How our Puppies are raised and prepared for your home
Choosing to breed
The focus of our bordoodle breeding program is temperament and health. We health test our breeding dogs and also know that our border collies are hardy and have longevity because we have been breeding and working them for many years. Crossbreeding the border collie and poodle naturally helps to negate any breed specific genetic diseases. The desirable traits that we are looking for in our breeding dogs are intelligence, trainability, and dedication. We want to produce a playful, social able, and athletic dog that is not hyper or too high energy for a non-working home. Our working dogs are selected for breeding based on their work drive, biddability, style, and stamina.
The poodle crosses very well on the border collie to mellow them and gives them a sort of off-switch.
Whelping
We plan breeding so that whelping will take place in the warm seasons. We have found that it is best to let the females do their thing in a comfortable, quiet, and undisturbed environment. Intervening too much or too early tends to cause more problems than it is helpful. We have a whelping kennel next to the house so that we can periodically check on the female as she is whelping. The whelping box in the outdoor kennel allows the mother to care for her puppies comfortably and stay close by while leaving the whelping box to go potty afterwards (They can need to often after ingesting the rich placentas). We make sure that each puppy is suckling well and has gotten colostrum. We try not to handle the puppies too much at this time as it tends to stress the mothers. It is a sweet time and the mothers are great at nurturing their babies.
Handling and stimulating
We check on the puppies several times throughout the day to make sure they are suckling, have full stomachs and that the mothers are nurturing the puppies and keeping them clean. We keep a closer eye on first-time mothers but we really have not had many problems in this area or with them whelping. On day 3 we will start handling the puppies more. They have a textured horse blanket in their house for getting around and the mothers are stimulating them as they care for them for the first week. About day 7 we start taking them out onto the grass and sitting with them during several of their feedings. Being out in the dirt and nature builds their immune systems and helps them get a good start. We are constantly transitioning them into new situations so that they become very adaptable and capable dogs. It is so much fun to watch their little eyes open around day 10 and watch them start getting around more.
Housing and care
We leave the puppies in the outside kennel until week 4. Their mother is taking good care of them and imparting her experience. We will handle them and take them out onto the lawn area often. At week 4 when we bring them in the house, it becomes our job to keep the puppies clean and nourished, instead of the mother's. We don't want them to get used to an unclean environment. We have them in an outdoor playpen during the day and move it to a fresh shaded area after they have messed in it. We bring the mother to them every 4 hours to nurse and we feed them mush 2 times a day. At night they are in a crate in our laundry room. By week 6 we have separated the mother from them and are only bringing them together for few feedings a day. We are starting to wean them.
Socializing
Socializing begins when they are born. From the beginning they are learning how be confident and stable in the world around them. It has been found that stress in the early stages of a puppy's life helps with neurological development and the outdoor environment with their mother provides just the right amount for their well-being and development. They are taking in the smells, hearing vehicles, horses, other dogs, the lawn mower. They go on car rides and are raised with kids, cats, free range chickens, and other livestock all around them. We are constantly transitioning them into new situations so that they will be ready to go to their new home with little stress.
Beginning Training
At around 7 weeks old we start having them learn a few simple commands like "sit", "come here" and "down". It really helps that when we have started housing the mother and puppies separately that we are calling to them to come nurse or eat. They usually come-a-runnin' when they hear us call for them to feed or bring them in or out of the house because they know we have something good for them. Our goal is to have them be attentive when we are working with them, calm, and start to "anticipate" by sitting before we ask or give a command. That means they are already desiring to be obedient and listen. We work on potty training by keeping them in the crate during nap/sleep times and then letting them out as soon as they wake up. They learn to keep their area clean and do not potty in their crate. During their playtime in the house, we let them out for potty breaks often and close off extra rooms so that we can catch them if they start to go potty. We also spend a little time getting them used to walking on a leash before we send them home.
Our home environment
We do our best to stick to a daily feeding, sleeping, playtime routine with the puppies. We are working with and caring for the puppies just like we do for the working or companion dogs that we personally have in our family. Sometimes life gets really busy, and we have other livestock or jobs that need to take priority, so the puppies do sometimes have changes in their routine and are able to adapt.
Health & Nutrition
Our mothers are fed Life's Abundance Lamb Meal and Rice recipe. They are supplemented with eggs while they are nursing and given a calcium supplement if needed. We start the puppies on mush during their 4th week of life, by week 5 they are on dry puppy food. We feed Life's Abundance Small & Medium Breed Puppy food to them. The puppies are fully weaned by week 7.
We take our puppies to the vet around 6 weeks old for a health exam, a DHPP vaccination, and worming. We have the puppies examined again at 8.5 - 9 weeks and they are given a booster shot to help prevent them from getting parvo. Our puppies go home at 9 weeks if we have found a fit home for them.