czechoslovakian wolfdog   "od Úhoště"

Socialisation

A VEGETATIVE PHASE
     

This nomenclature describes the first 2 weeks of the dog´s life. There seems not to happen anything important in this time. Nothing to be ineresting for thr trainer or the future owner of this puppy. Mother cares about almost everything and a breeder takes look only, if there is not something wrong. 

Puppy asks the attention only when it is hungry or something is bad. The natural acts. Nothing is still learned in this time. Mother quickly reflects on those needs. If they are hungry, feel cold or so, always there is a mother help. This pedigree doesn´t have problems with it. It is so natural pedigree, that there is not too probable to mothers to let their children without help. Maybe, when this famale had some problematic childhood days so the some stigma persists from this time. A single puppy without brothers and sisters doesn´t usually crying; ´coz he doesn´t know that he is alone. So they are not absent for him.
Puppies can move up their head since they are born, though it is little big in compare with body. It´s necessary for to get to mother´s tit which is not always on the floor. By a craddle-moving of their heads they will find it and start to drink. From their born they have an ability to move too. Not some coordinated moves, but the will to get close to the heat source. Mother does a tongue-masseuse to them to help to get empty; all the things coming out (urina and excrements) mother eats. 
The true breeder allready in this age takes care for them and oberves, if some puppy doesn´t show some signs of the illnes or the malformations. You can see sometimes, that one puppy lose the weight or shows a retardations in compare with another ones though there is no evident reason; it´s time to look at this. Sometimes there is a problem with a palate split - this makes a problem for puppy with drinking. It is very bad to find this defect on an adult dog. So everyday observing is very important thing for every good breeder. Not only to move up a lid - roof of the kennel, but time to time to count a number of the puppies.
Sometimes can happen that somone will die. Or the breeder will find it dead or will find nothing. Mother often eats the dead ones. It is not anything wrong. Just another food source. And what´s more, an instinct ask to destroy any track of puppies presence for a potentional predators.

Though it seems to be this phase of development as a rest period for a breeder, with no need to do anything, the real good breeders start even in this time to get the puppies used to the "civilization". Every puppy is brought to their hands to feel their smell; not only mother´s one. Some of them let to play radio with a spoken word near the kennel.

In my kennel we spend every day much time with pups. Always is here somebody, who has pups by himself. I think, it is very good for puppy in vegetation phase and in begin of imprinting phase too.

   

   

AN IMPRINTING PHASE
   

The period of 4.- 7. week of age. The most breeder´s joyful time. Not ment as time "uff, finally time up to kick those little tyrants with their packages out to bye-bye". Time of garden runing, biting, hounding, playing and allready full communication with us. The most important time for a personality building of a future darling, tracker, defender, slide dog or a training dog. Not only that puppy must see his breeder and his family every day, but a dozen of another strange people. Men, women, children. Every another size, smell... In this time not enough that your hand gives a meal and touch them, but especially it´s smell and your whole body smell is important. The puppies playing only with themselves will imprint again only puppies as their partners. And this imprint is about a food accepting too. The kind of the food in this phase will have an influence for their food habits or teh preferences in the future. An ideal food is the most varied. Not only a granuletad or a classical food, but a combination. This time is about the trustfulness or untrustfulness. 
By one sentence: This time imprints the all future. Everything unimprinted is lost.

This is not a task only for a breeder, but for a future owner too. The breeders are selling the young ones in an age of 6-7 weeks in Czech, so the part of this work falls on the owner´s back. Every breeder must to inform the new owner, that this imprinting phase is still in run, and it is necessary to spend a lot of time with puppy.


A SOCIALIZATION PHASE
    

This phase mostly catches a young one allready in a new home, for this is a period of an 8.- 12. week of age. This can be a little chaotic time for that puppy, ´coz in an home kennel he should slowly try to widen his borders out by a scanning the near area of "his" garden, and at once we will send him out to the strange unknown world. Still depending on his parents he should be, but now we want to "school" himself on the another strange people.
If he would grow up between his nearest brothers and sisters, he probably tried to fight the best pieces of meal on feeding, to reach the dominant position between his brothers. During the games and hunts he would test his future rivals, trying to judge their power. The same work will wait for him in the new home - the new members, new positions, new hesitances... Everything about this new member of your family is about the socialization phase.
The new owner must AT ONCE after the second vaccination take him to the street, between another people, getting the strokes or a touches from them. The strange people and children must talk to him, touch him etc... The puppy must see the cars, the trains, another dogs, the animals, the street traffic... This work several times a week for a several months will give him a souvereign animal, ready to behave the same way in any situations. Scary, badly socializated wolves are everywhere too much on my custom and they don´t give too good name to their pedigree.