Canine Development/Socialisation 0-16 weeks.

[Mick Trainer]

EARLY PUPPY DEVELOPMENT
0-16 WEEKS

I am posting this piece as I have recently read many posts in reference to it and hope that this may help to clear up some confusion on this matter and also help people to avoid problems caused by a lack of understanding in this area in the future. Early development, socialisation and training of a puppy is arguable the most important period that we can influence in our dogs life. A break down, in this process, at this stage, due to a lack of knowledge in this area can create problems within our dogs that must be cured at a later date instead of being often easily avoided.

Canine development is usually broken down into what is called Critical Periods. These are periods in a dogs life where he/she learns at a very accelerated pace and where this learning will effect the dogs behavior for the rest of it’s life. As the name suggests it is very important for the dog that through these periods any experiences it has are positive ones. Any trainer that has had to deal with solving a behavioral problem in an adult dog would appreciate how important it is to avoid this problem as a puppy.

Scott & Fuller discovered critical periods in a dog’s development in the 1950’s. They conducted an experiment on over 250 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. However they found the most critical of these periods is in the window between the ages of 0 and 16 weeks of age. 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 a possible in these critical periods)

Another period that we should also look at if only briefly is the Prenatal Period. It has been found that a mother’s physical and mental well being during the pregnancy is very important to the development of the puppies. Puppies born from a stressful pregnancy have been seen to show a greater sensitivity to socialisation period’s as well a reduction in learning ability. Thus it is very important that during her pregnancy that a mother has a warm place to sleep, plenty of food and to avoid x-rays or any illness. Also if you are buying a puppy from a breeder always ask to see the mother and where she slept. If you do not like what you see then do not buy a pup.

NEONATAL PERIOD 0-2WEEKS APPROX.

In the first two weeks of a dog 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. 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 only real thing that we can do 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 waves of the pup are increased which will physically increase the size of the brain as well as increasing the nervous system of the dog helping it later in 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 and thus the feeling that she portrays to the litter.

TRANSITIONAL PERIOD 2-4 WEEKS APPROX.

“This is the period when most of the pup’s senses become active, at 13 days they can start to see, hear and their teeth begin to appear. Tails start to wag, they growl and bark for the first time and their temperature regulation and physical co-ordination allows them to leave the mother and will if possible leave the nest to eliminate.”1 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 will 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 as not to 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 ie nervousness. Studies in Holland have found that a mother’s behavior can have the greatest effect on a puppy at this time. Studies were conducted where pups from a confident bitch where swapped with a nervous bitch at aprox 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 socialisation begins as the pup now has all its functions working at full adult levels (smell, touch, hearing etc). Trying to socialise 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 socialisation missed in this period will only gain tolerance of the object rather than true acceptance of it and thus greater increases the chances of fear related behavioral problems.

An example of this is a dog that has not seen children in this time period, will only ever grow to tolerate the children rather than truly except them as part of its life. Scott & Fuller took a pup from its mother 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.

The pups will start to play a little harder with each other and will learn many behavioral patterns that it 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 also 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 as possible in this Critical Period. Poor knowledge and acceptance of things within this period will be shown later in the dog’s life, most often with fear related behavioral problems. Also, having a dog used to the fact that there are new things out in the world that it is going to meet, that it should not fear them and simply investigate will help to create a tolerance of new objects and thus create a wait and see mentality rather than a fear first ask questions later mentality.

The dog’s new owner can also do some exercises 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.

The most commonly missed areas of socialisation are toward dogs and small children and once these areas missed it is difficult to correct the behavior. As I have stated before the dog may learn to tolerate the dogs or children, it may not truly accept them. This lack of socialistion 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 not let a dog out until after 16 wks of age. By this stage the socialisation window is well and truly closed. Although there is no doubt that decease 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 is 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 decease’s that effect young puppies is more than worth it, it is essential.

Some people feel that as they have a dog at home or that the neibour has a dog and two kids that they do not need to take their dog out for socialisation. Although there a dogs (confident ones) that this level of socialisation is enough to avoid behavioral problems as a general rule it is not. Interaction with the same object over and over again is not socialisation but rather creating the idea to the dog that these object are part of the pack or just part of the norm. Not that these are the same as other objects that it will meet.

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 behavior and above all solving behavioral problems, as we can see the possible starting points of these behaviors. We can see how early socialistion will lead to a far happier, calmer and better adjusted dog that will be confident in all situations. Confidence is the number one attribute that we should be trying to give a dog as it will far reduce the chances of aggression in the dog. Education of the owners of these facts is the only way that we can hope to reduce the number of poorly socialised 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 behavioral problems that will be created due to the dogs genes. Some dogs have a predisposition to having behavioral problems that will be helped greatly through early development and socialisation but may not be enough to totally avoid such problems and with such dogs any missed socialisation within these periods will have obvious results.

Also I do not believe that once these critical periods are over that a dogs behavior 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 can in most cases, I believe, have been avoided if socialized correctly.