All of my training practices are guided by Janece Rollet, a certified canine behaviorist with many years of experience and an incredibly strong educational background. She is currently here in Alaska for a visit.

Well, the day after she arrived "Lucky" (Kyle Belleque's bitch originally whelped by Wil Forsberg) gave birth to a litter of 6.

We've started training the puppies literally hours after they were born. This is a sequence of exercises that are done to help puppies establish neural connections that seem to result in dogs with superior problem-solving abilities and that are much better at coping with stress than dogs that haven't been through this process.

There are five exercises, done in one single session per day during the first 13 days of life. They should be done in the order shown:

1) The pup should be picked up in one hand and be tickled between the toes of one foot for 3-5 seconds (you can use different toes on different days)

2) Use both hands to hold the pup, again for just 3-5 seconds, so that her head is directly above her tail. Like sitting in mid-air.

3) Then carefully cup the puppy in both hands, reverse direction so that her head is pointing straight down. Hold for 3-5 seconds. BTW, dropping the puppy is not good for optimum brain development, do do this carefully :')

4) Hold the pup in both hands, parallel to the floor, belly up for 3-5 seconds

5) Last, but not least, put the pup on a cold, damp towel for 3-5 seconds, then return to the litter

These are done in a fluid motion, not jostling the puppy, these should only be done once a day, no more. and each one should only be done for the 3-5 seconds. More than once a day, or longer for each exercise could be potentially harmful. The reason you only do them once a day, and exactly as described is that too much stress, too early can backfire on you.
Of course, the normal, touching, cuddling etc that you would do with a litter is something every puppy needs, and you should continue to do those things. These specific exercises are something the puppy would never get and probably acts to kick-start some aspects of neurological development.

To see a 3 minute video of the process, click on [url]http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj224/Swanny1790/?action=view¤t=NeonatalPuppyTraining.flv[/url]