At this stage of their development puppies DO NOT experience fear. They have a startle reflex, but not true fear. This is the prime time to create a very important pattern in their brain:
Startle -> Recover -> Curiosity -> Exploration
We can teach them how to recover from an unexpected experience without running any risk of actually frightening them! Puppies that learn how to recover from unexpected stimuli grow up to be dogs that are not scared by unexpected, surprising situations later in life
In this video, I dropped a dog bowl outside of their pen. You can see the pups react to the noise the first 3 times, but by the 4th they had NO reaction! I'll use several everyday objects to startle the pups; shutting doors, dropping items on the floor, etc. As they get older they will not only recover from the startle, but actually begin to approach the item I use to explore with their little tails wagging.
These exercises help me to build the puppies confidence and teach them to be enrichment seekers who aren't intimidated by new items/experiences.
We use cookies to analyze website traffic and optimize your website experience. By accepting our use of cookies, your data will be aggregated with all other user data.