We always talk about how critical the puppy phase is for building our relationship and raising a confident and happy dog.
And it is true. We take these little beings who are often feeling displaced in their new environment, and we provide calm guidance and teach them how to communicate through consistency and repetition.
However, setting them up for success as puppies is just the beginning. Our dogs need our leadership at every stage of their life to maintain social harmony.
In that brief quiet space between puppy and adolescence it is easy to become complacent thinking we’ve done puppy school and our pup is good to go. But every stage is just as critical as the puppy phase and we do them a disservice if we don’t continue to teach, train, guide, and advocate for them.
In the adolescent period (approx. 17 weeks to 2/3 years) our pups are starting to test boundaries, get bored easily, become more energetic and adventurous (or maybe more fearful). They display behaviours that some people may see as disobedience, rather than a sign they need greater guidance. Their humans get frustrated and often embarrassed. They might stop including their puppy in outings and “wait for them to grow out of it”. It’s often where they consider band aid approaches like getting a second dog. It’s also the time when people consider giving up their dog or, in some cases, “behavioural euthanasia”.
When they mature into the adult period (approx. 2/3 to 5/6 years) and they haven’t really grown out of it, everyone has become used to the adolescent behaviours (good and bad) but start to get angry and more frustrated at new behaviours like excessive barking, territorial behaviour, aggression, and resource guarding. But if you look at it from the dog’s point of view, they are often just stepping up to take matters into their own hands where they have not been provided the guidance or certainty they needed.
Then in the senior period (approx. 7 years +) there is sadness at the demise of a loved member of the family and age-related excuses made for nervous behaviours, pacing, licking, “selective hearing”, and vocalising. From the dog’s point of view, they may be feeling displaced, uncertain, restless, agitated, and looking for reassurance and calm guidance - just like when they were pups.
Age doesn’t fix things. The challenges just change to something else. The one constant should be us and our leadership.
At every stage of life, we need to provide age-appropriate food, shelter, boundaries, rules, guidance, mental and physical outlets, advocacy, love, and affection.
When they get to the end of their life and we did all those things instead of waiting for them to grow out of it or get over it, we know we gave our dogs the best we could. We gave them certainty.
Image: Pixaby.com
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