Puppy Development

- PUPPY DEVELOPMENT -

In the first several months of a dog's life, the puppy will go through critical development stages that will stay with the dog into adulthood. During these stages, there are many things you can do as a responsible pet owner to insure that the future of your dog will be a happy, healthy, well adjusted lifestyle.

Birth to 7  Weeks (or longer) of a dog's life should be spent with the mother and the other puppies in the litter. If a dog is taken out of the litter too soon, it will never be fully socialized with other dogs. The mother disciplines her puppies clearly and concisely. The puppy is learning how to respond to leadership and learning its place in the pack. It is also learning how to understand the body language of dogs.  The longer a pup stays with it’s mother and litter-mates the better it will be able to acclimate to socializing with other dogs later on.

7-12 Weeks is the stage of pronounced socialization. Contact with a variety of people, places and pets are recommended. What your dog learns now, he will never forget. Expose your puppy to other animals, children of all ages, men, women, the mailman, traffic, senior citizens, skateboards, joggers, bicyclists, and any other appropriate person or event. Remember your puppy is not yet fully immunized. Be sure the animals it comes in contact with are up to date on all their vaccinations and friendly. Beware of parks or school yards, some diseases can be passed simply by a blade of grass that has been in contact with an infected dog. Training, to start, should be of short durations and a positive experience. By exerting your leadership over your puppy, you will not only be shaping its character into a well-behaved family member but establishing the puppy's place in the pack order. (consider your family as a pack...YOU are the leader, not the dog!)   8-12 Weeks is when "fear imprinting stage" occurs. In this phase of the socialization period, we should accustom the puppy to strange and stimulating noises and experiences. A puppy of six weeks may show no sign of discomfort at loud noises or fast moving objects, however, a puppy of eight to twelve weeks will have a marked reaction. This is the time to make the puppy unafraid of the vacuum cleaner, and also instill healthy insecurities (being cautious around cars).

12-16 Weeks is the flight ingraining period. It is the time when the puppy, if given any freedom, will test it to the max. In comparison to a pup of eight or nine weeks that will follow you anywhere, this is the period when your dog will start going the opposite direction of you. The puppy is feeling independent, cutting the apron strings, along with its teeth. At this time in its development your puppy will be testing to see who the leader of the pack really is. Be sure that it is YOU, not the dog! Serious obedience training, should have absolutely started by now. The flight period can last anywhere from a couple of weeks to a month. It is up to you and how you handle this time in your dogs' life as to what type of dog you will have.

Other important tips for your puppy: 

• Touch and lightly play with your puppy while it eats from its dish.  Getting your puppy used to being touched while eating will allow your him to be more accepting of people, children or other pets around his food. Isolating a dog while he eats will only cause food aggression later.
• Take your puppy everywhere!! The more you expose your dog to as a puppy, the more secure it will be as an adult dog and the less stress it will experience in new circumstances and surroundings.
• Crate train your puppy! It's ok to crate train. Most dogs will not defecate in their bed so crate training can reduce the housebreaking period and produces results. As long as the crate is never used as a punishment, your puppy will grow to love his crate and find comfort being in it even into adulthood. Besides, if you need to take your pet in a crate to the vet, on vacation or long rides in the car, it'll be less stressful on your dog if he is well accustomed to being in his own crate.
• Try to think like a dog, not like a person. And try to use positive reinforcement over negative; it has much better results.  For example: My Doberman used to growl at my Yorkie when he came near her food dish while she was eating. So naturally to punish her I'd take her food away but it was causing her to be more aggressive with him. WHY? Because the Doberman associated whenever the Yorkie comes near her bowl, she gets her food taken away so she didn’t want him near her food so she would growl at him to send him a message to stay away. I had to think like a dog to realize this. So instead of punishing her for bad behavior, I reward her for good behavior. When the Yorkie comes near her bowl, I give her the command that she learned previously “be nice" and when she doesn't growl, she gets a handful of dog treats thrown in her bowl and a "good girl" pat on the back. She never growled at him after that reconditioning. That's what I mean by "think like a dog" and use positive reinforcement instead of negative as much as possible.
• TOYS!!! Make sure your puppy has plenty of toys to occupy him and satisfy his chewing needs. Remember, puppies are cutting in new teeth, just like babies. If your puppy doesn't have chew toys of his own, he will make one up out of your shoes, your furniture, etc. They don't have to be expensive toys either…a simple cardboard paper towel roll or natural bone or rawhide will do nicely but make sure they have a variety. Rotate the toys instead of leaving them all out at once…Dogs can get bored and lose interest if they have access to all 100 of their toys. Just keep two or three out at a time and store the rest away.  Rotate the toys weekly.
• Remember too that puppies are BABIES. Don't feel guilty about leaving them for a few hours …they need and require a lot of sleep just like babies. Don't feel like you have to occupy them every second of the day…they will need plenty of naps.  But obviously you shouldn’t leave them in a crate for 8+ hours at a time.  Hire a dog walker or send them to daycare so they get their much needed exercise and socialization.
• Take your puppy to the groomer as early as possible. Even if it's just for an introduction. You're groomer will thank you for it later because the earlier your puppy becomes accustomed to the grooming process, the easier it'll be to groom your dog as an adult. The easier it is to groom your dog, the less money you'll be charged and the dog will be less stressed.