(PHOTO:17 week old Tapua Nirimba - Matilda owned by Ann Harris of Aussie Farm 4 Kids)

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 begun to be conditioned to learn.  From very young your pup is given the optimum in learning environments.

We use the American method of Early Neurological Stimulation of Puppies. 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 commercial product Royal Canin 4800 for our dogs and the Royal Canin Puppy variety. Royal Canin is readily available at quality pet supply companies. In addition our dogs are fed raw beef, kangaroo, chicken carcass, 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. Royal Canin supply a breed specific dry feed for Junior and Adult Labrador Retrievers.  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  fetch, find, 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 possitive 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 and or play. 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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 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 possitive 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 possitive note.

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