Parents

Happy Mother’s Day to all our mums!

Happy Mother’s Day week to all our Banksia Park Puppies mums

Yesterday we showcased all our future mums, and today we are showcasing our adult mums! Our mums live and play in our adult area with their own adult playground. We have 3 dedicated socialisation staff in this area and the mums here love to play in the playground. They are led into the playground by our socialisation staff to learn leading, and then have exercise in groups of 4-6 which they adore!

Here are some of our mums having a great play with two of our socialisation staff!

Happy Mother’s Day to our future mums

Our future Banksia Park Puppies mums!

 

Where did the mum of your puppy grow up? What interaction did she have with our socialisation and play staff? Where did she play? When she was 10 weeks old where was she? These are all questions which we go through on a customer tour of Banksia Park Puppies, so this special Mother’s Day post is for all of our future mums!

Why did we choose her as a future mum?

Our Banksia Park Puppies mums are chosen to breed here at Banksia Park because they have the healthiest and best temperament in their mums, and she is healthy herself. We look at her mum and dad and pick the healthiest parents for her, and then she is also checked incredibly closely by our Vet to make sure she is also healthy and strong.

Where was your puppy’s mum as a puppy?

After 8 weeks when her siblings have left to go to their new families, our young future mums spend their days in our ‘Early Socialisation Pen’ – we call it our ESP. There are three of these. They have dedicated socialisation staff to make sure they are growing and learning every day, and therefore will grow into confident, happy, healthy adult dogs. Our ESPs are set in the middle of the property where they see the most people, the most machinery, the most cars, and the most kids and visitors to ensure they are top of mind and always getting a play and a pat. Here are some photos of our current puppies in our ESP.

How did your puppy’s mum receive enrichment?

When our puppies are between 8-12 weeks they start to play in our surface training area where they spend lots and lots of time playing with us, our socialisation staff, and on/with different surfaces. This helps them become confident dogs with the ability to settle into different experiences and places. This is incredibly important for our puppies as they will be rehomed at 4-5 years old and need to be able to assimilate into new environments – often into city homes from a country environment! Here are some photos of our puppies playing with our socialisation staff in our surface training area.

Where did your puppy’s mum spend her youth?

After spending time in the ESP and in the dedicated surface training areas they move to an area which is dedicated for our youth. The dogs here are usually 6-12 months old and start moving into group play in our youth playgrounds and individual lead training. They still have dedicated socialisation staff and a dedicated playground. They also have individual playgrounds in their live-in yards to make sure they are always entertained and have things to jump over, run through, and play with. Here are some photos of our future mums in the youth live-in areas and youth playgrounds! You can see the puppies are very used to coming out for exercise and play; after a good play the puppies are very happy to run back into their live-in yards for a drink and a rest 🙂

Happy Mother’s day to all our future mums here at Banksia Park!

Happy Mother’s Day to Lolly

Lolly the Banksia Park Puppies schnauzer

Lolly is one of our gorgeous schnauzers and we have absolutely adored watching her grow. She was a lovely puppy with a lovely temperament who has grown into a gorgeous loving mum! Here are some photos celebrating our lovely Lolly; she has really stolen a little place in our heart!

Here is Lolly with her latest litter of schnoodles, then her having fun in our adult playground. Some of the photos also include socialisation time we had with her when she was little with her siblings. Together their names are Lolly, Loopy, Lulu, and Lila!

Lolly with her latest litter of schnoodles
Banksia Park Puppies Taylee

Happy Mother’s Day to Taylee

A goodbye and good luck to Taylee

Taylee

Taylee

Who knows Taylee? She is one of our much loved cavoodle mums here at Banksia Park Puppies. We are very sad but happy to say that our beloved Taylee will be going to her new home in the next couple of weeks. She has been very much loved by us. She is leaving us earlier than our other mums to go to her new home. A family came to us to rehome one of our dogs as a therapy type dog, and we just knew Taylee would be perfect for their family.

They have a boy who needs extra care and attention, and therefore they need a dog who will walk with them easily, be gentle, caring, and understanding with him, but also be a companion and a teacher. They need a very special dog, and so Taylee will be rehomed to this lovely family. As our fourth Mother’s Day tribute, and with a tear in our eye, we are going to miss you Taylee. Here is a little trip down memory lane of our time with the lovely Taylee.

 

Taylee post-grooming!
Taylee as a young puppy pre-grooming
Taylee is obviously happy about her new haircut, running with her friend Ayasha.
Jumping Taylee
Taylee and Bell our playing pups at Banksia Park Puppies
Hi Taylee! So happy to see us all the time!
Air time for Taylee
Taylee going up the ramp
Jazz

Happy Mothers Day to Jazz

Jazz with her puppies

Today is the second day of our Mother’s day week! Happy Mother’s day today to our mum Jazz. Look at our amazing mum! She is gorgeous and loves a pat. She loves a run in our agility park when she doesn’t have puppies as you can see in the photos in the gallery below. Her puppies are healthy and happy and she is checking them all to make sure they’re all clean and growing. Did you know at this stage the puppies cant hear, see or go to the toilet on their own? Mum is doing alot at this age and Jazz is doing an amazing job that’s for sure!

Jazz
Jazz
Jazz
Jazz
Jazz
Jazz
Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!

Mother’s Day Week!

Happy Mother’s Day to Larna!

It’s Mother’s day next Sunday (cue everyone putting alarms in their phones to buy presents this week!). We would like to spend this week celebrating all our amazing mums here at Banksia Park Puppies and telling you stories about them so that you can get to know them better.

Our first mum we want to tell you all about is our lovely Larna. She is a wonderful mum and can you believe she had 11 puppies! She has been wonderful and raised them all on her own. She had enough milk to feed 11 puppies! Her puppies are gorgeous, and well brought up by her, and we have made up some photos and a little video too to showcase our lovely mum and her lovely 11 cavador puppies.

Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!
Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!
Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!
Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!
So much milk! Look at the nose!
Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!
Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!
Larna feeding her 11 cavador puppies!
Loves a cuddle 🙂
Loves a cuddle 🙂
Playtime!
Playtime!
Playtime!
Playtime!
Playtime!
Playtime!
Playtime!

Baby toys at Banksia Park Puppies

Is your puppy just like a baby?

Did you know that your puppy goes through ‘wonder weeks’ or learning cycles just like a baby does (read more on this here).

One such stage is the Human Socialisation Period. This is when a puppy is 7-12 weeks old, and is a really important time in it’s life. We take this time in a puppy’s life very seriously. This stage of a puppy’s life sets the puppy up for its future, it is the time where puppy forms bonds with humans and develops the capability to like and love humans. It also is the time where a puppy is very sensitive, so if it is not shown how to deal with experiences in this stage of life, then it may not develop this in the future which will restrict it’s ability to lead a long and happy life with a family.

Our mums are rehomed generally at around 4-5 years old. At time of writing this post, we have close to 80 people on our waiting list for our rehoming dogs. This means that we have plenty of homes who are looking for one of our gorgeous mums or dads to add to their family.

Why is our rehoming program relevant to a post about our 7-12 week old puppies? If our mums and dads are not socialised and confident dogs, they will not be able to enter new homes and will have a hard time adjusting to their new environments. What we aim to do in this time of their lives as a puppy is to build confident, happy, balanced puppies who grow into dogs who can bond with other animals easily but also who can bond with humans and understand the human-dog relationship.

Puppies need to experience as many things as they can in this young, short time to understand how to react to shock (from seeing themselves in a mirror – ‘who is that dog!’), nerves (‘these steps feel strange under my feet’) and anxiety (‘why does this toy make a noise when I use it?!’), and then be shown with our guidance, that these experiences are ok. This results in confident Banksia Park Dogs who are proud, capable, and able to transition into new homes later in life.

Some of the things we introduce our puppies to at this stage of life include:

  • Mirrors
  • See through plastic
  • Different floor coverings (tarp, carpet, grass, rugs etc)
  • Toys that make sounds when you touch or move them (baby toys work fantastic!)
  • Stairs and different ground levels
  • Plastic cups hanging to allow jumping and toys which crinkle
  • Different types of balls – i.e. ball pits, see through ones and ones which light up or make noises
  • Tunnels
  • Sit and Lead training

 

Our Banksia Park Dogs can then transition into new homes which are usually in suburban Melbourne. They will be able to adjust to new things they have never encounted before such as Trams, Trains, Mobile Phones, Door Bells, Emergency Sirens (Ambulance, Fire Engine etc). These things are normal to a puppy who has lived in these situations for it’s entire life, but our puppies live in the Country, and just like little country kids who need to be shown how to drive in the city, our puppies need to learn how to adjust to things they may encounter in the future.

Have a look at some of our gorgeous puppies below having a play in our surface training area.

We are also happy to receive any baby/toddler/kids toys which are at the end of their journey and are being thrown away. We would love to reuse them for our puppies so Contact Us if you have any pre-loved toys that you would like to give a new home!

This looks interesting…
Who is this puppy staring back at me?!
Tunnels are for jumping onto apparently
Jumping off stairs and varying levels of ground
These stairs help the puppies gain confidence in their surroundings
These stairs help the puppies gain confidence in their surroundings
These stairs help the puppies gain confidence in their surroundings
Going into and out of tunnels and spaces is important for their development
Going into and out of tunnels and spaces is important for their development
Peekaboo!
Hide and seek
Biting different textures and learning how to use paws and teeth and discovery
Biting different textures and learning how to use paws and teeth and discovery
Biting different textures and learning how to use paws and teeth and discovery
Baby toys are so useful as it helps to teach the puppies cause and effect
Baby toys are so useful as it helps to teach the puppies cause and effect
Baby toys are so useful as it helps to teach the puppies cause and effect
Music from touch
Differing textures such as tarps, stairs, carpet and rugs help the puppies be confident in all areas of grounding
toys that move and play noises are surprising at first but they learn quickly
Trying to pull things off the tunnel is fun!
Trying to pull things off the tunnel is fun!
Trying to pull things off the tunnel is fun!
Trying to pull things off the tunnel is fun!
Trying so hard to get these off the tunnel!
Tugging, biting and chewing
Tugging, biting and chewing

Slip and Slide fun

Banksia Park Puppies Summer Fun

It was very warm here yesterday at Banksia Park, but we had lots of fun. We had some of our young cavie puppies down playing with us on the slip and slide, and some in particular loved it! We shared one photo on Facebook but we had to share more as it was such a fun time with them.

Who think’s it’s hot at 19 degrees?

Our Banksia Park Puppies mums and dads love a swim!

Here are some great photos of the fun our Banksia Park Puppies parents had in one of our Agility Parks the other day. It’s been so cold here lately that they loved the sun and some even took the opportunity for a quick swim. Featured here are Sami, Oops, Shorty, Luna, Willbee, Ponky, Odette, Jellybean, Jazz, Wally and Swoosh!

Banksia Park Puppies Agility

Our new Agility Park

Playtime at Banksia Park Puppies

We decided that one playground for our puppies wasn’t enough… so we built another!

And our dogs and puppies don’t really enjoy it… not even a little bit… 😉

You may spot a few little humans playing on the equipment too – turns out our kids love it as much (if not more!) than our dogs do!

Banksia Park Puppies Agility
(Yes, our kids love it as much as the dogs!)
(Yes, our kids love it as much as the dogs!)
Guess who the scaredy dog is!
(Yes, our kids love it as much as the dogs!)
(Yes, our kids love it as much as the dogs!)
(Yes, our kids love it as much as the dogs!)