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Timeline: Birth  to  8 Weeks

There is a lot that goes into raising a litter of puppies!  Once the puppies are born, this timeline will guide you through what each of our puppies experiences week by week while here at Pleasant Meadows.  We want to give each one of our puppies the best possible start in life, and we recognize the need for early stimulation, daily handling of the puppies with lots of love, cuddles, and kisses, and proper socialization to help give each puppy a solid grounding in life.  We will be sending out updates at two, four, six, and eight weeks of age, and the rest of the information can be found in this timeline below -- we simply couldn't fit every important detail into an update, so we added it here!  Some puppies advance faster than others and each litter needs to be treated as individual, and so if there is a difference in the "normal timeline", it will be noted in our bi-weekly updates.

You can jump to a specific week of puppy development by using the menu on the RIGHT to zip down to exactly where you want to go!

Birth to 2 days of age

Birth to 2 days of age:

All puppies are born with closed eyes and ears (they cannot see or hear until later), so their only senses at birth are smell, taste, and touch. Our puppies experience the sensation of human touch right from the moment they are born as we assist the mother in birthing, clamping of the umbilical cord, recording the gender and markings of each puppy born (for later identification), and assisting each puppy to nurse from the mother right away.  The puppies locate their mother's nipples by their keen inborn sense of smell.

For the first couple of days we handle the puppies only when necessary, to weigh the puppies daily to ensure that each puppy is gaining weight and growing (indicator whether or not a puppy is getting sufficient milk from the mother), and if any other assistance is required.

We also observe the puppies closely to make sure that they are all nursing properly, and eliminating (peeing and pooping), moving around and sleeping normally, and that the puppies are neither too hot or too cold.

Day 3 to 16 days of age

Day  3  to  16  days:

Within this time frame we will begin neurological stimulation based on the research and program developed by Arskeusky, Kellogg, and Yearkes and the "Bio Sensor" program (later known as the "Super Dog Program") which is highly endorsed by Dr. Carmen Battaglia. This program promotes early neurological stimulation in order to give the dog a superior advantage. It's development utilizes six exercises which were designed to stimulate the neurological system.  This involves handling each puppy once per day, one at a time, while performing a series of five exercises. Listed in order of preference, the handler starts with one pup and stimulates it using each of the five exercises. The handler completes the series from beginning to end before starting with the next pup.

Benefits of Stimulation

Five benefits have been observed in canines that were exposed to the Bio Sensor
stimulation exercises. The benefits noted were:

 

1. Improved cardio vascular performance (heart rate)
2. Stronger heart beats,
3. Stronger adrenal glands,
4. More tolerance to stress, and
5. Greater resistance to disease.

 

In tests of learning, stimulated pups were found to be more active and were more exploratory than their non-stimulated littermates over which they were dominant in competitive situations.

 

Secondary effects were also noted regarding test performance. In simple problem solving tests using detours in a maze, the non-stimulated pups became extremely aroused, whined a great deal, and made many errors. Their stimulated littermates were less disturbed or upset by test conditions and when comparisons were made, the stimulated littermates were more calm in the test environment, made fewer errors and gave only an occasional distress sound when stressed. 

 

For information on this program in greater detail please CLICK HERE and watch the video below:

The "Bio Sensor" program in no way replaces the need for "normal" interaction with each puppy such as petting, cuddling, kisses, playing, etc. It is separate stimulation that has been proven to create better well rounded and confident dogs.

Somewhere during day 10 and 14, the puppies eyes and ears will open so that they can begin to see and hear the world around them.  Mental growth and physical development accelerate from this point onward due to the visual and auditory stimulation, as well as, muscle growth as the puppies increase their activity.

2 to 3 week of age

2  to  3  weeks of age:

The "Bio Sensor" program carries over 2 days into the 2nd week of age.

Two weeks of age marks a pivotal point in a puppy's life because of all the vital steps that need to be introduced this week. One of those steps is the very early stages of weaning the puppies from their mother, and this should always be done gradually and carefully!  The weaning process is done over the next 4 weeks of age so that it is introduced to the puppies in baby steps to avoid stress and in order that we can have our puppies weaned by 6 weeks of age, so that enough time remains for us to devote the final 2 weeks to establish each puppy on a feeding schedule that will allow the puppy a smoother transition into a new home.  We also want to ensure that each puppy is eating a sufficient amount of kibbles and drinking sufficient water.  Weaning the puppies by 6 weeks of age only means that the puppies are no longer nursing from the mother by 6 weeks, not that the mother is absent entirely. This careful weaning process will be explained throughout this timeline.  Please take a look at our Puppy Weaning Stages page for a complete and individualized breakdown of the process.

At 2 weeks of age we offer 1 to 2 meals of goats milk per day depending on how much milk the mother got in to begin with, and the puppies will still have full day/night access to their mom.

The puppies are dewormed at 2 weeks of age with Drontal ( StrongidT or Nemex may also be used -- all of those varieties are safe for 2 week old puppies).

When the puppies eyes and ears open, we begin to introduce them to auditory stimulation which includes:​

 

  • human voices

  • doors opening/closing

  • footsteps

  • sound machine (various sounds such as static noise, rain falling, thunderstorms and other nature sounds, etc.)