Puppies 4-6 weeks

Week 4 to 8 is when change is occurring rapidly for baby puppies.

This blog will deal with the changes in week 4 – 6. In the last blog (click here) I was talking about the puppies being still very much in the xpen. From 5 weeks of age they start to find out ab0ut the big wild world outside of the pen. This has to be done with caution of course as they are susceptible to many diseases and accidents at this age. They have fairly good immunity from disease still from mum but it is not good for them to be in environments where the disease or vaccination status of other animals is not know. As they are tiny they also must be carefully supervised around even the best tempered adult dog. Baby dogs like human babies have no comprehension that a growl is in fact a signal to back off. They just keep coming and can be far to “in the faces” of adult dogs.

Week 4 to 6 milestones are:

• Now going out and about. They would have been outside more but the weather was too wet and the ground too muddy. However they went into a specially constructed pen in the training center for a few days a week initially then for 5 days in week 6
• They got to meet new people
• They carefully started interaction with selected adult dogs.
• Recall training is started (off lead using pup, pup, pup whenever I wanted them to come to me).
• Toilet training is started. They are praised for all wees and poos outside. When getting out of the car they are released from their car carrier and placed on the ground where the natural instinct is that most puppies wee. They are told what clever dogs they are and if possible given a treat
• Car training starts – in a secure car crate
• Mum helps with all of this training and starts to wean them off her milk
• Different food sources are introduced
• Puppies start to explore their environment.
• Relationship with humans deepens greatly mostly via the provision of food and fun
• They play more and more with each other and bite inhibition is learnt.
• A good day/night regimen is formed.
• Separation anxiety is guarded against by letting them spend time alone away from humans.
• The start of grooming and handling training by touching feet, noses, ears, mouth etc.
• They learn that humans are associated with rewards that are delivered for when a behaviour happens that is acceptable. At this age there is only use of +R  and a very light amount of -P (in that if they are whining they don’t get attention) However the owner should be ensuring that no whining occurs as all needs should be predicted before that point.