I am raising my puppies the "Puppy Culture" way, and this page is dedicated to explaining what that is, and why I feel it is important and valuable to my puppy buyers.
Puppy Culture is a way of raising puppies, in the critical first twelve weeks of their lives, that make them resilient, emotionally stable, and eager to learn. It gives them a polite way to communicate with their people. It gives us guidelines to teach the puppy HOW to learn, in a positive and encouraging way, so that they become willing and keen partners in training.
I start with early neurological stimulation from 3 to 14 days old, along with plenty of cuddling, and handling of all of their body parts, and nail trimming regularly. Between 3 and 4 weeks, there is a key period where the puppies will startle at a sudden noise, but don't yet register true fear. During this time, I will expose them to many different noises so that they startle and get past it, over and over. This helps the puppy learn to recover quickly from scary things. The puppies are calmer and mentally stronger for having those early exposures.
I also begin to expose puppies to different smells, novel objects, unsteady surfaces, different textures, etc, to give them a good start with new things, and confidence in unfamiliar environments. I expose puppies to the vacuum, hair dryer, and other household sounds.