Now that you’ve paid in excess of triple digits for your new puppy, learn how you can aid your puppy with developing into a successful and competent working dog. Choosing a dog with a strong genetic background is vital. Genetics alone do not make a good working dog. Without proper training and upbringing, your new puppy is not likely to reach his/her full potential. Whether your goal is Schutzhund, Agility or Obedience, the first year of your young dog’s life is the most crucial for his/her development. Within the first year he will learn how to view the outside world, how to interact with other animals, and how to view people.

Up until the age of 8 -12 weeks, depending on the breeder, your puppy has received social structure from its dam (mother) and litter mates. Within these first weeks, puppies learn how to interact with their litter mates and adult animals such as his/her dam or other dogs in the kennel. From the time the puppy is born its litter mates and dam are a security blanket, a source of strength. If you have ever watched a litter interact, you will notice they stick very close together and rarely wander off within the first 6 weeks. Many different types of puppy tests focus on this interaction within the litter and how the puppy handles himself without the litter. A litter of puppies sometimes reminds me of a gang of kids… What one kid might not do alone, he is more likely to do within a group because he feels much more brave when around peers.

Even today’s top working dogs needed positive reinforcement at a young age. Imagine yourself as a puppy for a moment. One day you’re happy-go-lucky and feeling comfortable in your surroundings, then out of the blue, you’re swept up and shoved into a box only to end up in an alien environment without anyone you know. Even the best puppies feel some stress when this happens. In my opinion, puppy-raising is all about teaching a puppy how to deal with stress. Have you ever noticed what a puppy does when you first bring him home and he meets your cat or strange dog? Unless your puppy is rock solid in his ability to handle stress, you will see him bark in a different manner and the hair on the back of his shoulders might stand up. These are both signs of stress and of his/her not knowing how to handle the situation. However, in a dog this young, this type of behavior is not all bad and is to be expected in some cases. Many new dog handlers will misread this as aggressive behavior, but when the puppy shows these types of signs he is not saying "I want to attack,” but in most cases, he is merely trying to make himself appear bigger and more formidable. He does this in hope that the source of said stress will go away.

Now that you have a little more understanding of canine stress and what some of the signs are, how can you help your puppy deal with it? One of the worst mistakes we can make in raising a working dog is by not helping a puppy get over his fears. Puppy-raising is much like cooking, you know what you would like your end result to be, you just have to add the right ingredients, at the proper times to achieve it. Case in point, puppies are notorious for barking at fire hydrants even though they pose no threat. To them, it’s a predator that's just waiting to pounce on them. If your puppy goes through life not getting over this fear of strange items like the fire hydrant, his working career will be decidedly brief.

Remember what I said about how a puppy views his dam? Well, now he’s going through life without that source of comfort-- or is he? Although his new pack mates are not of the canine variety, the same pecking order and source of comfort exists. Picture the litter and its dam walking down the street and they come across this strange object in their path. Most likely the puppy would not think twice about approaching it. Why? Because the dam has no problem handling it, that must make it ok. This same analogy applies to owner-puppy relationships.

Not sure what you should do? If you’re thinking you have to get down on all fours and bark at the object, you’re close but a little off yet. As humans, there is only so much we can understand in how a dam raises a litter, but we can learn from watching her. In many aspects the dam is telling her young puppies, "OK, watch me. This is how you do it.” We can see this in her body posture and in any vocalizations she may make. If your puppy is nervous about something, you need to take on this role of motherhood by saying something like "C'mon puppy, it’s ok. See? This will not hurt you.” Also, make sure you go over to the source of stress to show the puppy that you are not afraid, and it will bring him no harm. These two things are very basic. Depending on your puppy’s temperament it might take much more. When helping a puppy to overcome stressful situations, one thing that helps is to keep the puppy’s attention on something besides the source of stress such as food or a toy. If the puppy refuses to approach the stress, try taking a ball and playing with him first at a distance away from the source of stress. Then continue by getting closer and closer to the stressful stimulus as his focus remains on you and the ball or food. When your puppy learns the source of his stress is nothing at all, be sure you enforce this overcoming of his fears by praising him profusely and / or rewarding him with food. If all this is done correctly, he will look to you as a source of comfort and strength that will, in return, carry on into his adult life.

Here are a few key notes to go over before choosing a puppy. Every puppy will handle stress differently, you must learn how to read it in your puppy and learn different ways to help him overcome it. If your goal for this puppy is to use them for breeding, you will want to learn more about temperament. If you have to spend months and months helping your puppy overcome stress, you may want to have his temperament evaluated by a professional who knows how to properly test puppies. Not handling stress is indicator of poor / soft temperament and should not be promoted in any breeding program. Every puppy in a litter has a slightly different type of temperament and personality. Before choosing your next working dog, learn how to accurately test for solid temperament. This will save you from spending an inordinate amount of time on his overcoming stress than needed, so you can focus on actual training.