Learning Curve

So my wife and I had our first puppy school lesson on Wednesday. What a learning curve. We didn't know there was so much to do and consider when "raising" a puppy.

Pacey is now 12 weeks old and is still as crazy/energetic/psychotic as he was at 6 - 8 weeks (he is just a hell of a lot larger now). But that's normal. All puppy's are crazy... right? Well apparently, yes they are.

Dogs (whilst they have been domesticated for 20-30 thousand years or so now) still have the same hard wiring as their wild counter parts, and will act accordingly. They are natural carnivores, according to our puppy school teacher, so you must not get angry or frustrated when they seem to be misbehaving as a puppy. The only reason they appear to be misbehaving, is because they are acting that way from natural instinct.

One of the pups-gone-wild scenario is what can be referred to as "Psycho Hour". This usually happens around 4-6pm. The reason for it? When dogs were wild animals this was the time they hunted, as they're prey would be starting to settle in for the night making them easy targets for their nightly meal. Puppies still have this natural instinct, and while they may not know the reason for their abundance of energy, they will use it to reek havoc throughout the house.

Another interesting fact we learnt was that despite the domestication of dogs, they can still breed with wild wolves, dingos, african dogs etc and produce fertile offspring. Wierd, right!

The biggest lesson we learnt however, came when we were told about the "DO NOT DO" list when you bring a new puppy home. It included:
- Do NOT play tug-of-war with your puppy with their toys
- Do NOT pick up your puppy, even if you thing he is sad or hurt
- Do NOT rough up a puppy in a playfull way
- Do NOT let you puppy chew on shoes or clothing

Why, because all of these things count towards the dogs behaviour when he is a fully grown aduly. When playing tug-of-war and a puppy accidentally nips your hand, what would you do? Just say, "That's alright, he didn't know, were just playing." Well, the puppy will grow up thinking it is acceptable behaviour to bite hands and limbs... and that is something you don't want especially if there are children in your family.

"But I like picking my dog up, and I have to when he's hurt so I can comfort him"... again, when he is older he will think this is normal and will still want you to pick him up... and while picking up a German Shepherd puppy might be cute, trying to pick one up when he is a 40kg fully grown dog may not be as cute.

We came away from the class with a lot more information, and everything will be very usefull in the weeks to come. It is definately becomming quite a learning curve for us both, as we have not "raised" a puppy on our own before (we have had dogs in the family when we were kids). We have been told, that it will be good practice for when we decide to have kids...

Next week, Pacey goes in for his first lesson with 4 other puppies. I have no idea how he'll go, but I can guarantee you one thing, with 5 young puppies in one room together, it's sure to be loud!