My 3 year ols blue merle female rough coated collie is having puppies in about two weeks. I am working with a friend of mine who has the father of the pups (a 4 year old champion red and white) and has experience with breeding however I am looking for other answers as well as his (not that I doubt him, it would be helpful if I had other opinions). Harmony had x-rays done yesterday and it looks like she will be having seven puppies. Possibly more because the x-rays sometimes forget or miss some. But my question is, although we have homes for six of the puppies I will not be sending them to their new homes until they are 12 weeks. What can I do to start them on the path to good social skills? My friend has told me to start introducing them to new people and dogs when they are around six or seven weeks but I think that is too young and dangerous as they will not have had their shots yet. So what it the general age I can start socializing them? And what types of places should I bring them to get them used to other people and dogs. Four of the new owners have other dogs and two of them are first time dog owners so I would like to get the puppies used to other dogs aside from mine. Any help would be nice. Thank you!
I want to breed my other female Annie next so this experience should be very helpful to me. She is only 1.5 years old so I will be waiting nother year or so to breed her.
Collielover09
06-06-2007, 09:49 AM
I am hoping someone can answr this soon. I would like to start figuring out what to do soon. I will be breeding Annie in another six months because I found her an acceptable stud so some advice would be appreciated.
pfoster
06-09-2007, 11:31 AM
I have been breeding for 8 years and the best socialization is handling the puppies every day.
roll them to their backs, tip them upside down, rub between their toes, gentley pull on their tails, put your fingers in their mouths, etc. this is imprinting on them and teaches them not be fear being touched in that way. also if you vaccinate correctly you will not have to worry about exposing them to other dogs/puppies at 6-8 weeks of age. I vaccinate all my puppies with intra-nasal bordetella vaccine and their first parvo injection at 4 weeks, them they recieve their second parvo in the puppy combination shot at 6 weeks so they are fully protected.
If you have small children or other family members/friends sociailize the puppies have them sit on the floor and allow the puppies to come to them, not the other way around. This will build the puppies confidence. as the pups get older instruct their owners not to give them attention when they jump up on them, this is the first step to teaching manners.
My 3 year ols blue merle female rough coated collie is having puppies in about two weeks. I am working with a friend of mine who has the father of the pups (a 4 year old champion red and white) and has experience with breeding however I am looking for other answers as well as his (not that I doubt him, it would be helpful if I had other opinions). Harmony had x-rays done yesterday and it looks like she will be having seven puppies. Possibly more because the x-rays sometimes forget or miss some. But my question is, although we have homes for six of the puppies I will not be sending them to their new homes until they are 12 weeks. What can I do to start them on the path to good social skills? My friend has told me to start introducing them to new people and dogs when they are around six or seven weeks but I think that is too young and dangerous as they will not have had their shots yet. So what it the general age I can start socializing them? And what types of places should I bring them to get them used to other people and dogs. Four of the new owners have other dogs and two of them are first time dog owners so I would like to get the puppies used to other dogs aside from mine. Any help would be nice. Thank you!
I want to breed my other female Annie next so this experience should be very helpful to me. She is only 1.5 years old so I will be waiting nother year or so to breed her.