(PHOTO:Tapua Wiri and his best mate)

DISCLAIMER

The information stated in this section apply only to dogs owned or bred by TAPUA KENNELS.

We do not assume nor expect any individual, breeder or show person to agree with or accept our agendas regarding the care, training, breeding  or nutrition of Labrador Retrievers nor any other breed.

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Preparing Puppies For a Purposeful Life.

When you buy a puppy from Tapua Kennels your puppy has already begun conditioning to learn.  From birth your pup is given the optimum in learning environments. We use the American method of Early Neurological Stimulation of Puppies, which has been tried and tested with US Army sniffer dogs. This method of early neurological stimulation developed by Dr Battaglia in the USA gives your puppy every opportunity to adapt to changes and to be resiliant to the stressors of socialization, noise, people, vehicles, issolation with ease. The early stimulation also makes them more trainable as service, obedience or hunting dogs.

For this reason we prefer our puppies to go to homes that have a clear role for the pup or into service training.

We recommend any breeder or experienced trainer inform themselves of this method. We have learnt from experience that the pups are much more alert and open to learn from a young age. We are thrilled with the results.

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The Neurological Stimulous Program Details

Dr Carmen Battaglia PhD

These techniqies are to be applyied between day 3 and 16 of life ONLY

1 Tactile stimulation: between toes

Holding puppy in one hand, the handle gently stimulates (tickles) the pup between the toes on any one foot using a Q-tip. It is not necessary to see the pup is feeling the tickle.

2 Hold head erect:

Using both hands, the pup is held perpendicular to the ground, (straight up) so that its head is directly above its tail. This is an upwards position.

3 Head pointed down:

Holding the pup firmly with both hands the head is reversed and is pointing downwards so that it is pointing towards the ground.

4 Supine position:

Hold th pup so that its back is resting in the palm of both hands with its muzzle facing the ceiling. The pup whilst on iots back is allowed to sleep or struggle

5 Thermal position:

Using a damp towel that has been cooled in a refigerator for aleast 5 minutes. Place the pup on the towel, feet down. Do not restrain it from moving

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These five excercises will produce neurological stimulation, none of which natuarally occur during life. Experience shows that sometimes pups will resist these excercises, others will appear unconcerned. In either case a caution is offered to those who plan to use them.

Over stimulation of the neurological system can lead to detrimental results.

These excercises impact on the neurological system by kicking it into action earlier than normally expected. The result being an increased capacity that later will help to make a difference in performance.

Benefits of Stimulation

Five benefits have been observed in canines that were exposed to the Bio Sensor stimulation excercises.

• 1 Improved cardio-vascular performance ( heart rate)
• 2 Stronger heart beats
• 3 Stronger adrenal glands 
• 4 More tollerance to stress
• 5 Greater resiliance to disease

In the aspects of learning, stimulated pups were found to be more active and were more exploratory than their unstimulated litter-mates over which they were dominant in competative situatons.

Secondary effects were also noted regarding test performance. In simple problem solving tests the non stimulated pups became extreemely aroused, whined a great deal and made many errors. Their litter-mates were less disturbed or upset by test conditions and when comparisons were made the littermates were more calm in the test environment, made fewer errors and gave only occassional stress.

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    NUTRITION

All TAPUA puppies are raised on premium preservative free dry dog biscuits, we currently use the all Australian product premium dry food NUTRO for our dogs and puppies. Nutro is readily available at quality pet supply companies. In addition our dogs are fed raw beef, chicken neck and brisket bones and fish. The fresh minced meat have garlic, multivitamins, brewers yeast and apple-cider vinigar add.

No cooked or tinned foods are fed to our dogs. Some people prefer to feed their dogs totally naturally and eliminate dry biscuit from their diet all together, whilst we do feed raw as much as possible I have elected to retain some dry feed. NUTRO is am all natural preservative free dry or wet feed we highly recommend. We encourage our buyers to maintain optimum weight for the Labradors in particular to aid in the prevention of HD & Elbow Displaysia

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SOME PRINCIPALS WE FOLLOW WHEN CONDITIONING PUPS

All dogs respond particularly well to motivational training, there are a miriad of 'how to train by motivational methods' books around. I strongly recommend 'Don't Shoot The Dog' by Karen Pryor. If you are really into understanding how dogs tick read Bruce Fogel's Dog's Mind, they have both been around for years and are an excellent read. 

The principals we follow are based on over 20 years of experience. We do not gaurantee that any given pup will fulfill its intended purpose however certain behaviours can be reinforced and enhanced from a very young age and that make future targetted training more likely to succeed. Behaviours such as search, track & find, fetch, sit, stand, drop, stay, come. 

The cute and appealing human/dog relationship behaviours such as shake hands, touch with the nose, crawl, roll over, sit up reinforce a positive human/dog bond and form a small part of the play/reward reinforcement, along with food and tugga-war. Not surprisingly Labs are very food oriented however we transfer our reinforcers away from food as soon as possible to voice, play with a ball or tug-a-war. Most pups are like a sponge between 6 & 16 weeks of age. Conditioned competantly, they retain much of what they learn as they get older.  

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SOCIALISATION

The socialisation period (between 6 & 16 weeks)  in a puppies developement is considered most important and critical for the puppy. It is critical for establishment of social relationships  - this time bridges both the  time spent with the breeder and the new owner. If a breeder utilises this time well puppies adjust and engage in their social environment with people and other animal is a possitive way. If issolated from stimulation or presented with negative and fear inducing experiences can have long lasting effects.

TAPUA pups experience Early Neurological Stimulation between days 3 & 16 however the cuddles, hugs and environmental stimulation throughout thier time here. Pups experience the normal household noises and distactions of a busy life and all are introduced in a possitive way. From birth pups hear clocks dinging, TV's and phones going, lights going on and off at different times of the day and night, the radio, vacuum cleaner and the general noise and distraction of daily life. Because Pete and I are both shift workers the constant coming and going as well as the activity of our other dogs contribute to a stimulating and normal household life. Whelped inside we follow a pregressive process of getting the pups outside, by 5/6 weeks, if the weather is good, pups will be outside during the day is a puppy day yard and at night in an enclosure. The dam is not removed from the pup however as we introduce food pups tend to naturally see us as the primary sourse of food - concurrently the dam is drying her milk and the pups though still interacting with mum learn the necessary behavioural boundaries and and signals from their mum which needs to continue until they leave at 8 weeks.

From approximately 5/6 weeks till they leave our pups learn to interact with our adults during brief and  supervised walks around our 1acre property. After pups are vaccinate their contact with strangers are increase. At around 7 weeks we deliberately take our litter to our workplace where the residents, under supervission,  get to handle and cuddle the pups. This is saturation socialisation which the pups benefit greatly from and it is a pleasurable experience for everyone. 

By the time you get your 8 week old you pups has had as many broad and normalising expreiences which they are well expereinced in adapting to the stress of adjusting to. 

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PUPS & KIDS

 We do not have young children however we recommend if you are bringing a puppy home to family with young children the following may be usefull.

• Never ever leave a child under 6 years old alone with a puppy or dog - accidents do happen and young babies and toddlers tend to grip and clutch by nature, they also crawl over dogs. Unintentionally the dog or the child can get hurt if unsupervised.
• Never let a baby or a child touch, stare at or annoy a dog while he/she is eating
• When with a child and puppy get the child to sit on the ground and let the dog or puppy come to the child - discourage the child from gripping or clining the puppy around the neck.
• Teach your child and the pup the word 'gentle' .
• Show you child how to give long strokes from below the collar down the back from the side. Never pat the pup/dog on the headnot to pat the head when the dog or puppy is nearby.
• Never let a child carry the puppy, Lab pups gain weight quickly and a 7kg puppy one week will be 10kg next week and too heavey for the child. Plus Lab pups have very soft bones and falling or being fallen on can easily break a limb.
• Never let the dog lick the child's face - we use the term 'no kisses' and they generally learn very quickly not to lick.
• Discourage your child from looking a puppy or dog directly in the eyes - dogs percieve eye contact as a threat and can place a child at risk of being bitten.
• Most Labs will get up and walk away when annoyed by children - explain to you child that there are times when dogs need space and to be left alone. Especially when they have a bone or are eating their food.
• Puppies sleep alot - the term 'let sleeping dog lie' applies here and you may need to explain to your child that the 'baby dog is sleeping' and to leave him/her to sleep. Most kids seem to pick up the concept quickly.

   

 PREPARING MYSELF FOR TRAINING

• Firstly I need to know what I am expecting from this puppy, what is his/her purpose. Is this pup staying as a brood bitch or stud dog, is he/she going to be shown or obedience trained also? Is he/she going to a show or obedience home? Is this pup going to be a valued family pet, a gun dog for a hunter or a potential service dog for the dissabled, a guide dog for the blind or a sniffer dog for customs or police? 
• All these question need to be answered in my head before I begin training. With the pups purpose in mind I adapt my training method according to the dogs purpose.
• Prior to training I must be in a good mood when training - my dogs pick up my vibe and if I am over tired or cranky they know it and won't learn effectively new skills! I train, especially young pups under 12 weeks, in a confined area. We have a fenced off 18m *4m puppy yard which is ideal for getting a pup started with the basic commands - sit, drop, come, stay, stand.
• I avoid using a collar and lead during training session if possible - this prevents me from using the lead for correction and requires me to implement only positive reinforcement methods - ie voice,food, praise, clicker.
• Sessions are very short 3-10 min then play is also used as a reward. Pups have a short concentration span and it is easy to get distracted. Hense I never force a pup to learn.  If puppy is not ready to learn thats OK I will try later. 
• I am very specific about what I teach and teach one task at a time - however I may repeat the short training sessions 3-5 times a day - particarly if the dog must learn something in a short period of time. When I am confident the pup knows the command I will pair commands and 'up the anti' so that trining sessions are more of a challenge.
• Play, praise and fun are always part of the training process for me and session alway finish on a positive note.

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