You learned these stages of development during Canine Body Language, hopefully this is a good refresher for you. This time we’re going to look at this information to understand how the age relates to keeping a dog safe during play. There are many factors that play a role in how we determine which pet is in which play group. Determining what stage the pet is in plays an important part.
Socialization Stage (2-3 Months)
From about 2-3 months is the socialization period for puppies. During this stage we want to help the puppy have fun and become well adjusted to other dogs. We want to keep puppies with other puppies or with very well-adjusted adult dogs of appropriate size. It’s best to keep puppies in small groups. It’s important to remember that puppies have very short attention spans during this time and to keep training to short 5 minute positive lessons. Always end on a good note. Their learning is permanent, so keeping all experiences positive will help the puppy grow to become a happy canine citizen.
Fear Impact Period 1 (2-3 Months)
During the fear impact period remember that you want to try to keep the puppy in a bubble. Traumatic experiences can have a lasting effect. Take extra care to make a puppy feel safe by monitoring it constantly, watching to make sure the puppy is having fun and ensure the adult dogs with the puppy enjoy the company of them and are well suited to the antics of puppies.
Seniority Classification (3-4 Months)
As the puppy gets a little older and begins to explore things a bit more, you’ll need to provide good leadership and management. And this you’re going to learn in a later module. Dogs begin to get more independent and more active in this stage. They need a leader who will patiently and oftentimes repeatedly, intervene to lower their arousal and guide them to appropriate activities.
Flight Instinct (4-8 Months)
You’ll remember from Canine Body Language that the flight instinct happens at four to eight months. During this time puppies will also be graduating into adult playgroups. You need to make sure to take things slowly if a puppy becomes nervous. Encourage the puppy with lots of praise and begin working on the “come” command to strengthen the desire for the dog to stay nearby and return to you if he starts wandering off.
Fear Impact Period 2 (6-14 Months)
Although the puppy will begin to look like an adult, remember that he’s still young and learning. Help to build confidence with lots of encouragement and praise. Also, it’s important to continue to match the puppy with the proper playmates. All of this positive play is like money in a safe deposit account. If the puppy can build up a healthy reserve of good play interactions, then when something negative does happen in the future, there is a good reserve fund for the puppy to draw from. So hopefully, the negative incident will not devastate him.
Keep in mind that the second fear impact period often occurs around the time a puppy gets spayed or neutered, and the owners often blame the spay/neuter or the vet’s office for the fear that they’re seeing in their pet. This is usually not the case, and it’s more likely something related to the age of the dog rather than something that happened at the vet’s office.
Maturity (1-4 Years)
As the dog matures, continue to monitor the arousal level. Playgroups with dogs that are one to three years of age can be very rowdy and you’ll need to intervene frequently. You’ll want to watch for signs of aggression, because most serious dog bites occur with dogs two to five years of age.
Senior Dogs (6 years and older)
For older dogs in our playgroup, we will want to provide them with a calm environment where they can hangout for social interaction and attention, but they may not enjoy the high energy antics of the younger dogs. The geriatric dog sometimes has house training issues and owners are looking for a safe, fun alternative for them.