Raising a Confident, Well-balanced Canine
One of the most frequent questions I am asked is ‘How early should I start training?”. The answer is….the minute you get your dog. The relationship you build and experiences you give your dog are immediate. Think about it. While your pup is still part of his/her pack, he is constantly learning from his litter-mates and his mom with every interaction they have. Since we are bringing them into our world, we essentially take on the role of mom and pack.
Imprinting happens during those crucial weeks of 8-16 weeks. What your pup learns and experiences in this window of time will affect his adult behavior. Between these weeks is when we expose your dog to as many new sights, sounds and experiences as absolutely possible.This is the time frame your puppy learns his/her life skills. So if you are planning on getting a puppy or just brought one home between the ages of 8-12 weeks, NOW is the time to sign up for puppy imprinting! Making sure your puppy is properly guided in social settings at this critical imprinting period is crucial to to his/her confidence level.
Giving our dogs exposure to our world is fantastic, but we must be conscious about doing it properly. The key is to make it a happy, positive experience. We must TEACH our puppies that the scary things in the human world aren’t so bad. How do we do this? By associating them with positive things such as their food or play….CONSISTENTLY. The goal of Puppy Imprinting is to lay the groundwork for your puppy to grow into a well-mannered, confident dog. Every situation is an opportunity to mold your pup’s thinking and mindset. We must take advantage of that and I will show you how as well!