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Location: UK
Joined: Mar 2013
Posts: 1,223
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Originally Posted by
kita
This article by David Appleby (looks at a number of studies) says that six weeks is the best time for pups to go to their new homes:
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/puppysocialisation1
Taken from above:
"What practical applications do we have that bear out the research? Guide Dogs for the Blind, who, until 1956, used to rely on the donation of adult dogs which they took on approval to maintain their training stock. The success rate of these dogs fluctuated between 9 and 11 percent and it was recognised that this could be improved if the association could supervise the rearing of puppies. These were purchased and placed in private homes at between ten and twelve weeks old or even later. Things improved, but the results were not good enough. It was Derek Freeman, who pushed to have puppies placed in private homes at an earlier age to optimise socialisation and habituation during the critical development period. Derek had a strong belief in Scott and Fuller’s work and importance of early socialisation and habituation in the production of dogs that were best able to survive and perform in the world at large.
Derek found that six weeks was the best time to place puppies in private homes; any later critically reduced the time left before the puppies reached twelve weeks; but if puppies were removed from their dam and litter mates before six weeks they missed the opportunity to be properly socialised with their own kind, which resulted in inept interactions with other dogs in later life. The training success rate soared because of this policy, which was carried out in conjunction with the management of the gene pool via the breeding scheme Derek also pioneered. Annual success rates in excess of 75 percent became common. You might think that this is a special scheme for dogs with a special function. In fact, what the scheme provides is adult dogs with sound temperaments."
Part Two tells you how to socialise puppies:
http://www.apbc.org.uk/articles/puppysocialisation2
Sue
I've read that article before but got to say I disagree with that bit.
First of all, there's no links or actual citations of those studies. There's no explanation how Derek Freeman 'found' that six weeks is the best period to take puppies away from their mother. I've tried to find that article but couldn't.
Puppies have clear vision only at the end of week 5, you can't seriously say that within a few days they get to see enough of their littermates so that they're socially well equipped to interact with dogs in the future in a confident way. So if a puppy goes to a new home when it's 6 weeks old, the new owners would have to extensively socialise it with other dogs for prolongued periods of time for the puppy to learn to speak dog. Social interactions in dogs are so complex that it's impossible to learn from a few encounters with dogs they don't know. There's also a risk to overwhelm the puppy with new information while doing this. While if the puppy stays with the littermates for longer, it learns dog language in a completely natural way, from it's family.
The socialisation period doesn't end by week 12, but it's more optimal beforehand. But in my opinion it is the breeder's job to ensure enough socialisation and habituation has been done with puppies they've reared. Also, there's conflicting studies about the development of puppies. Some say that they start the fearful phase between week 6 and 8, so if you take a puppy away from it's mother when it's 6 weeks old, and it enters the fearful phase, you're already setting it up for failure.
John Bradshaw says in 'In Defense of Dogs' that at 8 weeks, puppies are in the middle of the 'sensitive' phase and taking them out of their environment at that age and putting them into a completely new situation could stress them out enormously.
So while I agree with parts of David Appleby's article but not with the part where he cited Derek Freeman's study and conclusion that puppies are best homed when 6 weeks old.
The second part of the article explains how to socialise puppies doesn't really take into account socialisation with other dogs. It mainly talks about other people, children, places, household equipment etc. and only at the end and only briefly talks about socialisation with other dogs and there he merely says 'go to puppy classes'. Considering that he's advocating homing puppies at 6 weeks, before they've properly been socialised with their own species, he's really not taking much notice of the imminent necessity of socialisation with other dogs.
I find this quite worrying because most behavioural issues with dogs that aren't training issues, are dog-dog problems. Considering that most of those dogs haven't been properly socialised after leaving the litter and add to that the fact that reputable associations like the APBC promote early homing before proper socialisation even with their littermates, and you get a whole new generation of problem dogs.