hats, with/without glasses, etc. to properly & safely interact with the puppies to give them a variety of people to be curious about. We begin to allow our other neutral adult dogs to calmly interact as well, showing them how friendly other dogs are. We always allow the puppies to approach the new areas, people, dogs, & things we are setting up during this stage, & if they tense up too much we scale back. Fundamentally, we want them to know that the world is safe, people are kind, & dogs are friendly.

This week the daily puppy curriculum takes a leap of advancement into more unpredictable things. Ramps & steps, wobbling items, having toys overhead, larger tunnels, & more movement! We have had visitors & a few other people work with the pups that they do not normally have association with so that we are sure we aren't enabling them in any way. Yes, we always take health & safety protocols!

There's LOTS of normal puppy play & little wrestling matches happening all the time. They're flushing out their pack order & learning proper puppy behaviors, their mama & our other adult dogs are so important during this time. It's important that we bring a "calm" to our time with pups since they can get pretty energetic at this stage & they pick up on our emotions intensely right now too. When we are happy & calm, so are the puppies.

We're observing almost constantly to ensure that any "startles" are given opportunity to recover from properly (human intervention when necessary). We want every puppy to begin practicing this & get good at it- this has to do with their resiliency. We like to see startle recovery within 3 seconds. If that doesn't happen, we step in & encourage with our voice or possibly separate/remove the item. This is a good thing to keep in mind when they get startled with you. Don't "baby" them, empower them to grow!

Car rides, safe outings, & positive crate training introductions happen this week as well. 

Puppies have now been introduced to potty training, crate training, & we add leash walking regularly this week. Car rides, visits to outside stores (safely with all 4 paws off the floor), location changes during the day, longer length positive crate association, & lots of great healthy foods - by this time they've had a taste of all the main proteins (chicken, beef, turkey, salmon) in raw or gently cooked form as well as pumpkin, berries, broccoli, carrots, yogurt, kefir, goats milk, & more! We encourage you to feed your puppies an organic, whole food, raw diet or at least add as much good pure nutrients with their high-quality dog food as possible. We love The Honest Kitchen, human grade dehydrated or clusters as a great & easy base for new puppy parents. 

Main focus of week 6 is: Eye contact, calm sit, impulse control, attentiveness, awareness, constructively challenging, confidence & resiliency.

Additional purposeful activities include: lots of overhead sounds/sights/objects, challenging confidence levels, watching for temperament traits, building resiliency & human-focus, car rides, public places (with all 4 paws off the floor), working through puppy curriculum with other humans, new strangers, up/down stairs, slow-feeders, snuffle mats, brain games, learning calm "sit" & lots of eye contact. Creating a healthy routine for puppies & patterning when sleep, eat, play times are.

This is a big week of solidifying routine, building multiple positive experiences/associations with people, places, & things. Longer times in their crates & maybe even overnight periods with the doors closed.  Both group training & one-on-one training sessions daily for basics. Loose leash walking, wearing different weight collars & harnesses, travel crate positive association & working on any specific areas as needed.  

Temperament Testing. In order to give each puppy a voice & our puppy families insight, we test & score 12 main traits through observing each puppy in a new environment they've never been in. The 12 traits we test are: assertiveness, confidence, motivation level, nerve strength/resiliency, touch tolerance, energy level, sound sensitivity, sight sensitivity, prey drive, human focus, tenderhearted, & dog friendliness. We send detailed descriptions of what these mean pertaining to the testing & results. Simply put, these help you understand which puppy would best fit your family or what traits are evident in your puppy so you can understand how they're unique. You'll have almost a full week to review videos & information & of course talk things over with me if you have any questions in order to settle on your top 2-3 picks & be ready for the Picking & the Go Home Party which we typically do right at 8 weeks old. Full videos & analysis can be viewed on our Youtube Channel @growinggreatgoldens for past litters.

Our last week with most puppies is completing socialization milestones, prepping pups for flights for our out of staters, our happy visit to the Vet for their wellness check up & first puppy shots. Outside potty training, crate training, loose leash walking, quiet alone time, one-on-one training, & lots of extra last minute snuggles happen this week. 

Many puppies we keep beyond this week for additional training & socialization or for travel or family schedules. See our additional weekly rate & details on the "Get a Puppy" page. 

Every experience & interaction & daily piece of our curriculum is recorded for your specific puppy & printed for your review in our Puppy Packet that you receive with your puppy on Go Home day. 

Whether puppies continue with us in a board + train type arrangement or are transitioning to their forever homes, it's important to not skip a beat on making every day count & continuing their consistent socialization, desensitization, training, routine & bonding. We do our best to equip new puppy families with the resources they need to succeed with our New Puppy Packet full of instructions. Also, we highly encourage families to set up training (like our partnership with Baxter & Bella use code: GROWINGGREATGOLDENS), prepare their people & place properly to bring puppies home, & to work through any challenges that arise. We are always available to help each family through this time & for the life of their puppy! We absolutely LOVE staying in touch with our families.