Intro
You’ve watched him go from dependent baby to curious toddler. Maybe you’ve visited, counting the days until your new puppy can come home with you. You may have grown impatient, worried that you’re missing all the fun. Have no fear: it’s only just begun.
Physical Development
Your puppy has graduated from squirming babe to peppy puppy. He can run—but not so fast; jump—but not so high; and tumble—that he’s good at! Be thankful you can still catch him when he tries to outrun you. It won’t last much longer.
At 8 weeks, he’s starting to look more like he’s going to when he’s grown up, but it still may be hard to guess his breed. His ears tend to be floppy, even if they will eventually stand. He may have luxurious long locks in his future, but right now it may look like he’s sporting some sort of a punk poof. All 28 of his baby teeth are in. They’re little, but sharp, and probably make his dam even more adamant about telling him to stop when he tries a last ditch effort to nurse.
His vision is almost adult-like, but not quite. It won’t be fully mature until he’s 10 weeks old. The same goes for his hearing. The auditory part of his brain won’t be fully mature until he’s 10 weeks old; only then will he be able to fully use sound cues to zero in on the source of a sound.
If he’s a boy, both his testicles should be in his scrotum by now. If they’re not, and he’s destined for the show ring, it’s time to consult with your veterinarian.
Socialization
They say children have wonder years. If that’s the case, then puppies have wonder weeks. And right now, your puppy is right in the middle of them. Here’s the thing about puppies: it takes a certain amount of fearlessness to leave the nest, explore the world, try new foods, and do all the things puppies need to do to become independent. So up until the time they’re about 7 weeks old, puppies meet new experiences in stride. But as they become more physically competent, that lack of fear can lead them into trouble. So starting at around 7 or 8 weeks, puppies begin to gradually become more fearful of novel situations, until by 12 weeks, they are more distrustful than trustful. That means that you have a challenge: you or the breeder need to expose your puppy to as many situations as he’ll encounter later in life as you can, and you need to do it before he reaches that 12 week cut off. Many a breeder will tuck a whelping box into the corner of a busy room so that puppies get a good dose of daily life, replete with slamming doors, car alarms and telephones. Importantly, any experience at this age should be positive. So he needs to have good experiences with all sorts of people, other dogs (who’ve had their shots), sights and sounds, rides in the car, even types of games. These weeks, so critical for proper socialization, are not surprisingly referred to as the critical period of socialization.
Behaviors
Your infant pup is now part mischievous monkey, part curious cat, and all puppy. His days are busy now, between playing, sleeping, and wrapping you around his paw. He’s into everything, but he makes you laugh almost as much as he makes you crazy.
At the end of 7 weeks, puppy is considered to be emotionally developed. His willingness to confidently approach and investigate novel people and objects also peaks around week 7. Bonding with his canine family (and his humans) has reached its highest point. If he’s separated from them, he’ll cry, and this crying reaches its highest level at 7 weeks of age, tapering off at week 10. At this stage, a social pecking order develops within the litter. Researchers say that it’s crucial to leave your puppy in his litter to foster some competitive spirit—about 7-8 weeks. Puppies who stay too long with their mates tend to grow up cowed and submissive. This is why the optimal age to wean your puppy from his litter is between 8 and 10 weeks. Some breeders wait until 12 weeks, which can be fine if puppies are given adequate human contact. The point here is to allow enough time for puppy to feel secure without cementing the pack hierarchy.
As you watch puppy tearing around with his littermates and interacting with the world, it’s hard to resist predicting how he’s going to be when he grows up. Studious? Adventurous? Guide dog material? Or potential obedience school drop out? Dog owners and breeders have been trying to predict adult behavior for centuries, and in the last few decades have often resorted to puppy aptitude tests. The few scientific studies to look at the predictive value of these tests have found they don’t predict much, if anything, but it’s still fun to see how your pup measures up. But the best indicator is still puppy’s dam and sire—in most cases the apples don’t tend to fall far from the tree, especially if given all the TLC they deserve.
Care and Experiences
He’s ready to meet the world, but the world may not be ready for him. That’s where your puppy proofing skills come in. You thought child proofing was hard? When was the last time you had a human toddler who could chew like a beaver and dig like a badger, and who could scurry under the furniture at will? Half your efforts will be spent saving your puppy; the other half saving your home.
Part of saving your home is saving the rugs, and that means housetraining. Before 7 weeks of age, most puppies either can’t grasp the concept of going in a particular spot or can’t control themselves well enough to get there, so attempts to housetrain them will just be confusing. But after 9 weeks of age, puppies seem to cling to whatever substrate they learned to use for pottying between 7 and 9 weeks of age. Your job is to make sure that during this crucial time he’s using whatever you want him to use for the rest of his life. If that’s grass, make sure he has regular access to the outdoors or bring sod squares indoors. This is also a good time to introduce indoor sod system potties, doggy litter boxes, wee-wee pads or other indoor potty systems—all increasingly popular alternatives for toy dogs, and even larger dogs that live in apartments.
Now’s the time to begin—in very small doses—to expose him to being alone for short periods. If you wait until he’s 12 weeks, studies have shown he will have a much more difficult time adjusting. Exposure should be for very short time periods, before he has a chance to become stressed. Include a stuffed toy or towel for him to cuddle with.
Training
You can teach an old dog new tricks, even if he’s already reached the ripe of age of 8 weeks. But don’t put it off. This is great time to introduce clicker training, or any type of reward based learning. He’s eager to learn new things now, and he doesn’t realize that you’re the one training him, and not vice versa. Don’t let him down. Practice short training sessions, teaching sit, down, and walk on lead. Even add a very short stay, maybe 10 seconds at most. Remember that he does still have a short attention span.
Puppy will respond to treats but there’s one thing that works even better in training at this age: love and play.
Play
By now your puppy is playing like he invented the word. He’s running, skidding, tumbling, and plowing into walls and furniture. He’s experimenting with his mouth, seeing what he can carry, chew, and chomp. At this age, your puppy is in practice mode. Every foray into the unknown is training his memory banks, exercising his muscles, and stimulating his senses. The challenge is to make life just interesting enough without jeopardizing his safety or your belongings.
He’s also learning who makes a good playmate. If he has other puppies, they’re the best. He will practice play fighting, running, stalking and chasing with them. But don’t let him forget about you. Puppy’s learning capabilities are at full capacity and this is your chance to move into top dog, chief trainer position. Plus, you will be the one who throws the balls.
Speaking of balls, now’s the time to introduce him to the concept of fetch. Back in the 60s, some landmark studies by Drs. Fuller and Scott on puppy development and genetics found, quite by accident, that there’s an optimal time to learn how to retrieve. As part of their routine tests, these researchers included a retrieving test between 8 and 10 weeks of age, and again at 32 weeks. These tests were the only time the puppies had a chance to fetch. But something came up, and the researchers didn’t get a chance to test some puppies until they were 32 weeks. In contrast to the puppies that had been tested, and thus exposed, to fetching at an early age, the puppies that were never exposed at that early age failed miserably, with only 11 percent fetching. Even with subsequent training, most of them never retrieved satisfactorily. The moral? If you want your puppy to fetch, now’s the time to bring out the ball. Interestingly, puppies who cannot learn to fetch by 12 weeks are often dropped from Guide Dog and Detector Dog training programs. Learning to fetch is a good indicator of your pup’s willingness to work for you.
But your puppy’s interested in more than just balls to play with. He likes stuffed toys, bigger ones that he had when he was just a baby. He also likes soft latex toys that squeak, and toys that provide various sensory experiences, such as those with different textures, sounds, and actions.
