The first eight weeks every puppy will spend with its mother, litter mates, and breeder is critical to their temperament and development. It truly does matter how they are raised! In addition to being handled, pet, picked up, and loved on by us and our three children every single day, we also raise our puppies utilizing many Puppy Culture (PC) protocols.

Puppy Culture is a program that promotes early neurological stimulation, socialization, communication, and problem solving in puppies. Your puppy will be familiarized with many (but not all) of PC protocols for the first eight weeks he or she is with us at Beloved Bernedoodles. PC is an 12-week program, so we encourage all families to purchase the DVDs and continue the program from weeks eight to 12.

“Socialization does not exist after 12 weeks old. Now, we have the ability to counter-condition them, desensitize them, and teach them, but it’s a much, much harder process and a much longer process, and it doesn’t always work because the brain chemistry is just not the same [after your puppy is 12 weeks old].”

– Meghan E. Herron, DVM Diplomate – ACVB, Associate Professor – Clinical
Behavioral Medicine, Ohio State University

The purpose and benefits of Puppy Culture:

1. Communication
2. Emotional stability to recover easily from fear in a socially acceptable manner
3. Habituation – familiarity with the maximum number of everyday objects and sounds
4. Enrichment – the view that novelty and challenges are opportunities for enrichment rather than things to be feared or avoided
5. Health – physical wellness and motor skills that will allow the puppy to develop in a neurologically and physically sound way
6. Skills – learned behavior that will allow him to function in human society.
7. Love – the desire to seek out company of dogs and humans as emotionally positive experiences.

How we implement Puppy Culture at Beloved Bernedoodles:

• We implement Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) from days three to 16 of a puppy’s life. This link from the AKC will walk you through the five ENS protocols: https://www.akc.org/expert-advice/dog-breeding/breeder-puppy-socialization-early-neurological-stimulation/
• 10-step handling after day 16 of the puppies’ life. This is a protocol in the Badass Breeder curriculum that I like, that isn’t included in PC, but one that I see value in and like to do with my puppies anyway. Check out this video, which explains what’s involved in 10-step handling: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZIh8IhIsMw
• The puppies are played with, handled, pet, picked up, and loved on by us and our three children (and sometimes visiting family members and friends) every single day, multiple times a day.
• We are one of the few Bernedoodle breeders who teach “manding,” which lays the foundation of understanding how to offer a behavior to receive a reward. (Most Bernedoodle breeders I know use the “Badass Breeder” puppy curriculum instead of Puppy Culture, and it does not include teaching manding.) Manding is a Puppy Culture-coined term that means to sit and give eye contact when a puppy wants to be pet, picked up, or receive a treat or their meal. It’s a much better way for a puppy to communicate with you rather than barking at you or jumping on you.
• Exposure to the maximum number of objects, sounds (normal household sounds and classical music, plus thunderstorm and fireworks sounds on Alexa for example) and textures so that they are a well-adjusted, resilient pup. Examples of this are doors slamming, pots clanging, a textbook falling to the floor, a ball bouncing, laughter, crinkly paper, a large box being opened, the texture of artificial grass versus indoor tile or cement, a large and unfamiliar object being placed in their path. The puppies also receive at least one new toy in their play pen each day. I always make it a point to wear a hat and sunglasses some days, so the puppies are used to that.
• We do challenges to help them problem solve. For example, getting around an object in order to get to their food dish or learning how to descend or ascend one or two steps.

Early Potty Training:

We use litter trays and litter boxes pretty much starting at week three of life. During play sessions, we use artificial grass pads so your puppy will get used to going on a grass. By eight weeks old, the puppies go potty in their litter boxes 99% of the time when it’s placed in a 10′ x 10′ fenced in area. Please note: If outside of their puppy area and walking around unsupervised, they will do what any puppy less than 16 weeks old would do:  have accidents! We cannot expect bladder control social maturity by eight weeks old. 🙂

We sometimes teach the puppies how to go in and out of the doggie door. I don’t have many families that have a doggy door, and puppies and dogs learn how to use one very quickly, so if you have a doggy door at home and this is important to you, please let me know! We are not teaching with potty bells, although we encourage the use of potty bells once you bring your puppy home if you so desire.

We will do a few exercises to help begin to desensitize them to the crate with the crate door open, but we do not crate train. We do not have them sleeping in crates at night. If you would like to crate train at home, which we highly recommend for the safety and stability of your pup, here is a step-by step-crate training guide on our “Puppyhood and Training” resource page: https://belovedbernedoodles.com/puppyhood-and-training/

In October 2020, I reached out to the administrator for Puppy Culture’s Facebook page to make sure my expectations were realistic with the PC protocols we choose to implement at Beloved Bernedoodles, and she kindly responded. I’ve included her comments here, as I think it helps set up realistic expectations for PC puppies:

“The Puppy Culture DVD set and the workbook NEVER say that a breeder MUST have puppies crate trained, fully litter box trained and using potty bells by the time the puppies go to their new homes.

There are NO GUARANTEES a puppy raised with PC protocols will not have some problems and issues throughout life. Hopefully, the puppy will have a bit of a head start to being the most behaviorally and emotionally resilient his genetics will allow. But stuff happens. Stray dogs injure or overwhelm another dog. Accidents happen. Illness happens. 

***Personally, I would be very cautious about placing a puppy in a home with very rigid, accelerated expectations about a puppy, even if that puppy was raised with PC protocols as best the breeder was able.

If people are expecting to get a perfectly trained, perfectly formed puppy at 8 weeks of age, they are misleading themselves, or someone else has been misleading them.  And I would worry how that puppy would fare in the new home if the impending family is “stuck” on that interpretation of “what is a PC puppy.”

All you have to do is watch the Madcap University 4-part course about bringing home a puppy to realize an 8 week old puppy is changing daily, and from week to week. They are not miniature versions of a full-grown dog. They have lots of emotional, social, cognitive and physical developmental markers to hit between now and 2 years from now.

Your lovely puppies, raised with great care and attention are not SUVs, fully formed and ready to be parked in the garage until the family requires them. They are living, breathing individuals. This puppy will have been on the earth 8 weeks. Human children are not eating solid food at 8 weeks; they are not potty trained until 2-3 years (with some luck and effort!). Human children do not sit politely at meal time without throwing food until years after that. Bringing home a puppy WILL require effort, including trial and error. There will be moments of joy, frustration, confusion, and relief. But they will receive a puppy raised with knowledge and research about best practices, combined with careful attention and lots of effort.”

– Cindy M.

How to purchase the Puppy Culture program:

You can continue implementing Puppy Culture with your Beloved Bernedoodle by purchasing the DVD. Click on the image below:

Here is a great summary for puppy owners of the benefits of Puppy Culture: https://shoppuppyculture.com/pages/puppy-owners

This video explains the importance of Puppy Culture during the first 12 weeks of your puppy’s life: https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=13&v=ja6E4xa-6Hs