From our home to yours:

 We get to know the pups very well as they grow. We watch them change almost  daily at times! We see how they react to things that startle them, how they play with each other, how they play with toys, with us, and how they react when they notice something coming into "their" territory. We also do temperament testing on our pups. It's a very simple test of how they respond to a variety of things, such as sudden loud noises, being held, do they follow, do they retrieve, etc. This gives us a little insight to their personalities.

Early Socialization:
Early socialization is so important to a family dog!  Our pups are handled every day from birth on, they also receive a gentle stress exercise from day 3 to day 16. Soon they are old enough to go out to the securely fenced front yard and start their exposure to outside experiences ....and they love that so much that they often aren't ready to come back in! During these first few weeks, they are exposed things such as a vacuum and other household sounds and scents such as the aromas of cooking and the noises of pots and pans clanging, people chatting, TV, music, different floor surfaces, the quiet of nighttime sleeping and the noise of kids with their sometimes rambunctious noises and play levels. When they come to you, this early socialization should be continued. Dog parks are a big trend, but make sure they've finished their puppy vaccines and make sure to pick the appropriate "pals" for your puppy. Just like with kids, some dogs can be bullies, can be ill behaved, but many are very good play pals with others. These are the ones to chose for your puppy.....and make sure YOUR puppy is not allowed to become one of those ill behaved or bully puppies as well! 

Growing from helpless infant puppy to active inquisitive puppy:

When the babies become more active they move out to their much larger outdoor space, for their growing and cleanliness needs! Pups NEED that space once they get to the age of wandering around! Once in the outdoor area, they learn a doggy door for toileting themselves and so they won't be used to a floor surface for their toileting purposes, they will prefer grass or dirt instead of your porch, patio or sidewalk! This makes potty training to your home really easy! (providing you give them frequent and easy access to outdoors of course! preventing a bad habit is easier than trying to break it right? ....Keeping them in a crate all day will ruin all that 'early learning') 

The reason our pups are NOT kept indoors, in crates, or only allowed out for playtime as they turn old enough to go out: ....I've received pups that were raised indoors , probably with baby gates or crates, confined to one room as "theirs", and probably with potty pads for toileting..... I'm sure the breeders had the pups best interest at heart, but while this might seem like a good thing, it also teaches the pups that it's ok to potty INSIDE, in the HOME...... That made for VERY hard potty training and also had them preferring my sidewalk or deck over grass or gravel or soil (they were used to smooth surfaces for their toileting I suppose)... NOT something I want ours to learn! Ours go out to their indoor/ outdoor area that includes a "doggy door" when they get old enough and start fussing to go get out of their infant area to potty, this keeps their instinct to leave their "cozy indoor" area and go outside to "do their duty"......

 Our pups do have a room all their own, BUT it's out in the barn! It has a doggy door to the outside pen, and the room starts out as just big enough for eating and sleeping, but not so big that they can find a place inside to toilet in. The room is expandable as they grow in their toileting skills. This expandable room is crucial for encouraging a lifetime of good instinctual habits of not toileting inside.

Once they've moved to their much larger, indoor/outdoor area, their life skills just keep expanding from there. They learn to navigate stairs, both on their low platform style play toy (that I recently added to their field area)  and climbing the steeper steps to get up on  our porch. They are exposed to outside things such as lawn mowers, horses, school kids, Big rig trucks with their jake brakes at times, Farm equipment going by, and other general noises of a country style small town family life. We allow the kids from the school next door to stop and play with them whenever they want in order to get them socialized to kids outside of our own family

 
House training your pup: They've learned so much in the first few weeks of life! If you keep those lessons going, your success in training will be pretty easy! Once they get home to you, be sure to eliminate the opportunities for "accidents":.... let them out frequently, learn their behavior/body language that tells you they are looking for a spot to potty, and get them outside asap! The usual times are:

1)after eating,

2)after playing,

3) as soon as they are waking,

as well as in between these times! You will learn their behavior as you bond. They were raised to potty outside, so if you keep up their "instinct" habits, most families have reported the pups to have only one or two "accidents" in their new homes, and a few didn't have ANY accidents!! They have a had a good start here!