Behavioural health is equally as important as physical health and conformation. A “pet-quality” puppy is not a failed conformation prospect, on the contrary, the title “pet” is the very best accolade that you could give to any animal, signifying that it has been raised, socialized and trained to enjoy living with people and taught how to live in people’s homes according to human rules. Many people suffer the misassumption that purebred puppies will automatically grow up to be perfect adult dogs. Not necessarily so. Obviously, breeders strive to breed for physical health, temperament and trainability but regardless of breed or breeding, puppies still need to be taught household rules and taught to continue to be confident and safe around people. House training, chewtoy-training, settle-down-and-shush-training and home-alone-training do not just happen by magic. Similarly, without proactive socialization and handling during early puppyhood and intensive ongoing socialization throughout adolescence, adolescent dogs will naturally become wary and fearful and maybe aggressive towards unfamiliar people, especially children and men.

 Experience is everything... While we can’t hope to introduce every single thing a puppy will have to accept later in life, the more positive experiences guided by us he gets in this period, the more accepting he will be of novel things and situations. Not only that, but he will also be developing his learning skills, learning how to problem solve and deal with the inevitable frustrations of life, which in turn will help with his behaviour and training in the future.


A puppy who is properly reared in this period, will be far more likely to grow up to be confident, calm, learn new things more easily, be less likely to respond to new things fearfully or aggressively – and in short, is more likely to become a good family dog

A very loving and protective mother