CARING FOR YOUR NEW PUPPY
Your new puppy is constantly learning even when you are not "training". This being said, we need to be aware of the behaviours we reinforce especially those behaviours we humans tend to inadvertently reinforce. Every behaviour your new puppy repeats is due to the reinforcement history. Reinforcement meaning "reward" or "payment". The rewards can be from you, your friends, the environment or even internal (the dog just enjoys watching you eat or loves to hear himself bark). Your puppy will automatically repeat behaviours that have been paid with something he likes (treats, attention, playtime, walks etc.). It's science!! So, as new puppy owners, you need to be aware of behaviours you may be accidentally reinforcing. Jumping up is a huge behaviour problem we see regularly in classes. Why? Because when puppies are tiny and jumping up on us, we love it!! We give them plenty of attention resulting in a strong reinforcement history. The more a behaviour is paid, the stronger it becomes!!
It is important for all pet owners to understand how important training and socialization at an early age is in preventing predictable behaviours and temperament problems from occurring later on. Puppies reach adolescence by the age of 6 months. Years ago training never began until after 6 months of age because you couldn't put choke chains on puppies!! Now with the new age of clicker training and positive methods of training, we can start teaching our puppies at 10 weeks of age. This enables your puppy to obtain skills, manners and knowledge of the household rules before adolescence begins. Socializing your pup to many different environments, noises, people etc. while using a positive association is of utmost importance.
Socialization aids in the confidence building of your puppy. Without proper socialization, your puppy can develop fears and phobias. Most of the aggression cases we see in dogs is based on fear. Fear is developed through lack of socialization during the critical socialization period of the puppy's brain. It can also result from a negative experience occurring during this critical period. This critical socialization time period begins at 6 weeks of age and starts to close around 20 weeks. This does not leave you much time since most puppies arrive at our homes around 8 weeks of age. Attending puppy classes gets your new puppy out of your home, around other puppies to teach bite inhibition and around strangers!! Classes enable a positive association with the outside world as well as the beginning of a solid training foundation.
Barb Maja, CPDT-KA
