How we raise them
Eight weeks that shape the next fifteen years
Most of what makes an adult dog easy to live with happens before eight weeks, in someone else's house. We raise every litter on the Puppy Culture programme, and here is exactly what that means week by week — so you can compare us against any other breeder you are considering.
What Puppy Culture actually is
Puppy Culture is a structured programme developed by Jane Killion covering birth to twelve weeks. It is not a marketing phrase — it is a specific set of protocols run on specific days, built around the developmental windows when a puppy's brain is most open to them. Miss the window and you cannot go back for it later.
Plenty of breeders say they "follow Puppy Culture." Ask any of us what we do on day three, what a manding box is, and what happens at week eight. The answers tell you whether it is being run or referenced.
Days 3–16
Early Neurological Stimulation and Early Scent Introduction
Five brief handling exercises a day — holding, positioning, and a cool surface — plus a new scent introduced daily. Both come from the Puppy Culture protocol and take under a minute per puppy. The point is small, controlled doses of mild stress at exactly the age it builds resilience rather than harm. We also weigh every puppy every day and record it.
Week 3
The world switches on
Eyes and ears open and the transitional period begins. The pen moves into the kitchen, where the puppies grow up hearing a dishwasher, a kettle, the rain on a tin roof, and everyone who comes through the house. Novel objects and surfaces go into the pen daily, and the litter box goes in.
Weeks 3–5
Communication and problem solving
This is the part of Puppy Culture that most surprises people. Puppies learn to offer a polite behaviour to ask for what they want — sitting rather than clawing — using a box and a clicker. Alongside it come barrier challenges and simple problem-solving puzzles, so they learn that an obstacle is something to work at rather than panic about.
Weeks 5–7
Startle recovery, handling, and resource guarding prevention
Controlled startle-and-recover exercises: something surprising happens, and the puppy learns that recovery is quick and nothing bad follows. We run the Puppy Culture resource guarding prevention protocols around food and toys, and handle feet, ears, and mouths daily so grooming and vet visits are never a fight later.
Weeks 5–8
Puppy parties and the wider world
Visitors start coming once the puppies have had their first vaccinations — different ages, hats, beards, walking sticks, wheelchairs where we can arrange it. They meet the other animals on the farm from a safe distance, walk on grass, gravel, lava rock, and wet ground, and start crate training and outdoor toileting.
Week 7
Temperament assessment
We run a structured temperament evaluation on each puppy and film it. This is the single biggest input into which puppy goes to which family — far more reliable than the impression a puppy makes in ten minutes on a visit day.
Week 8
Vet check, and home
Full veterinary examination, first vaccinations, worming, and microchip. Then they go home, with a go-home pack and a phone number you can use for the rest of the dog's life.
Weeks 8–12
The bit that is now your job
Puppies go through a fear period in these weeks, and what happens in them matters as much as anything we did. We send you home knowing what that means in practice: keep socialising, keep it positive, and do not flood a frightened puppy. This is the single most useful thing we can hand over with them.
What every puppy goes home with
- AKC registration paperwork (limited unless otherwise agreed)
- Written health guarantee and contract
- Veterinary record, vaccination, worming, and microchip details
- Four weeks of the food they are already eating
- A blanket that smells of their mother and littermates
- Their weight chart and temperament assessment
- A written feeding, crate, and potty-training plan
- Our phone number, for life
Why the cam exists
Every breeder's website says their puppies are raised underfoot with careful socialisation. Ours says it too, and you have no particular reason to believe us.
So we put a camera on the pen. You can watch what actually happens in our kitchen at two in the afternoon on a Tuesday, without an appointment and without us knowing you are watching. That is a much better guarantee than anything we could write here.