Mon 1st June: Is there such a thing as a bad puppy?

What does it mean when someone says a puppy is "naughty"?  Puppies are babies without any concept of naughtiness but just like humans and any other animal, dogs are born with personalities and traits and how the puppy develops into an adult depends on several things.  It's the old question of nature versus nurture, meaning is anyone really born bad or does the environment and upbringing make a difference?

Mandy is lonely and needs an older friend

Take a puppy like Mandy who came from AFCD as a singleton.  That in itself means it's possible, even likely, that Mandy was separated from her mother and littermates at a very early age and has never learned those vital lessons about how to play and be social.  I really can't stress enough how important these formative weeks and months are for a puppy, and being deprived of interaction with others can have a lifelong effect.  We see this most with pet shop puppies, sold individually at a very young age and to buyers who have no idea about a puppy's needs.  We get adoption enquiries for puppies from people who are out at work all day meaning a puppy would be left alone, without companionship, play or training, so how do you think that will work out in the long run?

Mandy when she came to us 2 weeks ago

Going back to Mandy, she's a sweet, friendly, bold and very smart puppy girl, but she doesn't know how to play with the other puppies of her own age.  She's never learned that biting hurts because she's never been bitten by others, and this is exactly what puppy biting, or play biting, is about and why it's so important.  When you see puppies biting each other and really pulling hard with their teeth so the other puppy squeals, that's exactly how lessons are learned, and you shouldn't try to stop them.

It's not too late for Mandy to learn as she's still young, but she needs to be in a home with an adult dog or doglet, a larger one who can teach Mandy a few lessons.  Adult dogs know how to put puppies in their place and that's important, so again you shouldn't interfere when an adult growls or even snaps at an annoying youngster because that's part of the learning process.  If you can foster Mandy it would be immensely helpful to her learning and growth, and to the other puppies who are currently finding Mandy to be too rough.  Please contact Cindy at foster@hongkongdogrescue.com if you can help.

Byron went home with his new family today

In every litter, and especially with mixed breeds when there are so many and various genes floating around, you'll see the bossy ones and the shy ones within that same family.  That's why it's a mistake to choose any puppy based on looks alone, even though it's inevitable that people are drawn towards the cute ones.   However, how a puppy is treated and trained will even things out so that in adulthood the bossy pups, what we call the "thug puppies", and the sweet ones will all end up being normal, happy and well-balanced and integrated members of dog society.

To help with training and teaching both puppies AND their human families how to live together, we highly recommend this series of training videos from DogsTrust, the UK's largest dog rescue organisation.  If you follow the methods shown here you will find training easy and fun: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5nvaKq4_l25et0ysZByaig/videos  

(I should add that the exception are puppies taken from the wild whose parents were also born wild, and perhaps going back even further.  These puppies will have a genetic mistrust of humans that is very difficult to change.  These puppies are wild from birth and don't make suitable family pets no matter how much love they're shown.)