| Cherrywood Kennels |
| PUPPY ENRICHMENT |
| 18900 Chamberlain Rd. Grafton, OH 44044 | 440-926-2801 | cherrywoodleos@yahoo.com |
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Bringing Out the Best in Your Litter
written at the request of the Norwegian Leonberger Club
by Ann Rogers
Puppies are such fun to watch while they are with their littermates. Sometimes just sitting and observing
the litter will tell you a lot about how confident each puppy is, which ones are the adventurers, which ones
like to hang back a bit and think about things before making decisions, which ones are tougher and grab all
of the toys and which ones prefer sitting on your lap rather than wrestling with their brothers and sisters.
As with children, providing an environment for them that gives them new things to play with and new
experiences they will meet again as adults is the key to bringing out that innate self-confidence, and
understanding their world.
During the first two weeks of life, before their eyes open, they stay with the dam and are kept warm and
handled gently when they are weighed every day. Too much handling at this age can be very stressful and is
not good for them.
The fun part comes once their eyes open! Around 14 days we start adding a few bright colored toys to their
whelping box and we start playing the radio in their whelping room, softly at first and then turning on a
variety of stations some soft and relaxing and some loud energizing and some talk stations. We start
carrying them around the house every day, individually, so they can see and hear normal household sights
and sounds like the different lighting, mirrors, the vacuum cleaner, the TV and we start letting them nurse
in different areas of the house, also. They get introduced from the third week on to a number of new and
novel things to stimulate their minds and bodies.
I give them different textures to walk on – plastic carpet protectors, tile, grass, gravel, concrete, carpeting,
rubber matting, mulch etc. There are some good CDs with sounds such as children yelling and screaming,
dogs barking, car horns honking etc. Or make your own! Anything that they will experience once they leave
the breeders’ home is good. They need to learn sights and sounds will be “normal” for them.
I add different types of toys to their play room - large plastic balls they can push and a number of small ones
of different colors in a low container they can jump into, a little plastic slide for a small child which is really
fun as they try to climb it and learn to slide down, toys that are soft and fuzzy and squeak and harder toys
to chew on. I also make a tunnel from a round cardboard concrete form found at the hardware store,
assorted cardboard boxes, washed out plastic milk bottles with handles, and small puppy sized platforms to
climb on.
Puppy agility equipment such as small teeter- totters help them learn to balance, and wooden planks to
walk across raised few inches from the ground help them to learn where their bodies are. A set of small
steps lead to a platform for them to rest on. A puppy sized A frame is really fun for them and if they are
outdoors we also hang brightly colored cans from a tree branch so they make noise every time the puppies
walk through them. Good sources for toys are children’s toy stores and garage sales.
The litter spends time in various rooms in the house as well as out to the patio, over to the training room
where I teach our obedience classes (not when classes are there), to the laundry room to listen to the
washer and dryer, to the van to go for rides and, of course, they all go to the veterinarians also where they
experience lots of new sights, sounds and humans. They also have dinner in a number of those locations for
the pleasant associations.
I start introducing the litter to our friends and my students once they have had their first shots although
our close friends who are used to being around dogs meet them much earlier. We try to have older and
younger people visit and small children who are gentle and calm. We want only positive experiences at this
time so we choose our visitors wisely! Adding people who are in wheelchairs or walk with walkers or canes
would be a good idea if that option is open also.
It’s also important to be sure the pups have plenty of room to run and play or more than the normal fighting
will start to take place. Separate the puppies into different groups of 2 or 3 to play frequently after about 4
weeks of age, so that no one puppy becomes the bullied nor the bully. Otherwise one puppy will always be
picked on by the pack, which is not good for that puppy’s self-confidence.
I believe we, as breeders have the ability to prevent some of the problems that come up with our offspring
later in life. It’s obviously very important to educate our buyers as well. The more positive experiences we
can give a puppy in the first 8-10 weeks they are with us, the better that puppy will be prepared for life. It
is the best gift you can give them.
written at the request of the Norwegian Leonberger Club
by Ann Rogers
Puppies are such fun to watch while they are with their littermates. Sometimes just sitting and observing
the litter will tell you a lot about how confident each puppy is, which ones are the adventurers, which ones
like to hang back a bit and think about things before making decisions, which ones are tougher and grab all
of the toys and which ones prefer sitting on your lap rather than wrestling with their brothers and sisters.
As with children, providing an environment for them that gives them new things to play with and new
experiences they will meet again as adults is the key to bringing out that innate self-confidence, and
understanding their world.
During the first two weeks of life, before their eyes open, they stay with the dam and are kept warm and
handled gently when they are weighed every day. Too much handling at this age can be very stressful and is
not good for them.
The fun part comes once their eyes open! Around 14 days we start adding a few bright colored toys to their
whelping box and we start playing the radio in their whelping room, softly at first and then turning on a
variety of stations some soft and relaxing and some loud energizing and some talk stations. We start
carrying them around the house every day, individually, so they can see and hear normal household sights
and sounds like the different lighting, mirrors, the vacuum cleaner, the TV and we start letting them nurse
in different areas of the house, also. They get introduced from the third week on to a number of new and
novel things to stimulate their minds and bodies.
I give them different textures to walk on – plastic carpet protectors, tile, grass, gravel, concrete, carpeting,
rubber matting, mulch etc. There are some good CDs with sounds such as children yelling and screaming,
dogs barking, car horns honking etc. Or make your own! Anything that they will experience once they leave
the breeders’ home is good. They need to learn sights and sounds will be “normal” for them.
I add different types of toys to their play room - large plastic balls they can push and a number of small ones
of different colors in a low container they can jump into, a little plastic slide for a small child which is really
fun as they try to climb it and learn to slide down, toys that are soft and fuzzy and squeak and harder toys
to chew on. I also make a tunnel from a round cardboard concrete form found at the hardware store,
assorted cardboard boxes, washed out plastic milk bottles with handles, and small puppy sized platforms to
climb on.
Puppy agility equipment such as small teeter- totters help them learn to balance, and wooden planks to
walk across raised few inches from the ground help them to learn where their bodies are. A set of small
steps lead to a platform for them to rest on. A puppy sized A frame is really fun for them and if they are
outdoors we also hang brightly colored cans from a tree branch so they make noise every time the puppies
walk through them. Good sources for toys are children’s toy stores and garage sales.
The litter spends time in various rooms in the house as well as out to the patio, over to the training room
where I teach our obedience classes (not when classes are there), to the laundry room to listen to the
washer and dryer, to the van to go for rides and, of course, they all go to the veterinarians also where they
experience lots of new sights, sounds and humans. They also have dinner in a number of those locations for
the pleasant associations.
I start introducing the litter to our friends and my students once they have had their first shots although
our close friends who are used to being around dogs meet them much earlier. We try to have older and
younger people visit and small children who are gentle and calm. We want only positive experiences at this
time so we choose our visitors wisely! Adding people who are in wheelchairs or walk with walkers or canes
would be a good idea if that option is open also.
It’s also important to be sure the pups have plenty of room to run and play or more than the normal fighting
will start to take place. Separate the puppies into different groups of 2 or 3 to play frequently after about 4
weeks of age, so that no one puppy becomes the bullied nor the bully. Otherwise one puppy will always be
picked on by the pack, which is not good for that puppy’s self-confidence.
I believe we, as breeders have the ability to prevent some of the problems that come up with our offspring
later in life. It’s obviously very important to educate our buyers as well. The more positive experiences we
can give a puppy in the first 8-10 weeks they are with us, the better that puppy will be prepared for life. It
is the best gift you can give them.
