by Janice Willard DVM, from the December 2005 Newsletter

No matter what the breed, puppies are Hallmark Card-cute balls of fluff. But one would be mistaken to conclude that puppies’ heads are “stuffed with fluff” like Winnie the Pooh.  From birth to 6 months of age is the most active time for brain growth and development in a dog’s life.

“As the twig is bent, so grows the tree,” goes the old adage.  Nothing could be truer than the effect early experience has on the growing canine brain.

“There is an optimum time, windows of opportunity, for experience to have its maximum effect on the puppy,” explains Terry Ryan, dog trainer and author of “Coaching People to Train Their Dogs.”  “These windows of opportunity are short, sometimes, just a few weeks. The onset and offset of these learning periods vary from puppy to puppy.  But during these optimum times, the puppy must come in contact with, but not allowed to be frightened by, all the things he will deal with as an adult.” 

Scientific studies in the 1950s showed that puppies not exposed to people during these sensitive learning periods became shy and afraid of new people.  Puppies raised in isolation from other dogs interacted poorly with other dogs.  After this window of opportunity has passed, learning is still possible, but it takes much more time and effort to accomplish. 

We ask a lot of puppies.  We take them away from their culture and place them in ours, where we expect them to somehow, magically, learn all the rules of behavior without even understanding our language.  And, we expect them to learn all the social behavior necessary to interact comfortably with dogs and people, while living in what, for many of them, essentially amounts to social isolation.

The solution for this is early puppy socialization and training. This can be in the form of a puppy class or you can design your own puppy learning system. A well run puppy class is more than just a play party for puppies. By interacting with other puppies and people in a safe, controlled way, a puppy gets positive experience it needs to learn that other dogs and people are not a threat and you help your puppy get a head start on learning many of the behaviors that will make it a good housedog and valued member of the family.  You learn how to train bite inhibition, get help with potty training, and teach the puppy to have good car manners, good manners at the veterinary office and all it needs to be a pleasure to live with for years to come. With your new puppy, you can turn over a new leaf yourselves and become acquainted with updated, positive, training techniques.

Before getting the appropriate education for your puppy, first educate yourself.  One great place to start is the book Before and After Getting Your Puppy, The Positive Approach to Raising a Happy, Healthy and Well-Behaved Dog by Dr. Ian Dunbar. I give this book by this pioneer on puppy education an enthusiastic two paws up.

Before going to puppy class, visit your veterinarian first.  “Waiting until your puppy has received two shots would be wise,” says Dr. Jim Evermann, Professor of Infectious Disease at the College of Veterinary Medicine at Washington State University.   “But equally important is to make sure that the dam is vaccinated, as this will reduce shedding of disease agents to her litter.” 

A responsible breeder or humane society will have prepared the puppies they raise to be successful both by assuring good health care of the dam and also by making sure that the puppies are handled and raised in an enriched environment.  If you purchase a puppy without having seen the environment in which it was raised, you have no way of verifying that the puppy has been given the optimum environment in which to develop and thrive, either in terms of behavior or health.

This New Years, make a resolution that any new puppy that enters your household will get all that it needs to be all that it can be and become a valuable member of your household for years to come.

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