Raising A Well Mannered Mutt
Sallie Palmer

 Hardly a day goes by where I don’t get a phone call from a distraught dog owner telling me about a once friendly pooch who is now showing signs of aggression.   I hear the concern in their voice when they tell me they don’t know how this happened.  Although there are numerous reasons why a once friendly dog can start behaving aggressively towards people or other dogs, I want to discuss one aspect of the possible cause of aggression in our dogs…lack of socialization.  

A recent study done at the St. Hubert’s Animal Welfare Center showed that 78% of all their dog aggression cases revealed that the dogs had either little or no socialization at all.

An alarming trend that is taking place in this country is people who have dogs that have given birth to a litter of puppies are selling or give away the puppies when they are as young as 4- 5 weeks of age.  I never encourage anyone to take a puppy from his mother or litter mates earlier then 8 weeks of age. During these early weeks of the puppy’s life, the mother teaches the litter proper doggie etiquette and social skills which are extremely important later in the dog’s life.  When puppies play with each other they learn how to ‘speak dog’ and how to properly interact with each other.  Without this important stage of development, a dog could become socially retarded and not develop the necessary dog language skills to effectively interact with his own species.   This can lead to aggression and other behavior problems later.  

So you bring home the puppy at 8 weeks of age.  Now what? The puppy is in a prime socialization period. This is the proper time to safely expose the pup to other dogs and people.  The problem is you also need to protect the puppy from exposure to possible diseases such as Parvovirus.  It’s not advisable for you to take any puppy out in public places until they have completed a series of puppy vaccinations.  Your puppy might be 16 weeks old by that time.  That means you have lost a lot of very valuable time when the pups socialization and training window was wide open.  This is where a Puppy Head-Start Program is beneficial.   While you are waiting for your puppy to safely be able to go out into the world, you can bring the world to your puppy.   

Puppy Head-Start is where a trainer like myself or my assistant trainer Donna Blake come to your home and instruct you and your family on how to safely introduce your dog to socialization skills, obedience commands and problem prevention. It’s a good way ensure that your dog becomes a well mannered mutt.

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