Days 36–49 Key Puppy Behavior:
5–7 weeks Weaning begins
Is curious
Has little sense of fear
Participates in group activities and sexual play
Dominance order begins
This is an extremely important time in the puppy’s life. It is the period
when the pup is totally dependent on the environment that you provide for
him to stimulate and develop his genetic qualities. In addition to needing a
stimulating environment, the pup must receive attention from people. The
kinds of experiences that a puppy has during this period have a very strong
effect on how he will react emotionally to humans when he is an adult. If he
has little contact with people except for being fed, he’s probably not going
to find it easy to accept human attention when he’s older.
This is another time of rapid growth and change. During this period, a
puppy acquires full use of his eyes and ears, his legs become stronger and
more coordinated, and his brain reaches a final stage of physical
development. Further development now largely depends on the experiences
encountered by the otherwise fully equipped puppy.
At the beginning of this period, the puppy still has little sense of fear and
is quick to approach anything and anybody. But by the end of these two
weeks, he begins to be more cautious in his approach, which is all a part of
learning to discriminate among sights, sounds, and smells. Pups that don’t
go through these two periods of learning (having been isolated or
overprotected) tend to become hyperactive adults. They have not learned
how to sort out sights, sounds, and smells during these weeks and to
identify the significant ones.
Sexual play is evident at this age. Mounting is quite common among
male puppies, and sometimes females mount other puppies. This is a
normal part of puppy play and is important in teaching puppies the normal
sexual response as they mature. While mature males tend generally to
confine their mounting to females, mounting to signify dominance over
another male continues in maturity. Females also sometimes mount other
females as a demonstration of dominance.
Many behaviorists agree that socialization reaches a peak by the fortyninth
day. From here on, human relationships, though still very important,
begin to have a decreasing effect on the socialization of the puppy. In other
words, the amount of individual attention that a puppy has received by the
forty-ninth day can never be made up without a proportionally larger
expenditure of time and effort.
From seven to ten weeks is considered by many breeders to be the right
age for a puppy to go to his new home. By then the pup has had sufficient
time with his littermates for developing adequate dog behavioral patterns.
His new owner can easily become the pack leader and can give the pup
individual attention and a lot of environmental variety. It is still essential,
however, that opportunities for socializing with other dogs be made
available on a regular basis. This ensures that the balance is maintained in
interactions with other people and with dogs in the community.
