Bonding : Extra tips

Your dog is able to understand the volume, tone and length of words. When you call the puppy to you, use a higher tone and an excited manner so as to arouse its curiosity. When it reaches you, continue to sound excited and really pleased that the puppy came.

Much praise is in order at this time. In the wild, when dogs meet or prepare for a hunt, there is much physical contact and excitement, and this is also shown in their vocalizations. At other times you should speak softly to your puppy so that it is reassured of your affection for it. When you take it for a walk, draw its attention to things on the ground and it will inspect these and maybe paw at them or the ground.

What you are doing by such actions is involving the puppy with you. Your voice will come to be the singular most powerful training aid you have because, unlike touch, it is effective when your dog is at a distance. Likewise, arm movements are also an extremely important means of communication with your Puppy when it is at a distance, so by all means use them from the outset.

Everything about bonding must be done on a steady build-up basis and in such a way that there is never a risk that you might frighten the puppy. For example, if you see the puppy doing something wrong, such as pulling on drapes or the furniture, you should approach it as quickly as you can, but not so quickly that you startle it into flight. Never lunge down at it to pick it up, but do this slowly. Always let your puppy see what you intend to do.

This becomes crucially important if you do not have a thorough knowledge of how the puppy was treated in its previous home. Bonding is not something that is restricted by a time frame. It commences the very day you collect the puppy and continues throughout its life. Its progress will depend heavily on how much time you spend with the puppy. If it is left alone for long periods this will most certainly have a very negative effect on both its ability to be trained and in the amount it can learn. With the average puppy you should be able to achieve a high level of bonding within a few days, perhaps taking somewhat longer if the puppy is from a bad home.

With an older Puppy, say one from a rescue shelter, you must approach bonding very carefully because simple acts that present no problem with a puppy may frighten or threaten an adult. For example, placing your arm around a puppy should result in only pleasure for the puppy—but it could be an extremely threatening action to a dog that has been mistreated. With the average puppy there should be no problems in teaching it respect as it bonds with you. Indeed, this is an important part of its learning process.

Teaching it to respect you does not mean punishing in any harsh sense, but simply that it must learn very quickly that certain actions are not acceptable in its new pack. It must always be remembered that in the wild a puppy would learn many things concurrently. If you attempt to teach your pup one thing at a time, this merely allows more time for unwanted behaviors to become established and reinforced as part of the behavior. .