A puppy’s body isn’t the only thing growing in the first 10 weeks. Their little brains are growing too!
Their eyes, ears and skin are feeding the brain a barrage of information on things they have ever seen, heard or felt before.
In the process, they are learning about their world. They are learning that humans are good, food is good and even the family cat can be pretty good!
They are also developing their emotions. They are learning to be happy, to be sad and to be afraid.
Unfortunately, their entire body doesn’t grow in a linear fashion. During those first 10 weeks, they enter a developmental “fear period” where their brains tell them that world is a very, very scary place.
One of these fear periods happens between week 7 and week 9.
We don’t know when a puppy will go through it or how bad it will be, but we do know that the puppy will wake up one morning inexplicably terrified. This fear period lasts approximately 5 days and we manage this time carefully. Puppies stay within the security of their littermates and we do our best not to expose them to any sudden sound or experiences.
If a puppy suffers an adverse event during this time, their fear reaction will last their entire life.
So yes, our owners have to wait a little longer and, yes, it is more time consuming and expensive for us, but puppy rearing done well is not going to be cheap or easy.
The difference between those 2 weeks and a lifetime is a pretty easy decision to make.
