Every dog that comes into my life will make an impact and often one that I never expected. With puppy ‘Storm’ I’ve done things a little bit differently than I did with Boss, Riva & Chica. I’ve been more ‘open’, not open to the ‘learning’ per say, but just open to whatever Storm had to give. Let me elaborate. All my previous dogs, I’ve taught the usual canine behaviours and with Boss and Riva I really honed in on adding some behaviour capture in the early weeks/months. But with Storm, I’ve mostly, at least 90% of everything i’ve done with her has been behaviour capture work, reinforcing her choices that I find desirable. The other thing that i’ve really honed in on has been to recognise her preferences. For example, what toys does Storm likes to play with and when does she like to play with them. What happens when she plays with certain toys and at the moment this has proven to be very helpful. At certain times of the day certain toys can result in a higher level of aroused behaviour. Leaving multiple toys on the ground can also cause over arousal, in fact I can only leave 3 things on the ground that don’t result in over arousal, a kong wobbler, a soother lickimat and a piece of black poly pipe, these 3 things are my constants for Storm and everything else is given or used at appropriate times. I feel that I know more about Storm in only 3 weeks than I knew about my others dogs in the first few months, I believe the result of this was me being able to identifying her behaviour change so quickly. The point is be open! It has allowed me a greater connection with this fabulous little girl in such a short period of time. Stay connected to my business FB Page and Instagram for the ‘Storm Chronicles’ as Storm starts puppy school on Tuesday night.
Read More5 Keys to Savvy Puppy Socialisation
Number 1 – How do puppies like to move into social interaction? To me, this is different than how does a puppy socially interact, it’s about engagement, not dissimilar to how we might initially meet people. Some people when they meet might hug you or not, they may offer their hand to shake, some are kissers and some have a personal bubble that all of the above might be considered to cross all manner of boundaries. I find puppies the same. I often observe puppies doing all manner of things when attempting to navigate the intricacies of social interaction. Some might move away and take their time to survey the social setting. Others might move in boldly and offer a required play bow to kick off the social invitation. A butt sniff or a stealthy rear end sniff of another puppy may occur or the ‘bull in the china shop’, racing in and blind siding their prospective participants. But why is it imperative that you learn your puppies preferences for engaging in social interaction? Let’s say your puppy takes it’s time to move into social interaction, then pairing your puppy with say a bull in a china shop is not a good social pairing, to do so means we are already putting our puppy on the path to an unsuccessful interaction. Selecting players of a similar style is critical in this early social learning period and a vital contributing factor in setting up for social success. Behaviour is ‘dynamic’, meaning that it is constantly changing and there are numerous factors that influence what is occurring at that time, on that day and in that specific environment. Understanding that changes of environment can create different responses just the same as different players can create a different play dynamic is important for us to learn. Again if we think about humans as an example, you might be more comfortable or confident in an intimate social setting as opposed to a large, loud setting which might make you feel more reserved or shy, so take the time to find out the various changes that might occur for your puppy when you change the environment. Here is a comment that we get almost weekly from our puppy owners that relates to environment, ’but my puppy is boisterous, confident and out going at home’ but they get that same puppy at puppy school and their…
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