Early socialisation


Whilst most litters are born in the home with their volunteer careers, many are born at the National Centre. It is important that all pups are exposed to as many different sights and sounds and other stimuli in the environment as early as possible and this is carefully supervised, both in the kennel environment and in the home.

Those born with their volunteer carers are naturally exposed from a very early age to all the normal everyday sights and sounds found in the home, such as vacuum cleaners, televisions, radios, washing machines and various visitors.

For those born at the National Centre, we have a group of dedicated volunteers who carry out general socialisation of the pups from an early age including frequent handling and exposure to a variety of different sounds and visual stimuli. All our pups, between 6-7 weeks of age, will receive a further period of specialist socialisation conducted by a team of trained volunteers, directed and supervised by experienced and qualified staff and all enabled by the wonderful facilities the National Centre provides.