This page is dedicated to our nursery and showing you where and how our puppies are raised.
Two beautiful little newborns!
The puppies are all born in our home in my office, we keep the puppies and Mom there for about a week to make sure everything is going well and so we can monitor them very closely. At around the week or a little bit better we then move Mom and babies to our nursery. There they get all settled into their own little area, the puppies are in the bottom half of a crate and Mom is free to walk in and out as she wants, her food and water are right there of course. Between weeks 2 and 3 the puppies are up moving about and they learn from Mom not to potty where they sleep, so we provide them with their very first litter tray and even at that young age they will toddle into the litter tray to go pee. Things are off to a great start! Toys that make rattles, or shaking noises are provided at this stage as the puppies become very curious about their surroundings. They are still in the bottom half of the crate. At four weeks we introduce the puppies to a softened, moistened puppy food and trade their litter tray for a larger one with higher sides so they can't escape! :) Once the puppies are using the litter tray consistently we then begin to move the litter tray away from the crate so they have some floor space to walk on and play, we then watch to see if they are walking to the litter tray to do their business, if not, then they need more time with the tray attached to the crate still. If they are walking to the litter tray then we allow them the free space. At week five we put the top on their crate so they get used to going into the crate with the lid on. Their Mom often goes in there and they will all curl up together, the puppies learn that the crate is their little den, their home, not a scary place at all!
Now the puppies are really mobile and playful, they are wrestling, chasing each other around, and our nursery setup is such that the nursery area where they puppies are is raised up off the floor and has dividers that can lift in and out to expand or shrink the puppies space. So by six weeks of age their area has been expanded quite a bit and they have a variety of toys, climbers, and a large area to run and play. At six weeks of age the door is now on their crate and they are having "nap times" in their crate to accustom them to being in the crate with the door shut. Their last week with us they will also learn how to use a puppy door to go in and outside. They love their outside puppy pen!
