Last night I had a particularly rewarding session with a puppy!
It seems like most of my clients are working to fix a behavior problem. And when we succeed at fixing them, it’s incredibly satisfying. And since I’ve been handing off a lot of my puppy and basic clients and classes to my trainers so that I can work more behavior modification, I’ve really forgotten how much I love to work with puppies. . . until last night when I met Mika the Shiba Inu and her incredibly proactive owners!
I love, love, love when I see owners who read every book they get their hands on, start clicker training at 9 weeks old, work hard to socialize their babies the proper way from the very beginning, and basically cause me to come into a lesson and give them a big “Atta-boy! You are doing everything right!” We had a great lesson where we clicker trained the puppy to ring a bell in no time flat. Not to mention that by the time I got there, Mika already knew sit, down, spin, and had potty on command! I went home thinking, “Wow, people need to be more proactive about training puppies!”
I recently read a statistic that only 4% of puppy owners do training and socialization before they have a behavior problem. 4% That’s mind blowing! Especially since puppy brains are the most flexible and malleable before the age of 16 weeks! Don’t let this critical time slip by! The more training and socialization you do before 16 weeks of age, the better your pup will be!
In fact, socialization is even more important that obedience. . . especially for the young pups. (And so many of my clients who did not have control over their dogs’ first years of life will stand behind this!) Dogs need socialization throughout their lives in order to understand appropriate behavior from inappropriate behavior (with people and other dogs!). So the more you can expose your little pup to at this early age, the better off you will be! This includes puppy socials, puppy classes, walks in the park, and parties with all kinds of people and other animals (even cats!). And socialization at this early age will help your puppies form bite inhibition (in layman’s terms, teaching them how to control their jaws as an adult).
So, if you’ve got a new puppy, take a page from Mika’s owners’ playbook! Get to work now on training and socialization! The more you do in their formative months, the better you will set yourself up for success! And if you are looking for a place to let your puppies romp with other likeminded pups, try one of our puppy clubs! Puppy club is an hour-long, drop- in socialization group which is held every Tuesday night at both our Blue Bell and our Center City location! Your pup will reap the benefits of early socialization and training, and you’ll take home a very tired puppy! Check out our calendar of events for more De-Tails!
P.S. I just got off of the phone with a new client with an 8 week old Golden Doodle puppy coming next week. Yeah, I think I’ll take this one!
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I agree that socialization is really important for a puppy’s development; I heard that’s why they’re supposed to stay with their litter for a few extra weeks even when they’re no longer dependent on their mother for food. It makes sense that classes would be helpful for puppies that didn’t get that socialization. I’m planning on getting a puppy from a shelter and I very well may take him to classes if, as you say, it’s better to take them even if they aren’t showing poor behaviors yet.
I wanted to thank you for explaining why puppy training is important. It’s nice to know that training will also allow the puppy to socialize, which is really important for their growth. It sounds beneficial to find a training program that can have several other puppies there are the same time.
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