Fear Periods and Grooming

Fear Periods

Based on owner reports, several of the "deadliest catch" crew of pups seem to be a little more "careful" in how they approach new or surprising things in the last week or so. I see this in Ecko a bit. Although she is still a very confident puppy, she will sometimes pause to consider whether she wants to investigate something new instead of hurling herself headlong into new situations without a second thought. Given that several of the other pups are also a bit more cautious than usual lately (a little easier to startle, a little more prone to alarm bark), I think it reasonable to assume that the babies may be going through a mild fear period. Here is an excerpt from an article on early socialization I found on the internet that discusses fear periods and socialization:

Fear periods are when your young dog all of a sudden is afraid of people, objects or places he used to be comfortable with. Some dogs will manifest that fear into shyness and some into more active “go away” behaviors such as growling or lunging. The time frame I have listed here is approximate, but you’ll be able to recognize those times just by being cognizant of your own dog’s change of behavior.

• Between seven to nine weeks of age
• Anywhere from four to six months
• Again at around 12 months
• At approximately 14 to 18 months and with some dogs can even be as late as 2 years

Click HERE for a link to the article. I'll also put a link to the article in the Resources section of the blog.

Grooming

As you know Ecko got her first haircut recently. Several of you have asked what length she was and the general pattern she was clipped in.

I clipped her body, belly, chest, sides and tail with an Andis 3/4" HT Blade (you could also use a #40 blade with a 3/4" snap-on comb) and blended her legs and head with scissors. Her ears were trimmed even with the ear leather and the top of her muzzle and below her eyes was trimmed. Since Ecko's leg hair was shorter than her body hair when I started, I did very little scissoring on her legs and feet, just enough to tidy them up. With lots of wiggling involved on Ecko's part, the haircut isn't perfect, but it is a start towards getting the right shape for a PWD and teaching Ecko that grooming isn't so bad! The red lines on the photo below show the "line of demarcation" between areas that were clipped and areas that were blended in with the scissors.