dog’s life are vitally important because a puppy’s experiences during this
time will affect his emotional responses as an adult dog. It stands to reason,
then, that if we know how the puppy is growing and what he needs during
these different stages, we can help every puppy get the best possible start in
life.
The need for human attention begins shortly after the puppy is born.
During the first few weeks of life, the pup is going through the most
amazing process of growth. At first, his world is dark and silent and
consists solely of contact with his littermates and the constant care of his
mother. After about two weeks he begins to learn new behaviors that will
adapt him well to living in a sensory and social world. By eight weeks of
age he has full use of his sensory and motor systems and his central nervous
system has reached maturity, ready for whatever learning experiences await.
The puppy’s central nervous system, and therefore his behavior, develops
in a wondrously particular and precise pattern, and each stage of growth has
an effect on the puppy’s actions. If the pup doesn’t have his physical and
social needs satisfied during any one of these periods, certain characteristics
of his personality will be stalled at that particular stage of development.
This, in turn, will have an effect on how the dog will behave when he is
older.
For example, some dogs remain overly suspicious of anything new or
different, often because they never developed investigative behavior when it
was a normal part of their growing up (eight to twelve weeks). Another dog
might be too easily excited, to the extent of appearing hyperactive, as a
result of not having had adequate environmental stimulation during the
stage of learning how to sort out sound, sight, and smells (six to ten weeks).
And both the shy and the hyperactive personality can be strongly affected
by a lack of human contact from three to seven weeks.
You are undoubtedly wondering if knowing about these developmental
stages in a puppy’s life is all that important. Obviously, many dog owners
have raised very fine dogs without such information—for good reasons.
These pups may have had outgoing personalities and been able to overcome
some lack of socialization. Even more likely, these pups were fortunate
enough to be raised in homes where their needs were automatically and
unknowingly met during each period. Dogs have been successfully
socialized for more than 10,000 years without anyone being specifically
aware of it, let alone labeling the process!
So it is today in many homes. Puppies that get a lot of attention and
receive touch, sound, and visual stimulation in the course of a normal day
grow up to be healthy, well-adjusted dogs.
