TIS THE SEASON....FOR PUPPIES!
Part 1

     Every year many people get puppies for Christmas or around the Christmas season.  Then about summer or fall, shelters and rescue groups get an influx of adolescent dogs who started out as adorable Christmas puppies then grew into rambunctious adolescents who are no longer as cute and cuddly and are now jumping up on people,  barking, pulling their owners down the street when leashwalked, or have begun to show signs of aggression or anxiety when around strange people or dogs.  None of these behaviors are unpredictable, so what can we do from the beginning to stop them from becoming habits?

      Puppies are learning from you from the very day you bring them home. There's a lot of good information on the web about puppy raising and some not so good.  I'm just going to go through what I think are the main things to emphasize from the day you bring your puppy home over a few blogs.  More practical information will be in Part 2.
   

   The world of a newborn puppy is different from ours. Unlike human infants, puppies come into the world blind and deaf with scent and touch being the way they first interact with the world.    At around 2 weeks of age, their eyes begin to open up; at around 17 days, the ear canals open.  By around 3 weeks, they are starting to respond to sounds and trying to walk.  For more information about early developmental milestones, you can visit this link:
http://www.care.com/pet-care-puppy-care-stages-newborn-to-48-weeks-p1017-q14574.html

       Think about the dog's point of view.   What do dogs like to do?
Eat, bark,sniff, eat,chew,eat, dig, eat, play, eat, roll, you get the idea.














Dogs want what they want when they want it.    Let's face it, they're all about immediate gratification.
             

     We talk a lot about dogs being pack animals.  There's a lot more research on dogs now than there used to be, and the idea of a hierarchical dog pack along the lines of a dictatorship or military leadership structure is no longer the prevailing image.  Even wolf biologists have changed their notion of pack behavior.  The original studies took place among captive wolves who were living in areas where space was limited and there was no escape.  Wolf packs are made up of families, and rank has more to do with age and the ability of the animals to get along in social unit.  It's a loose group of related individuals; the size and membership can change over time.

     Feral dogs may travel together, but again, it's a loose knit group, there's not one "alpha" dog barking orders at the subordinates, with the subordinates rushing to obey.  Instant obedience is not necessary or a requirement.  What does seem important is the desire to be part of a group, which we have strengthened through selective breeding.  And that's why we can train dogs; they  have a social need to be part of a group and their flexibility makes them adaptable.  

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     When  you bring your new puppy home, you and your family become the pup's new social group.  Most of the pup's natural behaviors are exactly the ones we humans tend to want to avoid.  The pup sees food on the kitchen table, he jumps up for it; he wants attention, he jumps up on the human to get it. He has to go to the bathroom, he goes, doesn't matter whether it's on your new carpet, in fact, they seem to prefer carpet to pee on.   Household objects from the dog's point of view are  for eating, chewing, rolling on, lying on, or peeing on, and these activities for a particular object are not mutually exclusive.  It's up to us to show them what behaviors they need to get along in our household. A young  puppy is perfectly willing to go along with us, as long as we show him what it is we want and make it worth his while to do it.  How to do this, and incorporate it into your daily routine, will be the subject of Part 2.