The Natural Way: Puppy Development

Plenty of physical exercise is crucial to happy, well-developed puppies. They play hard until they tire; then they rest.

Betsy and I believe the first six months of a puppy’s life is crucial to its development. We put tremendous effort into preparing the puppy for situations it will encounter as it matures.

Everyday examples include exposure to different people, exposure to dogs of different ages, introduction to water and getting comfortable going into a crate and loading into a dog box. In early training exercises, exposure to birds, marker training, leash training and spending time on a stakeout chain are all extremely valuable.

Time on a stakeout chain teaches puppies to be comfortable with restraint. In addition, they learn to give to the chain when another puppy moves around.

A simple and often overlooked key to a happy, balanced puppy is plenty of physical exercise. Our puppies spend mornings in the exercise pens and go for walks of suitable length in various places.

Essential to how we develop puppies is that we rarely force the puppy to do a desired behavior. Instead, we set up the puppy to succeed by making the right choice easy and the wrong choice difficult. We then reward it with a treat when it chooses the desired behavior. We say very litte to the puppy, using verbal cues only when it has learned the behavior. This teaches the puppy to think.

Life experiences, though, are not all positive. Often, puppies learn more from choosing the wrong behavior and suffering the consequence. For us, jumping up on people and excessive barking are two undesirable behaviors that are met with soft “bonks” from a “bonker,” a rolled-up and taped hand towel.

Most behaviors are taught during the normal course of the day. When specific training is required, we keep the sessions very short, usually five minutes or less.

Below are five videos of puppies during our development process this summer. Enjoy!

Tink, Molly and Queen (RU-CH Northwoods Atlas x Houston’s Nelly Bly) are introduced to navigating a stream crossing.

How easy is this? With their bowl of dog food as enticement, littermates Rudolph and Cupid (CH Southern Confidence x Northwoods Comet) can’t wait to load into a truck box.

Fifteen-week-old sisters Tink, Molly and Queen (RU-CH Northwoods Atlas x Houston’s Nelly Bly) learn to use their noses and read littermate’s body language around birds.

Molly learns to choose behaviors that will earn a treat.

Boots (RU-CH Northwoods Atlas x Northwoods Stardust) learns an invaluable lesson. During the first few bird contacts, young puppies often stay on point because they are not bold enough to jump in on the bird. We never flush the birds on these early contacts; instead we allow the puppy time to jump in and flush the bird itself. The puppy becomes bold and confirms that it had the bird well located.

Mary Oliver: Pulitzer Prize winner and dog lover

Pointers Northwoods Comet (CH Rock Acre Blackhawk x Northwoods Vixen, 2018) and Northwoods Vixen (CH Westfall’s Black Ice x Northwoods Prancer, 2011).

Poetry is an entirely different form of creative writing from fiction and nonfiction. There are fierce devotees and equally strong detractors.

Mary Oliver might make at least some of the latter group enjoy a poem or two.

Over Oliver’s lifetime (1935 – 2019), she wrote 20 books of poetry and six of prose. She won a Pulitzer Prize in 1984 for American Primitive, a collection of poetry. She won many other distinguished awards including the National Book Award in 1992 and a Guggenheim Fellowship.

She was an introverted, private person and also a lover of dogs. She devoted one collection, Dog Songs, to them. Here is a poem about Percy.

Little Dog’s Rhapsody in the Night

He puts his cheek against mine
and makes small, expressive sounds.
And when I’m awake, or awake enough

he turns upside down, his four paws
in the air
and his eyes dark and fervent.

“Tell me you love me,” he says.

“Tell me again.”

Could there be a sweeter arrangement? Over and over
he gets to ask.
I get to tell.

~ Mary Oliver
Dog Songs

English-bred May, sired by CH Conneywarren Jason of British Labradors.

Oliver lived for about four decades in Provincetown, Mass., where she developed her passion for the ocean, tides, birds and the Cape Cod seashore. She always carried a pad and pen on her solitary daily walks and, as inspiration came to her, she jotted down lines. Here is a poem about the Cape shore.

I Go Down To The Shore In The Morning

I go down to the shore in the morning
and depending on the hour the waves
are rolling in or moving out,
and I say, oh, I am miserable,
what shall—
what should I do? And the sea says
in its lovely voice:
Excuse me, I have work to do.

~ Mary Oliver
A Thousand Mornings