Week 1     Days 1-7

Days 1-2

Puppies whelped.

Newborn puppies are undeveloped. They do not hear or see. Their senses of smell and touch are functioning. They should be handled each day, like for weighing, and subjected to small amounts of stress (different covers, smells, temperatures). They can be conditioned to certain smells at this age.

EKG tracings show that waking brain wave patterns in newly born puppies are identical to their sleeping brain wave patterns. They don¹t have programmable consciousness until the 20th day of their lives. Instead, they have reflex pathways in their spinal cords that can be conditioned.

The first reflex that can be conditioned is the pannus or cutaneous muscle reflex. Conditioning of this reflex, so that it becomes non responsive to human touch, begins its critical period at Day 14 and finishes at Day 28.

Cutaneous muscle, under the skin, all over the body, will twitch (startle response) when skin is touched throughout puppies¹ lives unless the puppies are touch conditioned. In adult dogs, we see this as a dog who will not stand still and be willingly touched by men or women, whichever it lacked in its conditioning in this period of 14-28 days. No type of later training will reliably bring a touch shy dog out of this behavior. So, do not fail to program your puppies for both male and female touch.  This is imperative for pets, show, performance or police dogs.

Days 3-7

Take puppies outside on a clean blanket for a couple of minutes each day.

Week 2    Days 8-14

Days 9-12

Eyes open during this period, but puppies can¹t focus. They don¹t have conscious awareness of anything seen.

Days 11-13

Ear canals begin to open, but are not yet hooked up for conscious interpretation of sounds. No sound conditioning is possible until day 23. Begin touch conditioning. Have male and female handle each puppy for two to three minutes twice daily. Handle head, muzzle, neck, body, legs and tail. Touch and rub back against hair gently. Remember to wash hands first.

Week 3    Days 15-21

Days 15-21

Puppies experience many physical changes. Baby teeth erupt at about 15 days. Do touch conditioning and expose puppies to mild stress. Take outside every day for a few minutes.

Day 20

On this day, all puppies’ brains are slowly awakening. Begin observing continuously. Note which of each sex wakes up first.

Day 21

Conscious life begins. When you do touch conditioning on this most exciting day, watch the faces! For the first time, puppies will react consciously to your presence. You will see them as never before.

Week 4    Days 22-28

Days 22-28

This is the single most important week in a puppy¹s lifetime. The puppies are now aware of their environment. They learn about being dogs; to accept discipline, submission, etc. They move around on wobbly legs, show curiosity and begin exploring their environment. 

Note: Many professional dog handlers believe that puppies intended for trial work or conditioning as compulsive retrievers, should be weaned by the end of this week.

Continue touch conditioning every day this week. This is the puppies¹ first week of conscious life as we know it: they should NOT be disturbed or traumatized in any way, except for the two, brief daily exercise periods of touch conditioning. Any traumatic experience during this week can have far-reaching, lifelong, unpleasant results.

During this week, you should organize the puppy toys. These include objects made of ALL of the following: rubber, vinyl, plastic, metal, glass, fabric, leather and rawhide.

Do not include any wooden articles at this time. Some suggested items to include are:

·           squeak toys (both rubber and vinyl)

·           Band-aid boxes

·           6' lengths of conduit (later, these can become utility obedience articles)

·           Vitamin pill bottles, with lids removed

·           two long socks with knots tied in either end (later, these can be rolled into balls and used for beginning tracking articles)

·           6x1 strips of rawhide or other cowhide (these also become vital later on, in tracking, obedience, search and rescue and therapy training)

·           small, edible, treated beef hide chips (these provide ideal teething treats and are more satisfying to puppies than the other articles)

Do not exclude anything from this collection, and replace anything that gets lost. This is being done for several reasons, which you¹ll appreciate as you begin serious training. For example, while other dogs will need to learn to retrieve, find by scent, tolerate metal in their mouths, etc. – you will have a dog with a custom-built mind, who does these things automatically. Virtually anything can be incorporated into a puppy program once we know the critical period.

During this period, the puppies should be guarded against trauma of any kind. Make this period a stable period in the puppies lives. The puppies can be moved to different areas temporarily, to be conditioned to different surfaces, but do not change the puppy’s permanent area or schedule.

Day 28

Last day of touch conditioning. Continue to handle the puppies, of course, but day 28 is the last day, they¹ll need specific touch conditioning.

Week 5    Days 29-35

Days 29-35

This is also a very important week. Begin sound conditioning. This is the ablution of the startle response, which will otherwise occur whenever loud or sudden noises are heard. The vital importance of this should be obvious. Dogs do not inherit gun shyness. Provide four to six loud bangs daily, when puppies are sleeping, eating, playing, but NOT when puppies are looking at you or coming towards you. The critical period for sound conditioning is Weeks 4-6.

Do these loud noises everyday from day 28 to day 42, then review by testing for sound startle once weekly. The program should include all types of sounds to which the puppies will be subjected while working its adult job. Use guns, cap pistols, saucepan lids; the sound of a stock whip being cracked. Use tape recordings of crowds, traffic, babies , trains, planes, heavy machinery, etc. There are tapes available for this purpose which may be bought. Ideally, the pups should be placed individually in a soundproof booth when they are subjected to the tape recordings. The dam should be out of the puppies¹ range of vision and hearing while sound conditioning is being done. However, if you buy the commercially available tapes, they may be played while pups are sleeping, eating, playing etc., at low volume at first and at increasing volume when pups take no notice of the sounds. This is one of the most important parts of the programmed puppy.

Introduce a stable, male dog as daddy to teach the puppies a different perspective from the start.

Introduce puppies to obstacle course: tunnel, tire, covered balance walk, etc.

Day 35

Puppies are 5 weeks old. They have better control of their bodies; they can walk over obstacles; up and down stairs. They should recognize familiar persons, and show curiosity about other people, other animals, and new surroundings. Continue sound conditioning. Begin reinforcing the following response, by enticing with toys or treats the puppies to follow you (both individually, and as a group).

Week 6    Days 36-42

Days 36-42

Reinforce the following response: Take each puppy separately to an open area, such as a grassy field. Place puppy on grass and slowly walk away without speaking or looking back. Go ten feet, stop, face puppy and wait quietly until the puppy sees you and approaches. Hold puppy¹s head in your hands for a few seconds, then walk away again. Repeat until puppy follows whenever you move away. Limit to five minutes per day per pup, up to week 7 (day 49). Note: do not reinforce ³following² in any areas in which persons other than yourself can be seen or heard by the puppies. The following response will occur much more sluggishly if other humans or animals are present. The importance of this response will not become obvious until much later in the puppy¹s behavioral development.

Continue sound conditioning. Introduce other people, children, wheelchairs, cats, and all else now.

Day 42

Puppies are 6 weeks old. Test for any residual sound startle . Last day of sound conditioning. Reinforce following.

Week 7    Days 42-49

Days 42-49

Puppy proof the environment. Begin daily car trips. Even very short trips will effectively condition the puppy Œs sensory reactions to car travel. Man-dog socialization must begin no later than this week. Begin bag-work, using a long, knotted sock. Begin play retrieve. Practice on obstacle course. Isolation conditioning begins now and is done daily through week 10. Location conditioning begins now and continues until the end of the last critical period.

Days 43-46

Socialize. Short car trips. Play with long sock. Play-retrieve. Isolate briefly. Go to a new location. Reinforce following. Make puppy go through tunnel to follow. Practice balance walk.

Day 47-48

Socialize. Short car trips. Play with long sock. Play-retrieve. Isolate briefly. Go to a new location. Reinforce following. Make puppy go through tunnel to follow. Sit in a swing and swing with the puppy. Call puppy over a small obstacle.

Day 49

Puppy can go to his/her new home. Vaccination series can begin.

Test for any residual startle to sound.

+First swim. If weather is OK, swim outside. If weather is not, use the bath-tub. Do it!

Week 8    Days 50-56

Days 50-56

The puppy has the learning ability of an adult dog from 7 weeks onwards.

Start house training and crate training. Start conditioning the puppy to grooming and to wearing a collar and leash. Start puppy obedience, using buckle or non choke collar. Keep sessions short and fun, using play, toys, treats and praise as rewards.

Do the following all week:

·           Handling and restraining the puppy

·           Obedience training: follow on left side off leash; sit

·           Socialization: man-dog and dog-dog

·           Location conditioning in different places

·           Isolation conditioning (use crate)

·           Play-retrieve and bag-work

·           Practice gaiting and stacking

·           Obstacle course work.

Include night work and night walks. Begin collecting your articles (those required in the reversed incentive system of tracking training). The 12 objects should be known to the puppy and includes one special or favorite article, such as one of the puppy¹s toys. Include also 4 black leather gloves and 18 utility scent discrimination articles (6 metal, 6 leather, 6 wood).

Day 56

Test for sound startle. Swim 5-10 minutes in calm water.

Week 9    Days 57-63

Days 57-63

This is a fear period when traumatic experiences have a profound effect. Keep the puppy in stable circumstances and safe from trauma.

Continue house training. Do handling and grooming. Do puppy obedience, using flat collar. Do attention training and continue teaching sit, stand and down. Do man-dog and dog-dog socializing. Continue retrieve work. Include all the puppy¹s toys in the set of retrieved objects. Include night work!

Bag-work: introduce a piece of Hessian (burlap). Continue stack and gaiting practice. Take the puppy into traffic and crowds.

Day 56

Test for sound startle. Swim 5-10 minutes in calm water.

Day 63

Test for sound startle. Swim.

Week 10    Days 64-70

Days 64-70

Puppy obedience training sessions can be increased from 5 to 15 minutes.

Introduce the finish and the go-out. Practice retrieves, bag exercises.

Take puppy for walks in the neighborhood. Continue location conditioning and continue isolation training, gradually increasing the time the puppy spends alone to one hour. Practice stacking and gaiting. Practice obstacle course. Do some dominance exercises. Handle the puppy a lot. Include night work in traffic and crowds.

Days 70

Test for sound startle. Swim in calm water or surf.

Week 11    Days 71-77

Days 71-77

Take the puppy into crowds and traffic; work at night often. Continue with man-dog and dog-dog socialization; puppy obedience training; retrieving; bag-work; location training (do elevators and many different places); isolation training for longer periods; stacking and gaiting; obstacle course; handling and grooming; walks in the neighborhood.

Days 77

Test for sound startle. Swim.

Week 12    Days 78-84

Days 78-84

Continue as in previous week with all the above-listed training and practice and introduce bite- inhibition conditioning by allowing the puppy to play with other puppies. When they attack each other, they learn to inhibit or soften their bites. Do not omit this play, even if you are pretraining a Schutzhund dog. All dogs should learn how to soften their bites. For the future Schutzhund dog, you can play with the puppy with biting and pulling objects such as sticks, burlap bag, or other such things to teach them to strengthen and harden their bites.

Week 13    Days 85-91

Days 85-91

If puppy is to undergo bite inhibition, place him in pen with other puppies of similar age for at least two hours daily. Continue obedience training to include introductions to all the AKC obedience exercises. The puppy can work off-lead now, if you have been following the program.

Practice longer isolation periods; socialization; location conditioning; crowds; night work; swimming; obstacle courses. Take puppy traveling and include overnight stays.

Days 91

Work in crowds and traffic at night. Test for sound startle. Swim.

Week 14    Days 92-98

Days 92-98

Bite-inhibition; bag-work; play retrieves; location and isolation conditioning; puppy obedience training; stacking and gaiting. Do crowds, traffic and night work, and continue socializing -if you stop now, your puppy may become desocialized.

Day 91

Work in crowds and traffic at night. Test for sound startle. Swim.

Week 15    Days 99-105

Days 99-105

Socialization continues. Bite-inhibition can be combined with dog-dog socialization if the same age dogs are used in both. Location and isolation conditioning. Retrieves and bag-work. Stacking and gaiting. Obedience training - start increasing the demands on attention.

Day 98

Test for sound startle. Swim.

Week 16    Days 106-112

Days 99-105

Bite-inhibition. Review all parts of the program. Test responses.

Expose puppy to as much as possible.

General Developmental Guide

4 - 6 Months

Teething. This puts stress on some puppies. Others are oblivious to it. Be careful and show and tell rather than correct a puppy during this period. Puppies chew a lot during this period, so provide lots of different kinds of safe, chew toys. Feed two meals a day from now on and throughout your puppy¹s life.

6 - 8 Months

Some time between 4-8 months, and, again, between 11 and 26 months, fear periods may appear with the flight instinct dominating the puppy¹s behavior. A fear period may last up to two weeks. Handle onsets of fear calmly and do not make an issue of the puppy¹s fear. Ignore it, distract the puppy with toys, play, obedience routines that he knows or treats, or desensitize the puppy to the object of his fear.  To desensitize the puppy, try to make him investigate, or at least ignore, the object or he fears.  Walk the puppy to the object many times, so he gets used to it. It is best to allow the puppy to work it out for himself.

8-14 Months

During this period, the puppy could have more fear periods, particularly fear of new situations. These fear periods may be related to growth spurts. Allow the puppy to work out the situation for himself. Do not push, but do continue training. Use 30-minute down-stays to reinforce training. Training builds confidence, just as you build your puppy’s confidence by providing a calm, loving demeanor on which the puppy can rely.