puppytraining

Puppy Training

Jackie Drakeford

Old style dog training started when the puppy was around a year old. Before then, it was left largely to its own devices in a world where dogs were allowed to roam freely and self-socialise. This is hardly an ideal way to raise dogs and the mortality rate was high. Some puppies, even nowadays, are kept in kennels untill their training commences at a similar age, and the result is usually a permanently anti-social animal that is a misery to have in company.

Modern dog training starts with the puppy as soon as it is off the dam, but that has its drawbacks too. Generally there is a biddable puppy with an enviable standard of obedience untill 6 months old, when the wheels come off big time and the puppy that was a rising star becomes the spawn of the devil overnight.

Before 6 months old, puppies are programmed to follow and to mirror adults. They are not programmed to discipline or deference. They eat before the adults, they can bounce on them, take food from them and generally pester them with only the mildest of rebukes. At adolescence, that all changes, and with the burgeoning hormones so do the puppies responses. So the puppy that followed at your heels and was glad to sit, come and fetch is now driven to challenge your authority and break away from your governance, just as it would if it were wild.

Once the turmoil is past, the age differing with each puppy, you should then have a young adult prepared to accept authority and follow direction. If you have laid sound foundations, they will hold good despite adolescent hiccups. If you have not, but the puppy is well socialised, you can still treain it to a good standard. The puppy left alone in kennels, however, may always be a misfit.

reprinted with kind permission from Alastair Balmain
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