Delta Update

This picture looks simple enough, but it represents an enormous milestone for Delta. After nearly four weeks we’re finally able to touch her without her ducking away or evading us. Harriett made the breakthrough a few days ago and I was able to pet her for the first time this morning. Twice! She’s got a long way to go and it’s going to take many more months of patient work to help her gain confidence, but she’s made real progress.

After basic health issues, puppy socialization is the most important thing we deal with as foster parents. The window of opportunity to shape a puppy into a friendly, well-adjusted dog is very narrow. Puppies are most receptive to new experiences from weeks 3 through 12. After that 12th week they are much more cautious about anything they haven’t encountered before. The opportunity to socialize a puppy declines very quickly from weeks 12 to 18, and after that it can be nearly impossible to get a puppy to accept something it finds frightening. This is the challenge we face with Delta.

Many people who get a new puppy assume that “socialization” means having a few people pet or play with their pup and maybe having the puppy play with a few other pups in a “puppy class”. But it’s much more than that.

That short, eight to ten week socialization period must include such diverse experiences as different flooring surfaces—wood, tile, carpet, grass, gravel, concrete, etc.; different types of toys; all manner of noises heard in a typical household; a wide variety of people, male and female, of various ages, sizes, and types; a wide variety of dogs of various breeds and ages; and so forth. Some people use the “Rule of Twelve” described by Margaret Hughes in her book Positive Paws Dog Training (© 2002) as:

By the time a puppy is 12 weeks old*, he/she should have:

• Experienced 12 different surfaces
• Played with 12 different objects
• Experienced 12 different locations
• Met and played with 12 new people
• Heard to 12 different noises
• Been exposed to 12 fast moving objects
• Experienced 12 different challenges
• Be handled by owner (and family) 12 times a week
• Eaten from 12 different shaped containers
• Eaten in 12 different locations
• Played with 12 different puppies (or safe adult dogs) as much as possible.
• Been left alone safely, away from family and other animals (5-45 minutes) 12 times a week.
• Experienced a leash and collar 12 different times in 12 different locations.

Less well known is that there is another, overlapping period from weeks 8 through 11 called the Fear Imprint Period. During this period the puppy is highly susceptible to conditioning from pain and fear. An experience that scares the puppy during this time may result in a dog who is afraid of similar circumstances for the rest of its life. That’s why it’s not uncommon for people to adopt a well adjusted puppy at 8 weeks of age, but have it regress and become fearful of certain situations or people after it goes to its new home.

We often meet people who tell us that a dog they adopted “must have been abused” because of a fear it has shown. I believe the incidents of actual abuse are very low. Most often in these cases the fault lies with poor socialization, not abuse.