Wednesday, 6 July 2011

Puppy Training

So this week I was called out to see a 4 year old dog who was scared of noises. It transpired that the root cause of the problem went right back to his puppy hood. The owners took the puppy to his new house at 14 weeks old, and the puppy had been brought up in a farm byre prior to then.
Now, the remarkable thing about dogs is their adaptability, and this fantastic dog (lets call him Rover) has grown into a great family pet - apart from his noise fear. This is not just a problem for the dog, but it had reached the stage where walking the dog was a problem - he'd almost turned agoraphobic.
Anyhow, this served to remind me that it may be a help for prospective new puppy owners to make sure that they get good advice when buying a new puppy. The best age to get your puppy is about 7 weeks. At this stage they are still open to learning lots of new things and also they don't FEEL fear (to much).
Please don't be persuaded to get a puppy that's been brought up in a farm byre, and also make sure they're around 7 weeks old.