Instructor Debby Miller: During this time period, you can have the most influence on a puppy’s behavior and what they’ll be like as adults. Their brains are still developing from 8 till 16 weeks of age. What puppies see during this time period and experience during this time period, they see as normal when they’re adults, so a puppy, for example, that never is around people during this age will act like a wild animal as an adult, so we want to expose puppies to different people, different situations, other puppies so they maintain dog/dog communication skills, and we have a variety of obstacles, steps and tunnels and things like that, for them get comfortable moving around in different places with.
Background voices: Excellent. Good boy.
Miller: There is a wide variety of information out there, and not all of it is good. Even some of the popular literature is not good, so we want them to have good scientifically-based information about animal behavior and learning so that they can do a good job and have the best likelihood of having a successful relationship with their pet.
Pet owner Warren Flood: I wasn’t real aware that there were so many philosophies on dog behavior and training, that, you know, there’s the pack mentality, there’s the behaviorist mentality, and it’s very rewarding to watch and use the positive reinforcement that she encourages us to use in the program. And, it’s been a lot of fun.
Vet student Chris Warrington: We don’t really get much exposure to behavior training in vet school. They focus on the medicine and some other aspects, but behavior kind of gets pushed to the wayside, and I think it’s a great opportunity to learn a skill that we’ll be able to use when we get out in practice for all the owners that come in with questions about their new puppies and training and a variety of other things.
Miller: As I said, people need to have good, scientifically-based information about companion animal behavior today. I think it’s a way that we can improve owner-animal relationships. We can make animals more comfortable in their lives, and also when they come to a veterinary hospital, and that’s one of the things we work on here also, is getting them comfortable with being handled and put on tables and things like that. I think that this is a very important thing and a way of education the community.
