The Importance Of Weaning Your Puppy

A new owner of a puppy must be very careful not to purchase a puppy that has been taken away from his mother too soon

. This act can not only deprive the puppy of important life lessons, but can also affect the future health of the dog. As an example, the puppy obtains important antibodies to many diseases by feeding from its mother. Each sip of milk is like a shot of vaccine that helps protect the dog for many weeks after he leaves the litter and is brought into his new home. This vaccineTM) is one of the most important aspects of why a puppy needs to be weaned and why you cannot shorten this process.

The mother dog teaches her puppies basic doggy manners between three to seven weeks of age. She lets them know what acceptable behavior is and what is unacceptable behavior. For instance, after the puppy is done teething and has all his teeth, nursing the puppies can become a painful experience for the mother, so she teaches them how to take it easy and inhibit their biting. She does whatever it take to get the point across, from snarling, growling, and even snipping at them and she continues this behavior throughout the weaning process when she desires the puppies to leave her alone. Like most animals, after a few repetitions of this, the puppies eventually get the message and respond to a curled lip or just a mere look from their mother. The puppies learn dog language, or lip reading, and bite inhibition, another very important lesson.

Puppies also learn from other puppies in their litter. Playtime with their littermates is very important. While playing, tempers may rise because one puppy bites another too hard. The dogs often discover from these incidents what it feels like to be bitten and, at the same time, to lessen their biting during playtime. Often time puppies that haven't had these lessons find it more difficult to accept discipline while growing up.

Dogs that are separated from their family before they have had these life experiences tend to identify more with humans than with other animals. To make it easier to understand, sometimes these animals don't know that they are dogs, and they tend to have more behavioral problems such as:

- Aggression towards other dogs

- Excessive barking

- Dislike of being alone

- Housetraining difficulties

- Biting their owner

- Nervousness

by: Michael Gavre

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