Welcome to our December Newsletter.

The holiday season is upon us, the time of year when many puppies are found under the Christmas Tree. The DogSmith has always emphasized the importance of getting your puppy off to the very best start to ensure you will know the joy of a well socialized, well behaved, happy, confident dog that is part of your family so this is the perfect time to start planning for the first year of your puppy’s life.  The DogSmith website offers a wealth of free resources and a variety of classes to help you raise your puppy right.

The Critical Socialization Periods of a Pet Dog’s Life

There are key stages to a dog’s development where they are particularly sensitive to environmental influences.  Research indicates that behaviors conditioned during these sensitive periods are not easily changed in later years. Whereas genetics set the range for physical or behavioral traits your dog’s experiences during these important, early, periods will determine where within that genetically defined range a dog’s behavioral tendencies lie. Because of this, dogs should be introduced gradually and sensitively to the circumstances they will likely experience during their lives. Socialization is particularly important during the early sensitive periods and is critical to a dog’s learning during different phases of its development. Based on modern learning theory, DogSmith training programs emphasize and focus on socialization around the 6 to 8 week mark as this is considered the peak of the socialization period.

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What is a puppy?  For a DogSmith puppy class your dog must be under the age of 6 months.  However, a dog is not considered an adult until it is 12 months of age.

Download The DogSmith FREE Training Cards

It is a great idea to get your puppy into a well run and safe puppy class when it is several weeks old. Begin your puppy’s education before any problematic behaviors can develop. If you wait until your puppy is 4-6 months old, you will probably already experience some jumping or nipping problems and maybe some potty accidents. This means when you start your training program, at the same time you are trying to build appropriate behaviors such as ‘sit,’ ‘down,’ ‘come,’ ‘stay’ etc. you have to work on reducing the other problem behaviors. This often causes frustration for owners and this is when we begin to hear comments such as “my puppy is dominant” or “my puppy is stubborn” when really the puppy is just exhibiting the behaviors that it has learned from its environment during its early months of development.

At The DogSmith we encourage puppies into class at around 9 weeks of age; puppies are capable of learning some really nice behaviors even at this early age.  More importantly we can teach owners how to manage their puppy’s environment during these first weeks so they do not inadvertently teach the puppy inappropriate behaviors. The most important thing we need to teach our puppies is that training is fun and people are safe. If you want to raise a socially sound dog that can solve problems and live comfortably around your family then stay away from aversive and invasive dog training methods.

On our website you can watch some really nice videos of puppies that are just four months old demonstrating ‘sit-down,’ ‘stay’ behaviors, ‘come,’ ‘up,’ ‘off’ and ‘walk nicely.’ You can also download an e-Book that covers all the behaviors you can begin to teach your puppy using our proprietary MTR Program. These behaviors are categorized under management tools, relationship exercises and training skills. Feel free to grab a copy and begin working through them.

You can also get a copy of our DogSmith Skill Training Card for puppies.  Your local DogSmith covers these skills in your Puppy Class.  The specific skills taught will depend on the number and age of dogs in class and your individual goals. What you and your dog will learn from a DogSmith puppy class is how much fun training can be and that the working relationship between people and dogs should be easy, fun, effective and non-damaging both mentally and physically for you and your puppy.

DogSmiths Out & About

Bethany Jordan, The DogSmith of the Florida Panhandle and Southern Alabama, conducted an educational seminar for Cub Scout Pack #25 in DeFuniak Springs.  The seminar included a discussion on the importance of spaying and neutering and the Cub Scouts had the opportunity to see a dog’s heart infected with heartworms and learned how these worms infect a dog and how to prevent the disease.  Beth also taught the Cub Scouts how to safely approach dogs using the Doggone Safe curriculum and her own 3-legged pet Stretch.  Beth is a licensed Doggone Safe presenter and she presents dog safety using the Doggone Safe curriculum.  Doggone Safe is a non-profit organization dedicated to dog bite prevention through education and promotion of increased child safety around dogs.  If you represent a community organization or youth group contact your local DogSmith to find out what free educational programs may be available in your area.

Catherine Zehner

• Are committed to educating their dog and learning to truly communicate with it
• Enjoy working, playing and spending time with their dogs
• Integrate their dog into their family and are willing to teach it how to live in human society
• Recognize and understand the value, effectiveness and power of force-free training methods
• Are dedicated to optimizing the physical, social and mental well-being of their pets