Hello All, My name is Paul from dogways, a qualified and experienced behaviourist, long term volunteer to a large rescue centre and for most of my adult life a dog owner and lover. I have put together a free website giving advice and information to help prospective, new and indeed experienced owners a great life with their four legged friends. The reasons why a dog may have or develop undesirable behaviours can be influenced by what happens to them from the earliest times, actually in the womb. A male puppy that comes from a litter made up of mostly females can be affected by a process known as “estrogenization”, although obviously still a male dog he can be bombarded by female hormones in utero, these hormones can permeate the amniotic membrane (the sac they are in) and there is evidence for it happening through the foetal blood supply, the male dog will develop female traits and behaviours and as I said will obviously still be a male dog but may get unwanted attention from other male dogs throughout his life because of it. This process also happens the other way round, known as androgenization, a female foetus among a large amount of males can be bombarded by male hormones and develop male traits and behaviours, these females often grow up to become a bold, high status dog with the required learning and environment. Often (definitely not always) these are the female dogs that will cock their legs to urinate.
If a pregnant bitch is in a calm environment during her pregnancy and is relatively free of stress and anxiety she will have calmer pups, indeed there is a phenomenon known as the “caress effect”, if you regularly stroke and calm your bitch during pregnancy this will have a calming effect on the pups. Whether they do indeed grow to become calm laid back dogs will be influenced by their future environment, personal learning and the future expression of certain genes. Certainly the most influential time is from birth to 12 weeks of age known as the critical learning period and what takes place during this time will have great effect on the type of adult dog you end up with. The breeder be they a professional or a private person/home will have a major effect on things and so where you get a pup from is of great importance. My website covers this and many other topics in good detail to hopefully get you on the right road to enjoyable dog ownership for it is a lovely thing.
In relevant up to date and easy to understand text you can find free advice and information about; canine evolution, how dogs learn, is a dog right for me, which breed or crossbreed, pedigree or crossbreed, where do I get my dog/pup from, which age dog should we get, picking the right pup, picking the right adult dog, picking the right senior dog, rescue dogs, housetraining, separation anxiety, socialising your dog, going to the vets, canine hierarchy, canine prey drive and much more.
Using my knowledge and experience I have put things down to hopefully stop undesirable behaviours manifesting in your dog, there is also good information on there for the experienced dog owner too. As a behaviourist I would only ever use dog friendly techniques and reward based training, any behaviour has to be looked at in it’s entirety with reference to history, context, environment, owner bond/participation, diet, exercise and much more for that particular dog/s only.
In the first instance any clinical problems for an undesirable behaviour should be ruled out by a vet before behaviour modification is looked at.
I hope that any prospective, new or experienced owner will find my site helpful and enjoyable to read, I truly want to see more people out there having a great life with their dogs. Please take a look at my website dogways, it’s free.