Socialization:Our puppies are lovingly handled and played with from birth. By 5-6 weeks of age they all come running to you, playing, licking, and crawling on your lap. They are appropriately socialized with our young children, and other dogs. For playtime, they come into the house or play in the puppy house main room. During nice weather, they play in the back yard with the adults. When you take your puppy home, they need continued handling, guidance, and love. A critical time for learning is 8-16 weeks of age. It's important that you continue offering your puppy a variety social situations and experiences that they will encounter for the rest of their life.
Potty training: As a den animal, puppies will not soil the area that they consider their den if given the opportunity to go elsewhere. In the puppy house, the den is the area inside and they go potty outside as needed. When they come to your home, they have to learn that the crate is their den and slowly expand the den area to include the rest of the house. Do not leave your puppy unattended, and return them to their crate when not actively watching them. This reduces the opportunity for accidents and increases successful potty trips. The most important part of training, is forming a schedule and sticking to it. Offer your puppy frequent opportunities to go potty, using the same spot in the yard and the same command. Offer potty trips first thing of the day, after eating, anytime they come out of the crate, and last thing of the day. Praise their success and offer play time in the house after successful trips. Tip: Bring your puppy back inside directly after going so they realize what the prupose of going outside was. Ignore them until they go, praise them upon success! Potty training is a process and the time it takes varies for each individual. We recommend a small crate for the puppy in training or a 24-30" wire crate with a divider that the puppy can grow into.
Obedience Training:Obedience training is a necessity with the Cairn Terrier, to establish dominance and control. A disciplined, well behaved dog is going to be rewarding for you and your family. Dominating dogs can develop behavior problems such as growling, nipping, and biting to exert control of you, children, and strangers. The foundation of training, is to pair a verbal command with a behavior, and immediately reward the correct behavior. Key commands are 'sit', 'drop' (down), 'stay', and 'in your bed', in addition to walking on a lead, quietly riding in a restraining system in the car, etc. To establish dominance, they need household rules and limits such as staying off the furniture unless invited, sleeping in their crate or bed (not with you) and you should incorporate commands in their daily life. The Cairn is very intelligent and needs consistent, firm obedience. Like any dog, they must view you as the dominant one in the relationship. There are a variety of training books and online information available. Training should start upon bringing your puppy home and I recommend that all families attend puppy obedience classes. Our trainer is Ashli Davidson www.dogsbydesign.net
Feeding:We feed and recommend Canidae dog food. The All Life Stages formulas are appropriate for puppies, adults, working, and senior. It can be found at select boutiques and stores. For a store locator map click here. Canidae offers a high quality holistic food that contains no corn, wheat, by-produts, or gluten. Canidae puppy packs are given with our puppies. We feed free choice, leaving food out at all times. This reduces over eating and gorging themselves when competing with litter mates. Upon bringing your puppy home, you may choose to feed 3 times/day to aid in housetraining. Please follow the feeding chart on the food bag for feeding by age & weight. Divide this amount into 3 meals for puppies and 2 meals for adults.
Alteration: Based on the standards for ethical breeding, we require that pets be spayed and neutered by 6 months of age. Our puppy buyers place a $200 spay/neuter deposit that is refunded upon proof of surgery before 6 months of age. An intact male marks his territory and will mark EVERYTHING. A male neutered before he reaches maturity will usually not hike his leg and mark his property. An intact female can also be territorial, may mark her territory, and loses hair with hormonal changes. Altered dogs are happy, healthy pets. We do not condone breeding 'for the fun of it' and see accidental pregnancy as avoidable. It is the owner's responsibility to take necessary precautions to avoid bringing unwanted puppies into the world.
Forever Homes: We sell puppies to loving, responsible, forever homes. If, however, you were unable to keep your Cairn in the future, we ask that you not surrender your dog to a shelter or less than ideal home. We will assist you in placing your dog in a loving home, or will take the dog into our own home for foster care until a suitable home can be found. 
Puppy Care & Training
Read this website before bringing your puppy home: 
Risk for contagious disease:Puppies receive passive immunity from their mother's milk. The antibodies present in the mother's milk help protect puppies from disease and infections for the first few weeks of life. We administer their first vaccination at 5 wks, so that we may give a 2nd at 8 wks, before going home. Since the first vaccination is not as effective in contributing to the puppy's primary immunity due to maternal antibodies, the 2nd vaccination is much more effective in building the puppy's primary immune response. The primary immunity is the puppy's own "real" immunity. It is imperative upon taking puppies home after 8 wks, that you avoid exposure to strange dogs or areas where dogs frequent such as rest areas, gas stations, dog parks, etc. We recommend waiting until after the 3rd vaccination at 11-12 wks to start puppy obedience classes and recommend a 4th vaccination at 14-15 wks of age for the most complete immunity to contagious disease. Our policy has come about due to sending a puppy home at 8wks with only 1 vaccination, the puppy contracted Parvo after going home, and died within a week. Puppies are much better protected after 2 vaccinations and this is why we now ship puppies after they are 9wks of age, to allow for an immune response from their 2nd vaccine. Copyright 2002-2008 Crooked Creek Terriers. All images, sounds and scripts are property of Crooked Creek Terriers. Duplication or unauthorized use is strictly prohibited. To use any property found on this site, contact the webmaster.
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Visiting: We have a change in policy 9-07 regarding visits to our home. Due to threatening emails and the risk associated with an online presence, we will now meet families in a public place to pick out their puppy and take them home. We feel that since our facilities are pictured, and we have so many testimonials attesting to the cleanliness and quality of our facilities, families will feel comfortable and understand our need to protect our family. For long distance communication we are happy to offer quality photos of the puppies. |