Critical Periods

The following is an except from The New Knowledge of Dog Behavior, by Clarence Pfaffenberger.

It is unlikely that any discovery made about dogs in recent times is quite as important to dog breeders and owners as that of the critical periods in the life of a puppy revealed through the extensive research by Dr. John Paul Scott and Dr. John L. Fuller at Hamilton Station, Roscoe B. Jackson Memorial Laboratory, Bar Harbor, Maine.

At Jackson Laboratory Dr. Scott and his associates studied hundreds of puppies as they grew up with their mothers and litter mates and were trained by human attendants. He has found the social development of puppies can be divided into definite periods based on the beginning and ending of certain important social relationships inherent in all breeds.

The first critical period is approximately the first twenty days of a puppy's life. It averages about the first nineteen and a half days. There is a slight variation, which may be due to the length of time the bitch carries her puppies, for all bitches do not carry their puppies sixty-three days while a few carry them longer. Thus, some puppies may be more mature when born. For this reason a slight variation may occur in the length of the first critical period, but with all puppies of all breeds it is complete by the twenty-first day and is a sharp break. The critical part about the first twenty days is survival. Warmth, food, massage, and sleep are the things a puppy needs for this period.

At Bar Harbor, provided that socialization was started at the end of three weeks, no difference in the attitudes and attachments could be noted between the puppies who were raised in the puppy nursery and those who were raised in the acre fields. This added evidence that environment has no effect on the puppy until it is twenty-one days of age.

Beginning at the twenty-first day the puppy can see quite well, and can hear and smell. From now on, environment plays its part in the development of the dog. Suddenly the big world about him is opened up to his attention and he needs his mama very much. He can be handled, however, and socialization can start so that he will start to form attachments to human beings. For the next four weeks his brain and nervous system are developing, and at the end of seven weeks of age they have the capacity of an adult, but, of course, not the experience.

During these four weeks puppies socialize with their mother and litter mates and thus form their attachment to other dogs. This is the normal thing for them to do, and plays a very important place in the well-rounded development of a dog. If they are taken from their mother and litter mates before the end of the seven weeks, they miss some of their canine socialization and show less interest in dog activities than if they are left the full seven weeks. It has been our experience at Guide Dogs for the Blind that the puppy who does not complete his seven weeks of canine socialization is often the same dog that, when grown, picks fights with all the strange dogs he meets.

During the four weeks from twenty-one days to seven weeks of age playing, and even play fighting, begins. In some of the breeds this becomes quite serious fighting, and an order of dominance is begun.

For two reasons --- (1) the puppy's need of socialization with other dogs, which makes it desirable for the puppy to remain with its mother and litter mates until it is seven weeks old; and (2) the fact that a dominance order is developing which can have a lasting effect upon the individuals, making bullies of some dogs and underdogs of others ---- it is believed that the ideal time for the puppy to go to a new owner is at approximately seven weeks of age, which is also a good age for weaning it. The two things are probably best accomplished at the same time.

Experiments at Bar Harbor showed that when puppies were taken away from their mother and litter mates about the end of the fourth week of age and given a great deal of human attention they became very socialized to human beings, often forming such attachments to people that they did not care about other dogs. Some even expressed sexual desires toward human beings rather than dogs. Some were almost impossible to breed.

It is the natural thing, of course, for a dog to become socialized with its kind. It is believed that the fact that these individuals did not have this canine socialization with their own family continuously, until they were seven weeks of age, caused the unnatural results.

Socialization with human beings, by taking the puppy from the nest and giving it personal affection and some little training as early as five weeks of age, was found to be desirable. Thus, attachment to people is begun and the puppy begins to feel the importance of being an individual; this counterbalances its dominance experience with the litter, and it still learns to get along with other dogs. The frequency of the interval and the length of time devoted to each puppy during the socialization period may vary and still be effective. But regularity is probably very important. At Hamilton Station the puppies get regular attention six days a week at approximately the same time each day.

The third critical period, from forty-nine to eighty-four days of age (i.e., seven to twelve weeks), Dr. Scott found to be the best time to form the man-dog relationships, and an attachment by the puppy which will permanently affect the attitude of the dog to human beings and his acceptance of direction and education. Considerable teaching can be done at this time, much as a child in the beginning grades learns things which are to become the foundation of his education.

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During the second and third critical periods the puppy should have much individual attention to establish its self-importance as an individual. At this time it learns that it can be a co-worker with its human teammate. While training may be more or less in the form of games, the "pack instinct," which every dog inherits, may be cultivated by teaching it to work together with its master for the mutual good of both. The result is that the dog of its own accord yields to its human leader's control. Never again will the human partner be able to bind the puppy to him, or shape his character traits to follow the pattern which he wishes them to follow, as he can during the second and third critical period.

From twelve to sixteen weeks of age is the fourth critical period in socialization. This is the age of cutting. At last the puppy, if allowed any freedom, cuts its mother's apron string and declares its independence. It wanders away from the nest alone or with a companion; it gets into mischief; it cuts its teeth both literally and figuratively. At this age it can still be socialized to human beings. It can be started in training. It will never make up, however, for anything lost through neglect in earlier training. This is the time when man and dog decide who is boss. Serious training can and should be started --- a transition from play-training to disciplined behavior.

A puppy who has had no socialization before it is sixteen weeks of age has little chance of becoming the sort of dog that any one of us would want as a companion. Playing with the litter has some socializing effect, but it misses the important things: the development of the individual as a companion, and as an individual with self-confidence. There is nothing in socialization which develops a puppy to his highest potential faster than the simple expedient of taking him entirely away from the other dogs and having a pleasant session of just getting acquainted, or of fairly serious training.

At this age he needs to be free of distraction. If the trainer feels he needs to be accustomed to distraction, that can come once he is well trained and has complete self-confidence. There is no point in making it hard for a puppy to learn either how to obey, or to pay attention. The more ideal the surroundings, the better results will be possible. The puppy must come to feel that he is an important individual before the maximum results can be accomplished.

The time is so short --- from twenty-one to one hundred and twelve days in all (thirteen weeks all together) --- and once it is gone it can never be retrieved. The implications of what this short time means in the development of a dog are so great that it well behooves puppy raisers to employ this time wisely. It can never be made up at an older age.

Reprinted with permission.
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