Before you buy a puppy, always consider the temperament and social behaviour of their mother too.

Before we get started with the crucial periods in the life of a puppy, on which the breeder has influence too, there’s another important topic regarding puppy socialisation and character. The dam, her social behaviour – and the development of each puppy within the womb. You might ask yourself, what puppy development in the womb has to do with dog training. A lot. Depending on the social behaviour of their mother, the puppies will be stimulated and ‘educated’ before they are born. For example… a dam behaving reactive or hostile toward other dogs/ children etc during her pregnancy. On her daily walks, she is producing stress hormones whenever she acts out. And that has an effect on the unborn puppies. In each situation her puppies will experience stress and eventually fear, because they receive the same hormones, causing the same mental stimulation for the puppies. Later on, while socializing of a puppy this ‘learned behaviour’ can trigger the same reaction towards other dogs or other environmental influences, caused by ‘familiar’ hormones. A puppy that experienced mainly good hormones in his mothers womb, receives the matching software coding as his mother. Therefore a puppy levelling high on stress hormones could develop into a reactive, anxious puppy. If the mother displays reactive/fearful behaviour (to whatever situation) postnatal too, it can influence the puppies own behaviour additionally to the flowing hormones.

Hormones also play a part in development of sex related behaviour. If there is only 1 female born within a litter of males, the female will receive autonomically more testosterone. This might result in a female showing a more masculine behaviour. Same goes for females positioned between 2 males in the uterus horns. Females showing male traits does not have to be necessarily negative. It could result in a mental and physical strong female with a laid back but possibly more dominant temperament.

Fear Stages in puppies are normal, and every puppy will experience them, each of them in a different intensity, same as children. It’s a part of the developing process and neither good nor bad. It’s simply what you do with it. People often ask so much of a puppy. Confidence in every situation, not fearing anything while being overwhelmed by all senses at the same time with a brain not working effective enough yet to process it. And on top of that, everyone wants to touch you. You wouldn’t ask that of your baby or 2-year-old, would you? Then why we do this to our puppies? There will be moments, when puppies act differently from one day the next. In both ways. You will sense such a breakpoint clearly when it happens.

Take your time for each of the stages, let your dog make own experiences and decisions, be a trustworthy guardian. Stay consistent and calm, don’t rush it and keep your puppies’ needs in mind too. A puppy can learn and trust quickly with any age, so don’t panic when you miss a development stage. Patience, structure and trust will get you through all stages and you will have a great buddy once he matures. You are the one who makes the difference, based on your approach.