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Puppies and their BehaviourThe Resource for Everything About Dogs |
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Puppies and their Behaviourby Philip Culver
It?s always interesting to bring home a new puppy and introducing the new puppy to the family is an unforgettable event. It is a fun moment for both yourself and your puppy. Unexpected puppy behavior is one of the first challenges you will have to face with the excitement of the new puppy. One of the common problems faced is the biting and mouthing problems. Biting and mouthing is a very common activity for many young puppies and dogs. They naturally bite and mouth each other when playing with siblings and therefore they behave similarly with their human companions. It is very important to train puppy what is appropriate, and what is not, when it comes to using those sharp teeth as humans do not have thick skin like puppies and dogs. In the first phase of training the puppy we must inhibit the biting reflex among puppies. Biting might be cute and harmless with a 5 pound puppy, but it is neither cute nor harmless when that dog weighs 20 or 40 pounds or more. It is before puppies and dogs reach the age of four months that they should be trained to control biting habit. Puppies usually learn to bite from their mothers and littermates. Since pet dogs and puppies are taken away from their mothers when they are young, so it depends on the humans to train puppies not to bite. Allow the puppy to play and socialize with other puppies and socialized older dogs to inhibit the biting reflex. Puppies bite each other constantly when they show love, tumble, roll and play with each other. This is the best way by which puppies can be controlled and their biting habit can be changed. The group will punish the puppy that becomes too rough while playing teaching them to inhibit biting habits. Being in socialized group of dogs and puppies also teaches the puppy to not be fearful of other dogs, and to work off their excess energy. Puppies that get less socialization can be more destructive, more hyperactive and exhibit other problem behaviors as compared to socialized dogs. Lack of socialization develops fearful and aggressive behaviors in puppies. Dogs react aggressively to new situations as they never learnt to be socialized. A puppy should be socialized to other people and children in order to become a member of the community as well as of the household. It is very important to introduce your puppy to both children and adults as puppies learn to make distinction between their owners and other people, and between children and adults. When a puppy is four months old or younger then it is the best time for it to socialize with young children. Reason to do so is that young children in the family may approach the dog or puppy and try to play against the wish of puppy. It is more dangerous with breeds of dogs that have a reputation for aggressive behavior. The other way of eliminating this problem is by using trust to prevent biting. The basis of dog training is to gain trust and respect from your dog. It is a very effective way to teach your puppy to trust and respect to prevent biting. During training or any other time never ever hit or slap the puppy. Physical punishment is the way to diminish the trust and respect of dog in you. To reprove severely will not stop a dog from biting rather it will simply scare and confuse him resulting in distrust in you. A vital part of any puppy training program is training a puppy not to bite. When it is a puppy it biting habit seems like harmless behavior but quickly escalate to dangerous, destructive behavior as the puppy grows to an adult dog.
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