Education, Initial Training Of A Puppy And Their Tasks

Raising a puppy means developing skills and habits that are useful for the owner. Education is aimed at teaching a puppy to timely perceive stimuli of the external and internal environment and to react correctly to them in order to facilitate its daily maintenance and subsequent training. At the same time, in the process of upbringing, the puppy is inhibited and eliminated unnecessary, harmful "habits". This achieves a comfortable and beneficial behavior of the puppy for the owner, his family members and those around him.

Initial training, sometimes called upbringing, is understood as the development of conditioned reflexes and initial skills in a puppy, which make it possible to control its behavior with the help of commands and gestures. Unlike the training of adult dogs, the initial training of puppies does not aim at teaching them immediately, clearly and reliably to follow commands in any environmental conditions, but only to respond correctly and execute them, even if not clearly and imperfectly enough.

A puppy is raised during the period of its rearing and initial training, so they are closely intertwined with each other.

The success of upbringing depends primarily on the conditions in which the puppy grows and develops. If these conditions are favorable: the puppy is kept in a light, dry, sufficiently spacious and ventilated room, has a full daily diet, and is provided with long walks and games every day, then it grows and develops well and is successfully educated. And vice versa, if the puppy grows up physically insufficiently developed, sickly, then its education will be less effective.

The success of upbringing also largely depends on how methodically correct it is and is carried out, which in turn is determined by the degree of preparation of the owner-educator of the puppy for this role, whether he has the appropriate knowledge and experience.

The owner needs to know the basics of psychophysiology of behavior and dog training. This will allow him to properly, competently handle his pet and effectively influence him in order to develop useful and inhibit harmful habits and habits. Therefore, we strongly recommend that you carefully read the relevant chapter in the service dog manual before you have a puppy. In our opinion, this issue is most fully covered by MM Ukrozhenko in the book "Service dog breeding" (M, DOSAAF, 1987). For those who do not have this opportunity, we briefly outline the main provisions of this important topic.

Animals, including dogs, are constantly exposed to the environment. One of them is pleasant, for example, the smell and type of food, the owner, etc., others are unpleasant: cold, heat, etc., and the third are neutral, having no vital significance. In addition, animals are exposed to irritants coming from the body in the course of its vital activity. As a result, the needs for food, water, etc. arise. Thus, the behavior of animals consists of a complex of various rather complex actions in response to stimuli coming from the body and from the external environment.

The most vital is the need for food and water, air, protection from enemies, rest after work, satisfaction of sexual desire for procreation.

Simultaneously with the emerging needs, the dogs manifest a variety of experiences (emotions): hunger, thirst, fear, anger, affection and love for the owner, etc. prolongation of the genus (reproduction).

How are these needs satisfied, how do animals, including dogs, adapt to life and prolongation of their kind in various, including unfavorable, conditions of their habitat?

An important role in this, especially in the first months of a puppy's life, is played by instincts - innate, hereditary abilities that manifest themselves in animals without prior training, as if automatically, regardless of their experience, and often in spite of it. These are food, protective, parental instincts, the instinct of freedom, etc.

Thanks to the parental instinct, at the birth of each puppy, the bitch gnaws and eats the amniotic sac, gnaws the umbilical cord, eats the afterbirth, carefully licks the puppy, pushes her muzzle to the nipples, etc.

Obeying instincts, a newly born deaf and blind puppy finds the mother's nipple and sucks milk, crawls to the mother and other puppies to warm up, whines to attract the mother's attention, and immediately withdraws its paw if it is strongly pressed or pricked.

Up to 3 weeks of age, puppies have enough instincts inherent in them and in the mother for a normal life. But as soon as the puppy begins to see and hear, rise on its paws and move away from the mother, instincts are not enough, life experience is required. There is a need for systematic education (training). In the first month and a half of the puppy's life, the mother takes over this work. She makes sure that the baby does not move away from her and is not endangered;