The Banffy Method of Puppy Development
We are passionate about black and red German shepherd puppies. Over the last 20 years we have had the pleasure of whelping hundreds of world-class West German German shepherd puppies and worked with scores of European import German Shepherd puppies. It has been a blessing to have these wonderful creatures in our homes. The timing of the growth of our journey fortuitously coincided with my experimentation with teaching methods as a college Professor, and trying different strategies home schooling our children. We built Montessori boxes and tools for the children, experimented with classical music and colors, and taught them chess and music early on in their lives. It just seems logical that a properly devised developmental program for dogs would also give these puppies a head start in life.
As one would expect, puppies are not normally individually addressed and litters can’t be given individualized attention in a larger kennel. I have studied the breed with joy, soaking up everything, getting training in schutzhund, receiving private lessons from a European expert. I learned a lot about this magnificent breed, and about puppy development, and whelping. Over this time we have made our mistakes, and learned from them. We have lovingly tended our litters, giving “mouth to muzzle” resuscitation, suturing ruptured umbilical chords, and had the joy of reviving many puppies. We have never had a C-section, and never lost a female.
Over the past 20 years we have come to a number of conclusions about dog behavior, training, and temperament development, specifically with puppy development. We at BanffyHaus take a holistic view of the puppy preparation process. We are interested in five facets of the puppy process.
- Health and cleanliness: ▪ Safety
- Stimulating intelligence and development
- Temperament development
- Confidence/Focus/Drive
- socialization and anthropos-foci (human centeredness)
Our puppies are treated with tender care. Their kennels are kept very clean and poop is disposed of quickly, minimizing copraphasia. This is essential to helping puppies to develop good habits prior to leaving for their new homes. We also crate train them prior to leaving for their new homes. Of course, puppies will always have to be potty trained in their new environment, but they will have been exposed to the crate and therefore more amenable to this as a potty training tool.
From the outset we play classical music for the puppies and for the mother. Although we have not completed any large scale research studies, anecdotal evidence suggests that this makes the mother and litter calmer, leading to better nursing and minimizes mother’s nervousness reducing problems such as stepping on puppies or otherwise injuring them.
They are all handled, and massaged from the ears to the tip of the tail. Puppies are placed on their backs and held gently until they calm down, they are raised in the air. Puppies which demonstrate excessive dominance or appear a bit aggressive are handled even more. The focus of the petting turns to the top of the head.
We give the puppies a head start by beginning basic drive training early. We use our “teaser” to get them excited about chasing the object and reward them for deeper bites when they “win” the object. We always end these sessions with puppies still enthusiastic and wanting more, so we can begin the process of “building” their prey drive. This makes them much easier to train, granted the new owner continues the drive development.
All puppies are highly socialized (with children and adults) and exposed to loud sounds. In fact we expose them on a weekly basis to various sound effect tapes to help them get used to different environments. We place wood blocks and pans near the kennels and hit them together often, especially before feeding (positive reward associated with the sound). We have found that this approach appears to have a very positive effect on litters, and all of our pups rush to the front of the box to be with people. And they love to be petted and touched, accelerating matriculation into the new home. And their nerves appear more rock solid and less fearful when exposed to environmental stimulation.
Our strategy is to get puppies to new owners, if possible, at 8-10 weeks. At that time they have started focusing away from litter interaction toward humans (anthropo-foci). Each puppy is rated and a temperament analysis completed prior to placing them with their new families. We send pictures at birth, 5 and 7 weeks. After a thorough analysis of both the individual puppies and the client, we make a recommendation at the 7 weeks mark.
We can truthfully say that we have never had a client who has returned a puppy we have chosen for them. We know that you will love our German Shepherd puppies, carefully bred for top joints from world class import European stock, tended with care for you to give them a head-start in their new lives. We hope you will honor us with owning one of our BanffyHaus German shepherd puppies. We take very seriously our job as German shepherd puppy breeders.