Critical Socialisation Period 3 - 12 Weeks Old

Prue's puppies are now three weeks old. The Critical Socialisation period is scientifically defined as being from around 3 weeks until 12 weeks of age.

During this time little time and effort is needed to produce huge emotional changes. As the puppy gets older this socialisation window closes and greater time and effort is needed to produce even small emotional change. A puppy introduced to a new person at 3 weeks old will recover quickly from the introduction and soon realise that people are safe. A 8 month old dog introduced to people or an unfamiliar person may not cope well,  and will take so much longer to develop an understanding that people are safe for that dog.

At over 12 weeks of age there is a change in brain chemistry that makes it so much harder for the dog to cope with new, unfamiliar noises, people, dogs etc.

Socialisation is so much more than exposure to new and novel situations although this is obviously a big part of it. Dogs need to develop an understanding of social behaviour too, social behaviour around other dogs and social behaviour around people. Dogs need to become emotionally intelligent.

During the socialisation period the dogs need to become familiar with 7 key things;

• Communication

Puppies need to learn the dog and human communication skills that will allow them to communicate and function in our society as adult dogs.

• Emotional Stability

Puppies need to learn how to recover easily from fear and to be able to cope with stress in their every day lives.

• Habituation

Puppies need to be familiarised with different people, animals, dogs, and situations as possible during this time.

• Enrichment

Puppies need enrichment to be able to cope with novelty and challenge as adult dogs.

• Health

Physical as well as mental fitness

• Skills

Puppies need to learn behaviours that will help them to fit into our world.

• Love

Puppies need to learn to have the desire to seek out people and other dogs and see these experiences as emotionally positive experiences.

For more information on this see www.puppyculture.com