9:50am Wednesday 27th February 2008
IT is essential we ensure a young puppy is well socialised, says local dog trainer Howard Kirby.
Too often, we see young dogs that have not been taught how to socialise and interact in human society.
Literally throwing themselves at humans and canines alike can lead to trouble for our pups as they develop physically and become bigger and more powerful.
Puppies leave their mothers and siblings at eight weeks of age.
They then spend much of their socialisation time with humans and miss out on the canine interaction they would have had if they had lived with their parents and pack.
Play with other pups would develop and stimulate both mind and body whilst interaction with adult dogs would teach the puppies manners and respect for their elders.
Just like a well-structured human family, the adult pack would teach a pup social skills, rules, boundaries, body and audible language, and, the really important bit, the ability to read all these subtle methods of canine communication.
These learned skills will be essential for the pup to interpret that canine Aunty Bessie will not tolerate him jumping all over her whilst swinging pain fully from her eyes.
This behaviour will irritate and hurt Aunty Bessie and failure to understand Aunty Bessie's body language and warnings may well result firstly in a growl - swiftly followed by a snap or even a bite.
Some human families fail to teach youngsters about society's expectations of them and this can lead to those individuals getting into trouble.
I am not about to try to teach parents the rights and wrongs of the way you raise your children but you will need to give some serious thought to how you raise and socialise your puppy in order to avoid the need for the canine equivalent of an ASBO.
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