Puppy Training and Preparation
The Neonatal State: Puppies Grown with Love
Our pup program starts at pregnancy. We give our mothers tons of scratches and love, because we know that translates into happier, calmer puppies.
When a pregnant dog is pet, science tells us that her little becomes more docile. This is called the “gentling,” “petting,” or “caress” effect, and is even furthered when newborn puppies are held and loved on. According to M. W. Fox in The Dog; Its Domestication and Behavior (1978), this activates the puppies’ parasympathetic system - which helps to promote relaxation, digestion, emotional attachment, and therefore socialization. This, in turn, helps to develop the puppies’ innate sense of attachment to the persons or animals that soothes them.
Dogs’ tactile capacities develop before birth, and Dr. Joël Dehasse argues that when the mother is petted, it’s possible that these capacities become used to contact in the uterus. When puppies’ mothers receive increased amounts of love during pregnancy, the puppies show a greater tolerance to touch than dogs who are born from a mother that was not petted.
For more information, please see Dr. Joël Dehasse, “Sensory, Emotional and Social Development of the Young Dog.” Ultimately, our puppy program is how we breed stable dogs. This is our ultimate goal!
Startle Recovery: Programming the Brain
Nature gives us an amazing window of opportunity between about 14 days when ears and eyes are open to about 4 1/2 weeks old. During this time, puppies have no fear response. At this age, puppies are not capable of a “fight or flight” response, so nature has decided that although they will still have a startle response, they will not experience any fear. How great is that? During this time (and only this time!) we can do what is called a “startle response exercise” to teach the brain to recover from startling experiences. This is one of the most important exercises that we do with our puppies, as it will prepare them for their lives out in the world.
In the video, you can see that after hearing a loud noise, the puppies freeze for a couple of seconds and then to back to their business instead of trying to hide due to fear. This is great news! It works! And it works for a lifetime.
Promoting Well-being Through Conditioned Emotional Responses
I grew up in Northern California and during the winter months. Most Thursdays, my parents took us out of school to go snow skiing at Lake Tahoe. I can still smell the cold air and hear the muffled sounds of the skiers. I remember flushed cheeks, picnic lunches on the hood of our Pontiac Grande Prix, and finding the clean snow to make slushies with flavored sodas. I also remember the winding roads and 8 track of John Denver lulled me to into a peaceful sleep.
Nowadays, whenever I hear John Denver, my mind fills with these beautiful memories. My physical being relaxes and happiness overwhelm me. We all have at least one… a favorite vacation, the smell of the air of our favorite season… It was a short time in my lifespan that I had these experiences, yet they elicit such a strong physical response! Why? Because of something that we call the “conditioned emotional response.”
Now, take a tiny puppy in the first 8 weeks of life. We pair the feeling of well-being during nursing with a sound of thunder, fireworks, playground noises, traffic noises, or a host of other possible scary sounds. As we build the puppy’s association between these “negative” events with the “positive” of nursing, we have created a response opposite of what it would normally be. Fireworks and thunder can elicit a feeling of warmth, comfort and well-being. It takes only a few minutes of sound paired with nursing or eating food to condition a wonderful response. You may see some breeders playing these sounds for lengthy periods of time as pups are just "being," but when breeders pair it with nursing/eating… then you know they have the science behind them. Good breeders do things because they just have instinct that something is right or good to do. Great breeders do it because they understand the science behind it and can apply it to your pups world in a way it will impact their lives!