Domino Schnoodles | Bonding
  • home
  • phone
  • mail
logo
Scroll down OR Click on the lines IN THE BOX
BONDING:
We raise our puppies to be able to make a smooth transition from our home into your home.  It is important that you follow our guide in order to help ensure the puppy has a safe and smooth transition. Our PUPPY GUIDE helps you with age appropriate behavior timelines for every growing stage of your puppy. It is CRITICAL that you understand why we suggest the things we do and that you implement them from the moment you take the puppy home. You will find these “simple” rules relieve you of any concern that you may not be doing everything right! These are covered in detail, but for quick understanding we will list a few things that are imperative to puppy health and adjustment. #1: Puppies MUST have 16 hours of sleep each day at age 8 weeks. #2 Puppies EAT throughout a 24 hour period. We call this “grazing” or “free-feeding”. #3 Puppies MUST stay warm as they won’t eat if they are cold. So there you have the simple life circle of a puppy—–sleep, food, warmth. Easy eh? #4 The new puppy will be held in “quarantine” until it has had the last shot at 16 weeks.
Would you guess these puppies had never been around kids?
WE SELL MOST PUPPIES TO BUSY FAMILIES where family members may walk out the door to work or school at 8 am and not return until 4-5 pm. PUPPIES ARE FINE WITH THIS because we have set them up to be. During their time with us they are NOT over handled and thus have NO EXPECTATIONS from the new humans in their lives. You can breathe a “sigh” of relief now! From the puppy’s birth until the time it arrives at your house our program is preparing the puppy for RELOCATION. Look at it this way; if the puppy is left alone during the day, what is it doing? WELL, lots of things! Taking much needed naps, playing with litter mates, playing with toys, chewing on bones, and learning HOW TO GET ALONG. It is every puppy’s job to learn “self-soothing”. What is the end result? When one of our puppies goes to your home it transitions quickly and does not need to be in a lap or entertained. Puppy becomes independent, confident and ready for life! No whimpering or whining the minute it’s left alone and no needy behavior to make you feel guilty for doing something wrong.
With a “blank slate” it is much easier to settle the puppy into the lifestyle of your home. Read all the information available on this site and apply it to your new puppy and you will have a perfect transition. We want the puppy to understand early on that the new home is just like the one they left; long hours for naps, self-entertainment and then family time. DON’T bring “human” feelings into this picture. Puppy will NOT miss you, will NOT cry all day and will NOT have abandonment issues! As Ashlee says, “Puppies don’t measure your absence by a clock. They measure it in naps”! And according to RULE #2 this is a good thing!
I raise these puppies to ENHANCE YOUR LIFE not TURN IT UPSIDE DOWN!
BUT—- HOW DO I BOND WITH MY NEW PUPPY?

Almost every buyer believes that bonding should occur immediately. Buyers are actually fearful that if they don’t have immediate and continuous time with the puppy they will never have a dog that truly loves them. Common is the statement, “I am taking vacation to spend every minute and every day with my new puppy”!

In response, we ask, “Does this really make sense to you”? Have you not experienced and recognized that ALL your family and friends are loved by your dog and have watched as your dog eagerly meets them and plays with them? They didn’t spend “every minute” with this puppy from the moment it arrived! YET the puppy has plenty of love to spread around.

NOW, let’s look at “bonding” from a puppy’s point of view. Newly arrived, the puppy is scared and is spending every waking moment just trying to get used to the new smells and sounds of your house. So why not leave puppy alone – completely alone –to do just that?

Hopefully, you understand this concept from the “human” point of view and the “puppy” point of view! Our PUPPY GUIDE gives you step by step help to insure a solid foundation with your puppy. This foundation is your “beginning” for bonding, socialization, integration to another pet and training. It is easy to follow our instructions, day to day family inter action with pup that insures everyone is enjoying puppy in a productive way. This is “short term” while the “response” is lifetime!
Your GOAL is to make puppy eager to be with you NOT simply to tolerate being with you because you are one more strange thing in a new environment.
Black/white Parti
Liver/tan Phantom
I just thought I’d write a quick note to tell you how much we all adore Muzzy, and to include a photo. From the minute he arrived at the San Francisco airport in his crate, he fell in love with our family, and we with him. Ashlee was great to work with in terms of getting us all the information we needed ahead of time, including explicit instructions on how to deal with a new puppy (which was especially helpful for me, as I’ve never had a dog before), and making Muzzys’ travel arrangements smooth and easy. Muzzy is a sweet, loving, good-natured, and smart dog. He is very easily trained, learns quickly, and clearly wants to please. He loves all other dogs and people. He jumps right in to play with the biggest pups in the park with happiness and confidence. At the same time, he is never aggressive and he almost never barks. We have responded to any barking with a firm “Quiet!” and have done so consistently; he got the idea right away. Overall, he is a delightful puppy. Affectionate, sweet, loving, confident with other dogs… he is very attached to everyone in the family and the feeling is mutual. We are so glad we got Muzzy from Ashlee at Domino Schnoodles! They clearly breed wonderful dogs and are so responsive and easy to work with. Muzzy is a joy and a hugely valuable addition to our family.
I recently sent a dog to a retired lady. She lived alone as her last child had just gone off to college. She wanted an older puppy to fill the gap. Day 1 & 2 the puppy was left alone and was quiet, happy in the pre-planned confined are and went into the crate at night to sleep and all seemed well. Encouraged by the dog’s adjustment, she felt things were moving along better than I had suggested so she allowed the dog free roam of the house. The lady likely thought that keeping the dog in a small area (giving the puppy security) as instructed to do was unkind and unnecessary. But now, finding itself in a strange (larger) environment and stressed, the dog never leaves the ladies side. When night came the dog howled when put in the crate. In a matter of a few days, this outgoing, independent and confident dog turned into a needy whiny dog! Her solution: immediately enroll the puppy in socialization classes! Within a week, the puppy travelled from here on a plane to its new home and before the week was out she was starting classes! The new owner never gave the puppy the opportunity to settle in!
SOCIALIZING YOUR NEW PUPPY
This is one of the most “misunderstood” words when it comes to puppy training.
I see many breeder ads where the selling point is that the puppy is “well socialized”. The breeder goes on to explain that the puppies are handled constantly since birth. Grandkids, friends, virtually anyone is encouraged to handle the puppies! Their reason is so the puppy will happily go to any stranger that may come to purchase a puppy from them. Perhaps this works for that “first meeting” BUT what have they really done to the puppy? Stress is obvious; this “constant” handling interrupts valuable and necessary rest/sleep times. The fact is, puppies grow when they sleep; rest is important to ongoing development. Look at it this way, if your newborn baby had just gone to sleep when relatives arrived would you suggest waking the baby so all the relatives could hold it? NO, you would be busy “shushing” everyone so they DO NOT wake the baby. If it is intuitive to you how important sleep is to a baby why would you do anything different with a baby dog?
Over handling does teach the puppy something. Puppy learns that all the confidence it needs is right there within a “yelp or whine” away! Total dependence on the human leads to an insecure, needy puppy. When the human connected to the puppy is unavailable, the puppy is unable to deal with the little things life will offer. Puppy will develop fear of being alone, timid behavior when the human is not there, and these things lead to nervous peeing when the familiar humans are gone. SURE the puppy loves you, but the puppy does not love itself!
Finally begins their relocation to another home, other people, and NOTHING familiar. The information in our PUPPY GUIDE is all you need to settle in ONE of OUR puppies and make the first and MOST IMPORTANT week go smoothly. I have set this up so the puppy will come out the winner and the family will be happy. Most report that the transition was smoother than they had expected—-and, of course, I am not surprised. I have spent the entire life of this puppy doing everything for this moment.
Let’s look at the word SOCIALIZE in another context
Socializing must be initiated within the litter. It is here that the puppy will learn the first facts of life. Many fights will teach the puppy to stand up or be bullied. I have yet to see any size puppy that doesn’t figure this out and before long they are NOT the puppy screaming on the bottom of the pile! Once that is well established it is time to put puppy with unfamiliar puppies. This happens a week after weaning has started. Weaning is stressful to puppies so it is important to keep their surroundings as familiar as possible. However, a week makes a big difference and they will quickly show independent behavior as their confidence grows. This is when I will move puppies around. I also can use this opportunity to balance their sizes, so less mature and, smaller puppies are together with the larger ones located in another area. After several weeks I can see strong independent minds in the puppies, NO matter what their size.
Soon they will be available to go live in another location. It is time for the last SOCIALIZATION routine to begin. Puppies are now relocated to completely different surroundings. This is a real shock for them. I see them pacing around, whimpering, trying to make sense of the new location. I DO NOT interfere. Everything I have done so far has equipped them to handle this. Sometimes the whimpering will go on all day, some puppies do it longer than others BUT eventually everyone curls up and takes a nap. I have often stood and laughed at the longest holdout—whimpering the whole time. It appears that the puppy is trying to talk itself through this adjustment! I just leave them alone. This is something the puppy MUST do by itself.
CONFIDENCE: it doesn’t happen in a day or even a week. Confidence happens over a long period of time, but once instilled nothing the puppy encounters will phase it.
Hi, Ashlee! I can’t believe our Brodie is 1 year old! We celebrated in style! I thought you’d want to know the pertinent facts, for your records. Although you said he was born at twice the normal size, he has matured to 14″ at the front shoulder and between 15 and 16 lbs. He is absolutely PERFECT! He is very proportional and looks, to us at least, as if he could not be more well formed. His white spot in the front looks stark white when he’s freshly groomed, and he has some white hairs throughout his coat, which just makes him look suave. When we let his coat grow out a bit, he’s still that yummy dark chocolate brown and is ALWAYS incredibly soft, except for his facial hair which is pretty wiry. I have to tell you he could not be more perfect for us. We, of course, could be more perfect for him, but he’s putting up with our fumbling efforts to be a good dog family. He is spoiled rotten, very protective, intensely loyal, and incredibly well-behaved. He loves going to the dog groomer and is one of their favorites! Thank you for your tips to prep him for that experience! In the past year we’ve had two occasions when our house was full of people… one when there was a death in the family when Brodie was just six months old, and one following my daughter’s wedding just a few weeks ago. Our little Brodie was the star of the show both days. He was very social, but not obnoxious. He made his way around the room, greeting everyone by sitting at their feet and giving them a little nudge… NOT begging food, and pretty much making everyone jealous that we have such a great dog! I’ve heard more than one of my friends’ husbands say, “If we could have a dog like Brodie, then yes, we can get a dog!” Other than welcoming Brodie to the family, we’ve had another huge event this year. My son has and his 2 year old son moved in November 6th. We have been extremely careful introducing Brodie and Ethan to one another, and those efforts paid off in spades. They are now the best of friends and play gently and tenderly with each other. (Yes, we still watch very carefully… they’re both young! Brodie is amazing… playing hard with us, then instantly turning gentle with Ethan… it’s just the coolest!)
While he has not, in my hearing, spoken the English language, he makes it perfectly plain that he understands it. And he uses his ears, tail, eyebrows, various rumbles and grunts, the slant of his great cold nose or a succession of heart rendering sighs to get his meaning across. Jean little
At this point you may be wondering if the puppy ever had any handling or love from me. Well, you should be able to judge of that. Does the puppy wiggle and squirm with excitement when you come near? Does the puppy eagerly settle onto you and demand petting in exchange for kisses? Of course they do, NOT because I over handled them but because I didn’t! My pups can get love from you and give
Do not expect my relocation protocol to work with puppies from another breeder. Many breeders over-handle the puppies from birth, allow excessive handling by strangers and never leave the puppy alone. They consider this a method of “socializing” to insure the puppy will run to any human (buyer) who comes over. We feel this makes them too reliant on human comfort which leads to a “needy” personality, and can be more complicated when the puppy is left alone and subsequently suffers from “abandonment” issues.
Hi Ashlee, I came with my three kids and we purchased a puppy. I thought you might like to see your baby now. She’s the center of attention and the life of the party. Sincerely, Rachelle Loera
Checking in on ONE of 9 Domino puppies in Alaska! Hello Ashlee, Also wanted to express how deeply we love our puppy who we’ve named Hobbes. He fits right into the family and brings us such joy everyday with his peaceful and eager to please temperament. We can’t imagine any other dog fitting into our home as well as he does and say every day we can’t believe what a good dog he is! We feel so fortunate to have found your site and have already talked up Domino Schnoodles to friends and family. Thank you again, Strong family P.S. I think Hobbes is missing the California sun as we’ve had to order him an insulated rain jacket to be out in the Sitka rain!
This mom called wanting a puppy for her 4 year old son. Calvin had been frightened by friends’ large excited dogs. I decided an older pup would be best. This puppy was calm & quiet and would be happy with any attention even if the child went about it all the wrong way!