Once the puppies eyes have opened, unique and interesting items are introduced to the whelping box every day

From lawn mowers to vacuum cleaners and even chain saws, the puppies are exposed to a variety of everyday indoor and outdoor sounds.

Starting with solid food, puppy recall is introduced and practiced at least three times per day. By the time our puppies are ready to go home, puppy recall is solid and dependable.

Using introductory marker training and manding, our puppies are taught that they have a voice.

At about four weeks old, pine shavings are introduced to the puppy's habitat. The becomes the first step towards potty training.

The puppies are exposed to varies barriers and obstacles which they must learn to circumvent.

Our puppies are exposed to Mad Agility's mini puppy equipment including the puppy barrel, puppy dog walk, puppy teeter and puppy wobble board

Our puppies learn to handle startles well, and recover quickly

Interacting with Adults

Our puppies are exposed to large adult dogs early, learning how to interact with manners

Handling the Real World

The alumni of NTPEA are well-socialized, eager to learn, and willing to handle life's challenges with comfort and enjoyment.

The Natchez Trace Puppy Enrichment Academy - Black and Tan English Shepherds

Roanoke Creek Ranch is a 43 acre wooded campus where dogs and puppies spend idyllic days hiking, swimming and enjoying the best of Tennessee’s great outdoors.

Each puppy who goes through our Roanoke Creek Ranch breeding program attends the Natchez Trace Puppy Enrichment Academy. NTPEA encompasses a ten week program covering dozens of lessons and components which are scientifically proven to greatly improve outcomes for puppies.

NTPEA coaching begins at three days old, at which time we start each puppy on our Early Neurological Stimulation program. ENS goes until day sixteen. Then beginning at three weeks of age, each puppy begins our critical socialization program.

NTPEA Goals

The Life Goals of our NTPEA program are:

Communication
We strengthen our puppies’ dog-to-dog and dog-to-human communication skills.
Emotional Stability
We teach our puppies to quickly recover from fear and seamlessly deal with stress.
Habituation
We expose our puppies to a large number of everyday sights, sounds, and experiences in order to strengthen their “so what” response.
Enrichment
We instill our puppies with the attitude that novelties are opportunities for enrichment rather than things to be feared or avoided.
Health
We foster our puppies’ physical health and evolve their motor skills in order to begin each puppy on the path to neurologically sound and physically robust development.
Skills
We enforce the behaviors that will allow our puppies to function and excel in human society.
Emotional Fitness
We instill our puppies with the basic desire to seek out both humans and other dogs as opportunities for emotionally positive experiences.

[Our puppy] is doing really well! You raised him with a lot of confidence! He does wonderfully with strangers, he is so friendly. He has also done great with novel items like the vacuum cleaner, hairbrush etc. He’s only met a couple new dogs so far, which he played well with. He does great in the car (falls asleep in his crate right away). And he’s had no accidents in the house!
Roanoke Creek Ranch Puppy Owner

On page 2, you’ll learn more about the specific curriculum of the Natchez Trace Puppy Enrichment Academy

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NTPEA Goals

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