PuppyQ

A puppy’s most important weeks for meeting the world are its first three months. That’s what we build around.

“The primary and most important time for puppy socialization is the first three months of life. During this time puppies should be exposed to as many new people, animals, stimuli and environments as can be achieved safely and without causing overstimulation.”

— American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB)

Read the full AVSAB position statement →

The PuppyQ Framework

PuppyQ is an evidence-based framework for raising calm, well-socialized puppies. Legend Manor raises each puppy following PuppyQ protocols and provides a PuppyQ Scorecard and History.

Four periods, birth to adulthood

PuppyQ organizes development into four periods. Each is a window of time when specific work happens.

Tap a period to see what we do

1Neonatal Period

Day 0–14

Puppies are born blind and deaf, their brains not yet ready to learn.

Every puppy is weighed and gently handled, one on one, every single day.

2Transition Period

Day 14–21

Eyes and ears open and the puppy comes online for the first time.

Handling stays calm and quiet while first impressions form.

3Socialization Period

Week 3–12

The critical window for meeting the world — and it stays open after your puppy comes home.

Puppies meet people, places, and friendly dogs through steady, everyday exposure.

4Juvenile Period

Week 12 to sexual maturity

The socialization window has closed and your growing puppy enters adolescence.

Keep up the outings and routines that carry the foundation forward.

Evidence-based early socialization

PuppyQ Protocols follows the guidelines of the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior (AVSAB), which is supported and endorsed by the American Veterinary Medical Association (AVMA).

PuppyQ Socialization Benchmarks

Dr. Ian Dunbar is a veterinarian and animal behaviorist who holds a veterinary degree from the Royal Veterinary College in London and a doctorate in animal behavior from UC Berkeley. In 1982, he founded SIRIUS® Puppy Training, the world’s first off-leash puppy socialization program, and went on to found the Association of Professional Dog Trainers, now the largest dog trainer organization in the world. His socialization benchmark is one of the most widely cited in the field — not because it’s official policy from any single body, but because decades of trainers, behaviorists, and veterinarians have converged on it independently.

Our socialization goal follows his two-part benchmark: 100 people by 8 weeks with us, and 100 more in the first month home with you. It’s a shared effort — we lay the foundation during your puppy’s first weeks, and you carry it forward through the most formative days of their life.

To earn PuppyQ Certification, each puppy meets a clear standard by 8 weeks: 10 events, 10 locations, and 100 people. It’s a floor we hold ourselves to for every single puppy.

“Prevention is better than intervention.”— Dr. Ian Dunbar

PuppyQ – Q is for Quotient

Q stands for Quotient. We track thirteen of them, using C-BARQ — a validated behavior assessment from the University of Pennsylvania. It measures things like trainability, energy, and how your puppy responds to new people, dogs, and situations.

C-BARQ — the Canine Behavioral Assessment and Research Questionnaire — was developed at the University of Pennsylvania by Dr. James Serpell and Dr. Yuying Hsu in 2003, to give owners and researchers a standardized way to measure real canine behavior. It’s since been used in tens of thousands of evaluations worldwide. PuppyQ provides this evaluation to all forever families to help measure and improve its protocols.

In conjunction with C-BARQ, PuppyQ has also developed its own Q Assessment, given to puppies at seven weeks by our certified ambassadors, before the puppy goes to its forever home. The Q Assessment is not used as a predictor of behavior, but as a look at the puppy’s early traits and temperament.

What every puppy goes home with

Every Legend Manor puppy comes home with three things:

PuppyQ Certification

Proof your puppy met the full standard: 10 events, 10 locations, 100 people.

PuppyQ Scorecard

Your puppy’s seven-week snapshot, plus the eight-month follow-up that shows real growth.

PuppyQ History

A full record of your puppy’s first weeks — every person, place, and milestone.

See our current puppies

See available puppies