Socialisation

Gumnuts School Holiday Program

“The best day ever!”

What a wonderful day again with the Gumnuts school holiday program. It is so fantastic having the children out and they absolutely love it with the last comments being ‘this is the best day ever!’.

This is the second time the school holiday program has attended and it is an amazing experience for both the children and the dogs and puppies. The children have a fantastic day looking at all our facilities and learning about the development of the dogs and puppies and why socialisation is really important. They spend time in the Early Socialisation Pen, the surface training area, the youth agility park, and also through our nurseries. They see the live in yards as well as the playgrounds. The puppies absolutely love the day and it is great for their development to see so many children over a 2 hour period. They are picked up and held and a few we saw even having massages! The dogs thrived in the attention and it is great to give them different experiences like this as it broadens their brains from a young age making them more confident dogs for their entire lives.

The Gumnuts kids we must say always behave INCREDIBLY well and are a credit to their carers and parents for how they listen to instructions, information, and are keen to learn. They always treat the dogs and puppies with respect and care, and it’s a great thing to see in children.

Our dogs and puppies were presented with a big box of 301 doggie biscuits cooked specially by some of the older girls including things like peanut butter and bacon which we all know are loved by the dogs. The dogs all gobbled up the biccies within a couple of days and we loved the presentation by the older girls.

Here are some lovely photos of the day!

Cuddles and kisses
Surface training area fun
Learning about the puppies and why early socialisation is important
Puppies getting tired after a fun day playing
Beth having a cuddle
Girls in the surface training area
cuddles
cuddles in the playground
kids having a cuddle

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

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 June Cavoodles

5 reasons to love Banksia Park Puppies Cavoodles

Black and Gold Banksia Park Puppies Cavoodle Fun

These 5 little cavoodles will give you a reason to smile this Friday! See these gorgeous black and gold cavoodles from June’s litter in our live video, and hear all about our property and socialisation activities.

We recent went live with these gorgeous puppies on Facebook, watch the gorgeous puppies and hear all about our property and socialisation activities. See under the video for some happy snaps with the puppies (and when they’re tired after playtime!

Banksia Park Puppies Ashleigh house

Banksia Park Puppies bringing happiness

Bringing happiness to our local community

We recently went to Ashleigh House – an Elderly Citizens Village in our local town. We’ve been visiting this house for about 5 or 6 years now. We bring in some of our puppies who are 6-7 weeks old. They are the perfect age to sit on the elderly citizens’ laps and just have a cuddle for an hour or so.

We sit and talk to the elderly citizens and they always look forward to our visits with the puppies.

Dogs and puppies are so good for the sick and elderly, and we can see that when a lady who cannot use her hands for arthiritis pats a puppy, or a man who rarely smiles anymore has a puppy licking his chin and gives a little grin. These things mean so much to these people and their carers, and we are so proud to be connected with this Village and to be able to bring a little joy, and something a little different to the lives of these lovely people.

We’re so very sad that in the future these small moments of happiness which are enormous to these people may be lost due to the unintended consequences of legislation proposed by the Victorian Government (click here to learn more and how you can help).

Here are some photos of our day. The lovely residents all wanted their photos taken and were so happy to show off their puppies who wouldn’t sit still (or were trying to steal a hearing aid!).

 

Gail wouldn’t put the puppy down!
Gail wouldn’t put the puppy down!
This lovely puppy wouldn’t sit still!
This lovely puppy wouldn’t sit still!
This lovely puppy wouldn’t sit still!
This lovely puppy wouldn’t sit still!
Dot looks forward to the puppy visits every year, and got a big kick out of the lovely black puppy we had who tried to steal her hearing aid!
Dot looks forward to the puppy visits every year, and got a big kick out of the lovely black puppy we had who tried to steal her hearing aid!
Dot looks forward to the puppy visits every year, and got a big kick out of the lovely black puppy we had who tried to steal her hearing aid!
These smiles!
Puppies do wonders for people
Puppies do wonders for people
Lola got a great kick out of the visit!
Lola got a great kick out of the visit!
Lola got a great kick out of the visit!
These smiles – puppies are an amazing thing.

 

 

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!)