Long Story short…
This is an absolutely exciting moment of your life – bringing a pup into your house. Most of us choose a dog as a companion. They do become our family members, our close and trusted friends. But when we start treating our furry friends as if they are “little people”, then we often face some issues in dog’s behaviour. Why? The very simple answer is – dogs are dogs and should be treated and appreciated as such.
Ages of domestication and selection made dogs highly adaptive to diverse human environment and above all of that stays the major one – their attachment to us. No, they are not “pack animals” as most of us used to think.
Dogs are dogs. We do share some basic emotions/feelings like fear, anger, stress, happiness and… yes, love. They do really love us and miss us when we are away. There would not be any bonds between us without emotions. What can we learn from it? Should we just stay home or give our dog to puppy nursery or bring a pet sitter when we are at work? No. The simple answer is – we need to teach our pets that staying alone is not a catastrophe but rewarding because we reunite. We need to properly expose our puppies to all range of different people, kids, situations, noises etc so you face no fear induced aggression or separation disorders in future.
The crucial period is from conception (yes, that is why it is important not to get puppies from puppy farms/mills as stressed mother living in miserable environment most likely will have puppies prone to separation disorders and fearful aggression) to about 11-12 weeks. By all means, puppies will still be adaptive later on up to about 10 months of age but the process will be relatively slower and at some point some issues may not be resolved at all.
