11/02/2025
If you pay attention, you may find your puppy learns a lot from your older dog(s).
We often notice in obvious situations like this, where the puppy directly mimics what their role model was doing.
What we may not observe as easily, is the emotional patterning that a puppy takes in from their elder. It’s worth being aware that the things your older dog are over-excited about may become the things your puppy is over-excited about. The things that scare or startle your older dog may become the things your puppy is nervous about. The chaotic situations that your adult dog handles with ease? Your puppy may handle them more easily too thanks to social learning.
It’s likely that not all of your adults behaviors are going to run off on your puppy, but being thoughtful about how you utilize the power of the buddy system can help avoid some unwanted transfer and increase the likelihood that beneficial skills and emotional states to get absorbed.
At the upcoming Puppies and Adolescents online conference, I’ll be talking about how to best use the buddy system for confidence building in young puppies… and when you might be better off to play the role of buddy yourself.
Find more info about this event in my bio.
And for the record, I’m totally fine with Velveeta learning about recreational digging from her buddy. That’s good exercise and enrichment right there!
