What is Puppy Culture?

Puppy Culture is an amazing program for breeders and puppy owners designed by Jane Killion . This program has a structural approach to raise puppies and give them the best start in life. It all starts with parents of the puppies, their genetics and what kind of life they live. Read Shape Shifting Genes on Puppy Culture website to learn how it is related to your puppy. Then puppies are born and my life gets very busy. Puppy Culture offers enormous support and vast knowledge on different stages of puppy development. The first 12 weeks of puppy life will shape your future dog.

I highly encourage you to visit Puppy Culture Learning Center to learn more.

Manding

My puppy owners say “ My puppy comes with a sit!”. This is not exactly correct. Yes, the puppy will sit if he/she wants something but I don’t teach puppy to sit on command. What I teach is called “Manding”. Manding is a polite way for a puppy to communicate with humans. Through manding we give a puppy voice for asking things. To achieve this I used a lot of treats to shape the behavior I wanted. For example, I have treats in my hands and jumping, excited, hungry puppies, I wait patiently until someone offers me a behaviour I am looking for and treat immediately. Puppies are smart and they all catch up pretty fast that the way to ask for treat is to sit (or any other position a breeder chooses). It is important for my puppy owners to understand the concept of manding and continue to listen to your puppy. If your puppy sits for you, try to figure out what he/she wants. If this behavior ignored puppy will proceed offering you other behaviours that might not be as polite, like jumping and nipping

Resource guarding

The resource can be food, treats, toys, a place or occasionally a person.  Resource guarding is normal dog behavior, it is a dog’s way to say “Back off”. However, resource guarding can be prevented. Puppy Culture protocol on food exchange is simple and effective. I start working on prevention of resource guarding with my puppies as soon as they start eating. Some puppies display ferocious growling initially when I try to take yummy meaty bone from them, others were not as guarded and released the bone immediately. All of them by the end looked expectantly at me if I approached them while they were eating, clear CER (conditioned emotional response ). The puppies were given higher value treat right after the bone was taken and got their bone back right away.

Shaping emotional responses is of utmost value in any situation not just with food. To learn more you can visit Puppy Culture

https://shoppuppyculture.com/products/shaping-emotional-responses-preorder

Recall for puppies

Recall is one of the most important commands every dog should learn. Shaping puppies to come every time I call them is my number one priority.

Your puppy will have a perfect recall before he/she goes home. If you would like to keep it this way you need to reinforce it every time your puppy comes when called. “COME” should always be associated with wonderful things like treats and new toys and play time with you. Don’t put puppy on a leash the first time you call your puppy or second time, try to do it at a random time so puppy doesn’t associate “come” with a leash. Call your puppy few times while walking, get excited when your puppy comes, give treat and release. This way you will shape CER to the command “come” and your puppy will come happily every time you call.