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Puppies take an enormous amount of time!  Our puppies are always raised in the house.  We raise our litters as if each puppy was a future show champion and performance competitor.  Early socialization is essential for puppies of all breeds, but especially critical in Shelties, whose breed standard specifies that they may be reserved toward strangers.
 

Our whelping crates are set up in either a spare bedroom or in the family room, depending on the needs of the dam.  The dam can leave the crate into a surrounding exercise pen when she wishes.  If the pups will need artificial heat, I use a heat lamp with a dimmer switch to avoid overheating mother and pups.  For the first three weeks, each puppy is weighed on a daily basis.  I also trim the tiny claws weekly, because they start to scratch their mother while nursing.  From the third through the sixteenth day of life, each puppy is gently handled through the Bio-Sensor or Super Puppy positions.  Some studies have indicated that the very mild stress of this handling makes the puppies better able to handle stresses later in their life.

By age three weeks, all whelping crates are located in an exercise pen in the family room, where they can see and hear the coming and going of the people and other dogs in the family.  They can hear the stereo and the television.  When they start to routinely escape from their whelping crate, the crate is removed, and the pups are free to explore the whole pen.

Somewhere between three and four weeks, the puppies start to eat solid food.  Initially, I pulverize the dry puppy kibble in a blender and mix it with water to a cereal consistency.  After a couple a weeks, I stop running it through the blender.  Gradually, I cut back on the water until the puppies will readily eat dry food by age 7 or 8 weeks.  Since mine is a quiet house, I play one of several desensitizing sound tapes when I feed the puppies.  I have a tape of agility noises, that includes a slamming teeter totter, and two tapes of dog show noises.  Within a few days, the puppies associate the tape playing with an upcoming feeding.

After three weeks, the puppies are weighed weekly, and I measure each puppy's shoulder height weekly starting at six weeks.  I try to trim their little nails every couple of weeks, and by the time they are ready to leave, they have had at least one bath and have been brushed out several times.

By four weeks of age, the dam is spending much less time with the puppies, going in only to nurse, or to clean everyone up after a feeding.  By five weeks, I no longer leave her with them routinely during the day when I am gone, although she nurses them at least twice a day.  I allow my mother dogs to decide when to stop nursing the pups, which is usually between six and nine weeks.  At somewhere between five and six weeks, depending on the maturity of the litter, I divide the puppies into random pairs and bed them down in crates for the night.  If they are not fed right before bedtime, they will be clean overnight in just a few days.

As soon as the puppies are walking around they are introduced to other members of the household–the cat and puppy-friendly older dogs.  By five weeks, they are going outside to play, and are learning the sights and sound of the backyard.  They have a variety of outdoor toys–agility tunnels, jump bars laid on the ground, the big plastic pots that shrubs come in, and all the usual sticks and stones of the great outdoors.  In our present location, small aircraft fly overhead every afternoon, so the puppies grow up completely unconcerned by that kind of noise. 

Inside the house, they learn to negotiate the three steps between the family room and the dining room.  They learn about carpet, wood and vinyl floors–and about ice cubes!

The puppies are exposed to outside people from about three weeks of age on.  My nieces and nephews come over for "Puppy Patrol" and cheerfully teach the puppies the joys of chase games, tug-o-war and cuddling.  Friends, fellow Sheltie breeders and potential puppy buyers are all welcome to come and play with them.

We follow the recommendations of the Companion Animal Parasite Council and deworm the puppies (and their mother!) every two weeks from two to ten weeks of age.  An ova and parasite fecal exam is done at about seven weeks.  They are vaccinated with a Distemper-Adenovirus2-Parvovirus vaccine every three weeks starting at six weeks.  All puppies have their eyes examined by a veterinary ophthalmalogist between eight and nine weeks of age.