In a session with a new puppy and owner this morning I was thrilled to hear her breeder had emailed all the puppy owners of the litter to make them aware of the upcoming fear phase that all puppies grow through, this litter are all coming up for 12 weeks, the onset of the 2nd round of the fear period.
What a great breeder to be following through on the wonderful start these puppies have had with more caring support for the owners and therefore the puppies.
I remember a time in my dog owning career, when I first learnt about the developmental stages of puppies and felt overwhelmed, knowing of this unseen threat to my puppy’s temperament, at least that is how I first saw this! I want to share what I have learnt about this that is most important during this critical phase of your puppy’s life, for puppies under 6 months do not look to get them to “tough it out”, the most common mistake many owners make that despite their intuition, they believe they will make the puppy feeble or scaredy if they baby them at all. Wrong!
Take the shepherd and his sheep training his new Border Collie puppy, how does he get them confidant around the sheep? He carry’s the puppy, often in his pocket, that way the puppy is higher than the sheep, the pup gets to observe how the sheep move when the shepherd moves toward them and in no time wants to join in, there would be little point in putting the puppy on the ground until he was keen. The other thing that happens while sheltering the puppy like this is the puppy sees the human as safety, a safe harbour, a good place to get to, especially if worried or scared.
We cannot protect out puppies from the fear period or things happening that frighten them, but we can demonstrate that we are their safe harbour, we will defend them and get them out of trouble. If your puppy shows signs of fear be the protector, either pick him up or get him far enough away that he feels safe and you will have a happy confidant dog that will run to you with confidence for life!
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