Talk To The Tail.

12/05/2024

What is socialization?
Why is it important?
We ask dogs to live with us, then WE have to prepare them for our world.
The period of socialization is referred to as The Critical Period or imprinting stage.
This period is 7 weeks to 16 weeks.
During this time Habits are formed and relationships are developed.
The Habits critical stage is 7 to 11 weeks, and social (new relationships) critical stage, 11 to 16 weeks.
These are the most important stages of their development, miss this opportunity, and you will never get the chance again.

Examples of Habits are: Housetraining, walking on lead, food bowls, routines, independent behaviors, eye contact, body handling/ maintenance to name a few.
Social: Learning how to meet someone new, old, person or dog.
Men, Women, children of different nationalities.
These must be addressed during their critical stages, but also should be exercised all the way through the imprinting stage (to 16 weeks)
For example, Housetraining must be worked on during the 7 to 11 week stage for the training to stick, but it should be continued on indefinitely.
If you wait till after this period to start housetraining, training will will not be reliable.
Social skills should happen all the way through the imprinting stage, but is most important during the 11 to 16 week stage, puppies at this stage are naturally starting to want to be more social.
Puppies Should be greeting new people everyday, and at least 20 new people a week, and learning how to sit for a treat, building good associations.
Meeting a new person they already know is different then meeting a stranger, these are very important skills they must learn.
A complete lack of early positive exposure and experiences can have catastrophic results.
Studies show that puppies raised in extremely restricted environments, like the house and yard only, will show abnormal behaviors in new situations when their imprinting stage ends, for example freezing when put in unfamiliar situations or when handled.
This can slowly build into fear aggressive behaviors towards new people and other dogs. They simply do not have the skills to handle new people and encounters.
Isolated puppies also tend to grow to be hyperactive, difficult to train, antisocial and fearful.
Which is the biggest reason for surrenders and euthanasia's in dogs under a year (or any age) is because of behavioral problems.
These could have been prevented in the first place with proper positive handling, training and social skills, at an early age.

Spread the word, lets make dogs lives better
Lets build better Future Companions

12/05/2024

Greetings and Socialization

Greetings and Socialization go hand in hand, lets first start with greetings, how to walk up to someone, and sit for a greeting.
Sounds simple, but to a dog, he needs to go through the motions so its a habit to walk up to someone and know how to handle the greeting.
In the wild, they would only get to know the animals in their pack, but in our world, they need to have skills to greet new people everyday.
Starting at 7 weeks, greetings can be practiced with family members to start, walk up, put them into a sit, give a treat for the proper greeting, maybe pet their head, repeat this several times till it becomes automatic. If the puppy jumps up on you say nothing, look away and wait for them to sit.
Pat your leg, like you want them to jump on you, wait for them to sit, or if they stay sitting, give them a treat.
If the signal of patting your leg, signals to them to sit instead of jumping up, it will lessen the chances of jumping up on people, being an issue later.
Your changing the meaning of patting the leg.
Ask people to not touch your puppy if they jump up on them.
When your puppy becomes good at greetings, start going out in public to practice on strangers, ask permission, give them a treat, and explain that you want your puppy to greet strangers in a polite way, ask them to reward for a sit, pat their leg, and if sitting, give rewardIf they do jump up, say nothing, don't touch them, just wait for the sit.
Puppies starting 11 weeks, should start going out into public meeting new people, strive for 20 new people a week.

12/05/2024

Housetraining, what is housetraining exactly?
Is it actually teaching the dog?
Or is it simply shaping a behavior, and the dog is unaware.
Housetraining is the puppy getting used to having a full bladder, and or a full colon full of p**p, holding it and walking around.
If they lived in the wild, they would have no need to hold it, so its up to us to get them used to holding it.
The place and surface is of the greatest importance as you are creating habits for the future.
For example if you let a puppy use a p*e pad, you are using a surface that feels a lot like a bathmat or a small rug, which they may go on in the future, it feels the same.
Its best to take them outside, on the grass where you want them to go to the bathroom, praise and reward for eliminating in the spot you want them to go.
If your puppy does have an accident in the house, re-evaluate your trips outside, shorten the time between outings by an hour.
If they are having an accident, do not get angry with them, don't say anything, some puppies view attention as rewarding, no matter if you view it as a scolding, they simply do not understand the complex nature of a punishment, by using a punishment, like say yelling, you may actually cause the accident to happen again.
Take them out after they wake up, after they have played a bit, and after eating and drinking.
You cant expect very young puppies to hold it long, the general rule is one hour per month old plus 1 hr, but its just a general rule, not every puppy will catch on to housetraining as quickly as another puppy.
Don't let puppies roam the house, this is trouble just waiting to happen, as wandering puppies just go when they want, which is the opposite of housetraining, p*eing in the house can become a habit, and later hard to break.
Keep them with you, use a crate, or a penned area, so they cant wander, take them out often.
Puppies 7 weeks should be out every hour when they first come into a new home (any age for that matter), for about a week, The next week every 2 hours, next week 3 hours and so forth, with rewards for going outside (Keep your rewards brief, so they are always wanting more)
Housetraining is a long process, you are building a strong foundation of habits for its life, its very important, be patient, don't rush it, and congratulations on your new companion.

10/07/2024

Puppy class (September)

06/12/2024

First puppy class of the summer over, all our grads!
Thanks for attending, it was a great class.

11/12/2023

Dogs need outdoor fun

08/16/2021

This is another cutie

08/16/2021

Someones temperature was very low

08/16/2021

2 cuties

08/16/2021

08/16/2021

Theres nothing more relaxing then a walk in the woods.

08/16/2021

A Friend of Mine and her Husband wrote this book, give it a look.

08/16/2021

Old times

08/16/2021