Puppy biting and Hyper Behavior is a problem for many puppy owners. Dr Ian Dunbar, one of the foremost canine behavior experts in the world, does not find the term aggression helpful in diagnosing and correcting the problem. Part of the problem is that people believe that any dog that bites, growls, or backs away (stress/fear) is aggressive, or going to be aggressive. Without understanding this is normal dog communication. The second part of the problem…   Continue

Puppy Socializing 8 – 20 Weeks You have been exposing your puppy to new environments, new smells, new challenges. Each one should have been age appropriate. None should have frightened or stressed your puppy. Each ‘adventure’ should have been a happy one, ending in a good nap (latent learning). Puppies habituate to things very quickly, so the third or fourth exposure is no longer socializing. Don’t worry if your puppy is Wary. This is normal….   Continue

Puppy Socializing 10 – 16 Weeks – Calm Most new puppy owners do not realizing that Socializing happens from when a puppy wakes up, until it goes to sleep. It is important to give the puppies new things to explore all day, inside and outside. It is important to set up games for the puppy, and puzzles to solve. But it is also important to teach the puppy to be calm. You cannot force a…   Continue

This article focuses on socialization. What is puppy socialization? And, what it is not. There are three development stages. Each one requires different skills and tasks taught the puppy. Socializing 8 – 12 Weeks – Comfort The most important things to consider when socializing is that: a) A puppy should never be forced to encounter everything or everyone – especially in your home. b) A puppy should be allowed to investigate ‘everything’ it wants to….   Continue

Puppies are not born able to control their emotions. They are not born knowing how to communicate. They have no learning skills, or stress coping skills. In fact, puppies are born ‘clean slates.’ All they know is how to eat, sleep, and fear.  These are the skills Mother Nature endows them with so that they can survive. When a puppy is born their first imprint is from their mother. If she is calm, it will…   Continue

The sad truth about puppy socialization is that most people do ‘what they think is right’ without any study into applied animal behavior, or even reading more than a few articles on the internet. I have been studying puppy socialization, at least 100 hours a year, for three years, and I still have more to learn. Puppy socialization is the equivalent of ‘early childhood education’. A lot can go wrong and when it does the…   Continue

When you say socializing then what you mean is that you are forcing a baby to act like an adult. You really mean that you are teaching the dog that you don’t ‘have it’s back’ and that you will not protect it. The puppy is really learning that leaving the house with you is a terrifying experience. And the dog is learning that it is helpless. If it does try a polite ‘stay away behavior’…   Continue

I listened to her explain that she has no idea why her 9-month-old golden retriever has started biting people. She went into length to explain how she socialized it. ‘Ever since it was 10 weeks old I took it to the dog park and puppy classes. All the dogs played with it and ‘taught it manners.’ Everyone petted it. We would go for walks and I would let everyone pet it. She would get so…   Continue

Stop Puppy Biting You have the most wonderful puppy.  It is full of bounce and play, but will cuddle. It is also smart. You can teach it tricks in a few minutes. And it looks at you with loyal, loving eyes. But it doesn’t understand that it shouldn’t bite. Bite Inhibition The problem is that your puppy didn’t come from a kennel where the adults were allowed to teach the puppy bite inhibition at 6…   Continue

There is a lot of jargon in the dog training world. Many of them are no more than catch phrases used to attract followers to a single, specific training method. Like any behavior theory, it will work on some dogs, but not others. Before giving up and thinking that your puppy is bad, or out of control, take a few minutes to learn two things that most trainers won’t talk about, and will try to…   Continue