EARLY PUPPY DEVELOPMENT
0-16 WEEKS
Much has been written and spoken about the early stages of canine learning in recent times. Words like socialization, critical periods are spoken about every day, in all sorts of Canine Training establishments, all over the world. Having a clear understanding of these terms and the influence of the early Critical Periods on later canine behavior and development is a must for any person involved heavily within the canine world. Whenever we look at behavior and the possible alteration of such behavior, a clear understanding of the possible influences on and triggers to behavior are a must.
Canine development is usually broken down into what is called Critical Periods. These are periods in a dog’s life where he/she learns at a very accelerated pace and where a small amount of learning will have a great effect on later behavior. As the name suggests through these periods any experiences a dog has will have a large and critical influence on the dog’s future behavior. Many canine behavioral problems faced by owners, breeders and trainers every day could possibly have been avoided if the dog received correct and positive experiences to stimuli through the early Critical Periods.
Scott & Fuller discovered critical periods in a dog’s development in the 1950’s. John Paul Scott & John L fuller conducted a series of experiments on approx. 470 dogs from the day they were born to the day they died. They had five different breeds of dog and hybrids there of. They found that a dog has a number of critical periods in its life. Amongst these life stages they found the most critical of these periods to be between the ages of 0 and 16 Weeks. They further found that this period could be again broken down into 3 more Critical Periods. These being,
1) The Neonatal period 0-2wks
2) The Transitional period 2-4wks
3) Socialisation period 4-16wks
(Variations of a week are possible in these critical periods)
Another period that we should also look at if only briefly is the Prenatal Period. Studies conducted have shown that a mother’s physical and mental well being during the pregnancy can have a lasting impression on the development of the puppies and there subsequent later behavior. Puppies born from a stressful pregnancy have been seen to show a greater sensitivity to the socialization periods, as well as a reduction in learning ability. From this we can determine that it is very important that during her pregnancy that a mother has a warm place to sleep, plenty of food and to if possible avoid x-rays or any illness or other activities that may cause stress to the mother. This is also relevant for those looking to purchase a new puppy from a breeder. Always ask to see the mother (seeing both parents is always a good step) and where he sleeps. If you do not like what you see, then do not buy a pup.
THE NEONATAL PERIOD 0-2WEEKS APPROX.
In the first two weeks of a dogs life he/she is totally dependent on it’s mother. The mother is responsible for everything from the dogs feeding to its elimination. At this time the pup has very little brain activity. It is believed that the only senses that the dog has active are touch (only around it’s face and more in regards the difference from warm to cold) and a slight sense of smell. The sole focus in life for a pup of this age is to gain nourishment from the mother. He/she has been protected from the stimuli of the out side world by his/her sensors not yet functioning thus allowing him/her to mature before such sensory bombardment commences.
The only real thing that we can do at this stage to help the young pups in their future life is through handling the pups. Scott & Fuller found that when a pup is handled by a human at this age that the brain function of the pup is increased which will lead to a physical increase in the size of the brain as well as increasing the development of the nervous system of the dog which can be beneficial in later life.
As the pups only real interaction at this age is with the mother it is once again important that the mother is kept in a stress free environment and in good health. Studies conducted in Sweden have shown much of the pups future behavior will be imprinted even at this age. This can only be as a result of the mother’s behavior toward the pups and her overall well being.
TRANSITIONAL PERIOD 2-4 WEEKS APPROX.
This period is said to have commenced when the eyes have opened. This is the period when most of the pup’s senses become active. At approximately 13 days they can start to see, hear and their teeth begin to appear. Tails may start to wag, and social behavior between the pups starts to occur. They may growl and bark for the first time. Their own temperature regulation and physical co-ordination can allow them to leave the mother and will if possible start to leave the nest/den/box to eliminate. The brain waves of the pup will increase sharply as the pup begins to experience sights and sounds of the world around it. Evidence has shown that a puppy reared in a sensory rich environment can have increased brain development.
It is at this age that pups should be prepared for the socialisation period. At 2 ½ weeks a pup should be handled for at least one minute a day building up to 5 minutes a day by 4 weeks of age. This will help to imprint humans as a natural part of life for a dog. For this reason children should also be encouraged to handle the dog within this period. Obvious care must be taken at this point so as to not harm the pups in any way.
It is also during this period that the behavior of the mother will have it’s greatest effect on the pups. A large effort should be made to reduce any undesirable behavior that the mother may have upon her pups such as nervousness, fear etc. It is believed that the pups can absorb a lot of information and behavior from the bitch at this time. Some believe that a pup that witnesses the bitch under stress or showing submissive or stressful behavior can interpret this and show such behavior, including fear and poor nerve strength, in later life. Studies were conducted in Holland where pups from a confident bitch where swapped with those of a nervous bitch at approximately one week of age. The pups from the nervous bitch originally all proceeded to become confident little pups where as the pups from the confident bitch originally (who went to the nervous bitch) turned out to be far more nervous in temperament. Although there are aspects of this study that go unanswered the results can be viewed to show just how important the condition and type of the mother is to the future behavior of her pups.
SOCIALISATION PERIOD 4-16 WEEKS APPROX.
As the name suggests this is the critical period where true socialization begins as the pup now has all its senses working at full adult levels (smell, touch, hearing etc). It is a period of rapid development of social behavioral patterns. The pups will investigate all things new within its’ environment and will make a judgement depending on the outcome of that investigation (positive or negative). Trying to socialize the pup prior to this time period will not be completely successful, as the pup is not fully aware of its surroundings. This time period (in my opinion) is the most important of all the Critical Periods. Any socialization missed in this period will only gain tolerance of the object rather than true acceptance of it and thus greatly increases the chances of fear related behavioral problems in later life.
An example of this is a dog that has not been adequately exposed to children in this time period, has a far greater chance of showing real fear of these children and will only ever grow (through behavior modification) to tolerate the children rather than truly except them as part of its life. Scott & Fuller took a pup from the bitch at 2 weeks and gave it no human contact until it was 18 weeks of age. They found that the dog showed all the signs of being a wild dog and it took them many weeks of training just to get it to accept them.
In this period the pups will start to play a little harder with each other and will learn many behavioral patterns that they will take into adult life. The pup will learn to communicate, co-operate with each other as well as how to establish their position in the pack hierarchy. Pups that miss this time period of play have often been known to become self-mutilators later in life. They also show poorer learning skills and far higher levels of fear towards all things new.
It is vitally important that the pups are introduced to as many situations and objects as possible in this Critical Period. A lack of exposure to stimuli within this period will be shown later in the dog’s life, most often with fear related behavioral problems. Also, having a dog become accustomed to the fact that during it’s life it will experience many new things in the world, that it should not fear them but should simply investigate them will help to create a tolerance of new objects and has been shown to create an investigative mentality rather than a mentality of avoidance based behaviors being shown of all things new.
There is much that can be done in this time frame by the human owners of the dogs that will stimulate the brain waves of the dog, which will promote brain growth. These entitle putting the dog in a slightly stressful situation and enabling it to deal with the situation confronting it. It is also a great phase in the dog’s life to build a relationship between the dog and the owner. At this age we can build trust, assert dominance and develop loyalty that can grow at a later date. Once these things are developed they will not soon be forgotten and will mean that the behavioral problems are unlikely to arise in the future. Care must of course be taken at this time with such things to make sure all lessons learnt are the correct ones. With this being a time of great learning on the dogs behave as many mistakes can be made and problems created by incorrect training and socialization. The help of a professional may be needed to make sure each lesson learnt is the correct one and each experience a positive one.
The most commonly missed areas of socialisation are toward other dogs and small children and once these areas missed it can be difficult to correct such mistakes. As I have stated before the dog may learn to tolerate such things, but it may never truly accept them. This lack of socialization is further encouraged by the fact that most vets will tell people to not take a new pup out of the house until it is at least 12 weeks old and it is common for some vets to recommend that a dog not be taken out until after 16 weeks of age. By this stage the socialization window can be well and truly closed. Although there is no doubt that disease etc are risks to dogs but to knowingly create behavioral problems in a young dog that may or may not be able to be fixed can be a far greater problem. With so many dogs still being destroyed or abandoned due to behavioral problems that are often created through poor early socialisation I believe that taking a calculated risk with the disease’s that effect young puppies is more than worth it, it is essential.
Some people feel that as they have another dog at home or that the neighbor has a dog and two kids and that if they introduce their pup to them, that they do not need to take their dog out for socialization. Although there are dogs (confident ones) that this level of socialization is enough to avoid behavioral problems as a general rule it is not. Interaction with the same object over and over again is not socialization but rather creating the idea to the dog that these object are part of the pack or just part of the norm. This will not create the investigative mentality talked about above nor will it reduce the fear a dog may have towards such objects. True socialization takes much time and many successful, positive encounters with many different objects.
Socialisation Technique:
Clearly with a pup moving away from the whelping box etc at this time a lot of its socialization will be done with little to no human interaction at all. However, when the owner of the dog is involved there are certain techniques and rules that should be followed to help make sure all socialization conducted is effective and positive. Many different techniques exist. This is the one that I use and recommend.
Firstly we must find an object that we wish to socialize the pup with. We then place the pup at a distance were it can see the object but is in no way showing signs of being nervous of it. Signs of being nervous can include cowering, ears back against the head, hair on back up, backing away from the object, barking at the object, growling at the object etc. When we reach the point were the pup is relaxed but curious of the object we allow the pup to become comfortable with where it is in its surroundings. (It is better if we are outside the back yard etc to already have the dog on and used to the lead and collar). Then we encourage the pup to move towards the object (tapping the ground in front of the pup, calling it forward etc not pushing the dog to move). With every forward step we praise the pup. If we see the pup become fearful we ignore the pup and if it wants to we allow it to move away from the object. This is where most mistakes are made. Many people will force a pup to hold its position. This is only creating greater anxiety within the pup as it feels that the option to run is taken away which encourages the feeling that it cannot escape the situation. Also many more people at this time will speak to their pup in a soft tone saying “It’s all right Fido, good boy (or Girl), it OK” (or similar). This is effectively praising the dog and encouraging the pup to show this sort of fearful behavior more often. The best option is to just ignore the pup. Allow it to move back and get itself comfortable and relaxed and then encourage forward motion. When it moves forward praise it once again. Quickly the pup will learn that forward motion gains praise and will move forward. With every successful encounter the pup will grow in confidence and learn to investigate new things.
Don’t be in to bigger rush. Allow the pup to take things slowly. It does not matter if it takes several repetitions to get a pup to meet or touch the new object. If you see real improvement in the pup with the object then finish for the day and start again another time.
CONCLUSION
In concluding we can see how important it is to know the stages of a dogs early development so that we can avoid problem behaviour and possibly solve behavioural problems, as we can see the possible starting points of these behaviours. We can see how early socialization will lead to a far happier, calmer and better adjusted dog that will be more confident in all situations. Confidence is the number one attribute that we should be instilling within our dogs, as it will far reduce the chances of incidents of aggression within the dog. Education of dog owners of these facts is the only way that we can hope to reduce the number of poorly socialized dogs in the future and by doing so reduce the number of dangerous dogs in our community.
Although there is no doubt as far as I am concerned that giving a dog a correct start to life is important it may not be enough to avoid behavioural problems that will be created due to the dogs genetics. Some dogs have a predisposition to having behavioural problems that may be improved greatly through early development and socialization but may not be enough to totally avoid such problems. With such dogs any missed socialization within these periods will have obvious results.
Also I do not believe that once these critical periods are over that a dogs behaviour is fixed forever more. A dog can be socialized (for lack of a better word) at any age and grow to accept any object, it just becomes more difficult with age and in most cases, I believe, is far easier if correct socialization and positive work is carried out within the early critical periods.
Michael Garden | 
