8 thoughts on “Dog and Puppy Development

  1. Love this chart. It was done with a great sense of humour.

    We got Georgia from the pound when she was about 8 months old so we missed a lot of the important ground work. She certainly came with fears and some socialising issues, not to mention ADHD. I hope we didn’t over exercise her, about 3 hours every single day! Despite that, she managed to destroy a lot of things and was never left alone for a year. We were prisoners of our dog LOL. Funny to think of it NOW ;)

    Isn’t it interesting that dogs instinctively want to do their business away from the den? Why then is it so difficult to housetrain some dogs?

    • Great question! Though dogs instinctively don’t want to toilet near their bed, they can get into the habit of toileting near their den, if they’re given the opportunity. If a pup is raised in soiled or dirty conditions, the pup never learns what ‘clean’ is and so never develops a preference for it. Similarly, adult dogs kept in filthy conditions (e.g. ‘puppy mill’ breeding dogs) often lose aversion to their own filth, as well.

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