This lecture is going to cover development, communication, and social behavior in the dog. This is a picture of Tulip. She is four weeks old, and we will be tracking her development throughout this mini-lecture.
There are particular developmental periods during which puppies are exceptionally sensitive to environmental influences. Early experiences are important in terms of their effects on later behavior. These developmental periods, or sensitive periods, are divided into four main stages: the neonatal, transition, primary socialization, and juvenile. The boundaries of the periods are gradual, rather than sudden.
The neonatal period is birth to 14 days. The concerns of the puppies at this time are few but essential. They need to stay warm, they need their mother, and they need food. Their eyes and ears open at 12 to 14 days old.
This is Lucille, Tulip's mother. She was relinquished to CCHS this past spring. She was part of a group of four dogs and seven cats. As you can see, she's a pit bull mix. She had her puppies on May 31, 2009. So, at this point, Tulip and her brothers and sisters are entirely dependent on the dam. It's best to think of the dam and her puppies as one functional unit during this time. Newborn puppies are unable to regulate internal body temperature, and defecation and urination are reflexes that are elicited by the mother's licking and cleaning of the perineal region.
While puppies grow rapidly during the neonatal period, their behavior patterns do not change much at all during these first two weeks. The puppies are at a relatively early stage of neurological development. The neonatal behaviors observed during this period comprise a set of behavior patterns that help the puppy adapt to its new environment and focus on filling the most basic needs—food, warmth, and maternal care. Most of these behaviors will gradually fade with maturation of the nervous system.
So, the five main neonatal behaviors we will be looking at are rooting, suckling, righting, distress calling, and activated sleep. Rooting is triggered by maternal licking, and the puppies will do a swimming motion to push towards their mother to help find the teat. Suckling, when the mouth comes in contact with the teat, is unique to newborns and will be replaced later with chewing. This can also be accompanied by treading with the front paws. This massaging of the mammary glands helps stimulate milk secretion. Humans can elicit this response by placing a finger in the pup's mouth, for example if someone were to be fostering some puppies. A newborn without a suckle response is in trouble. The righting reflex is where the puppy should be able to flip itself over when it's on its back. Vocalizations during this period are limited to distress calling. They should only cry to indicate hunger or cold. Too much crying is definitely a sign of a problem. Activated sleep is jerking and twitching and shifting. This helps with neuromuscular development and coordination. Healthy puppies and kittens will demonstrate this for about 75% of their sleeping hours.
In this picture Tulip is just over two weeks old. As you can see, her eyes are open, so once again, puppies' eyes open between the ages of 12 and 14 days. The ability to see develops gradually. One study showed that puppies that had been exposed to short periods of handling from birth to five weeks of age were more confident, exploratory, and social. They also had increased nervous system maturation, more rapid hair growth and weight gain, earlier opening of the eyes, and enhanced motor development. Early handling may lead to improved learning ability and a more emotionally stable puppy. So the end of the neonatal period means the beginning of the next, which is the transition period.
The transition period takes place when the puppy is 14 to 21 days old. It is a period of rapid change. The puppy goes from a condition of complete dependence on its mother to one of relative independence. Auditory evoked startle response begins at 18 days and the puppy begins to localize sound. The sensory organs and neurological system are maturing. So it's important to think about the huge increase of information that the puppy is processing right now.
During the transition period social behaviors begin to merge including play fighting, potty postures, and more vocalizations than just distress calling. Gently exposing the pups to all types of stimuli for short periods each day during this period is likely to enhance development. A simple type of exercise involves allowing the pups to crawl or walk on surfaces with differing textures and temperatures or exposing them to objects of varying shapes or low noise stimuli.