We use two amazing and proven programs to raise superior puppies: Puppy Culture and Avidog
Lot’s of people are familiar with the names of those programs, but don’t really know what they entail.
Find A Breeder
NOTE: Puppy Culture has become a very popular program among puppy buyers.
Because of this, breeders are realizing they can make more sales if they say they use Puppy Culture.
Some breeders think that throwing some toys in the pen and doing ENS is Puppy Culture. But it’s not.
Be sure any breeder who says they use Puppy Culture actually shows you the proof.
There’s no reason a breeder shouldn’t have a ton of videos showing how they raise their puppies.
The Puppy Culture motto is “The Proof Is in the Puppies.” Demand that proof from your breeder.
Puppy Culture
Puppy Culture has taken most of the best puppy husbandry practices from over the last 50 years and formalized them into a systematic program. What we like best about Puppy Culture is that it has connected each protocol to specific developmental markers. This makes is much easier and effective to not only do the right thing, but to do it at the right time for optimal results.
Just a few of the Puppy Culture protocols include:
- Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) to enhance the development of strong nervous systems
- Barrier Challenge to instill problem-solving ability and teach the puppies frustration tolerance
- Clicker training to teach the puppy how to learn, how to enjoy learning, and how to seek out learning
- Conditioned Emotional Responses to teach positive associations with important puppy skills, such as crate training, grooming, veterinary handling, enjoying the company of humans, and having manners
- Manding, which is a way of teaching puppies to offer polite behaviors and asking for attention, instead of jumping, barking, etc.
- Attention to People to teach a puppy to be confident enough to make eye contact with humans, and to use this as a communication method
- Puppy Parties to teach the puppies to engage confidently with humans and enjoy activities with humansResource Guarding Prevention to help prevent the unwanted behavior of puppies or dogs guarding food, toys, people, or other valued items.
- Puppy obedience, such as sitting, walking on a leash, and waiting at doors
- Habituation to and desensitization of loud noises and new experiences, such as a vacuum, lawn mower, and roller suitcase.
You can find us on the Puppy Culture Worldwide Breeder Map and Database, and we were an early adopter of the program and for some time only one of 2 MAS breeders listed in the UK.
Please see the sidebar to the left to understand what to look for in a Puppy Culture breeder.
AVIDOG
Avidog provides a large scope of education to breeders, from how to have and maintain health dogs, to best breeding practices, to training and raising puppies and properly matching puppies with families.
Program components are too many to list, but a few include:
- Preparing strong and health breeding dogs: Understanding genetics, epigenetic, prenatal nutrition, effects of parental stress, and more
- How puppies develop and how to teach skills to puppies
- How to reduce behavioral problems
- How to evaluate puppies and match them with families
We have completed Avidog’s Transformational Dog Breeding Program, Transformational Puppy Rearing, and regularly participate in the Avidog Breeder College discussions. MarvelMAS are Avidog Associate Breeders for life. It means we have committed to raising our puppies using scientifically-sound, ethical breeding and puppy rearing practices.
You’ll note that we are one of only 3 Miniature American Shepherd breeders worldwide with Avidog Associate Breeder Status.