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It was a few months ago that I shared with you that I had gotten a new puppy. He is a male black Labrador and is now 6.5 months old. His name is Ghost.
When future dog owners are contemplating a new puppy, they often use the seasons of the calendar to decide when would be the right time. House-training puppies in the winter is harder, but I contend that it is the best time to get a new hunting companion.
The average Labrador will live to be about 12 to 13 years of age before they head to doggie heaven. Picking up a new puppy in June-July makes that dog too young to be effective in its first hunting season.
The majority of serious dog training starts when the dog is about 8 to 10 months old. This allows the dog’s mind and body to mature to a point where advanced training can be absorbed without asking too much of their little minds.
A late fall or early winter pickup allows the dog to be nine to 10 months of age when the hunting seasons open in late September. You will ultimately get one extra hunting season from that dog before it gets too old to keep up. I help and tutor many new dog owners on the stepped phases of dog training.
Many of the things new puppy owners complain about are really not problems at all. They are what I call “a puppy being a puppy.”
They would never expect a human child to be potty trained at 12 months of age but expect little dogs to act like big dogs and then are disappointed when they can’t or don’t.
I was reminded of this point just the other day. My gal was folding clothes in the bedroom and the puppy was running around and playing under the bed. It wasn’t until she saw some shreds of cardboard that she realized the puppy was into something he shouldn’t have been.
Low and behold, Ghost had chewed eight inches off of two limited-edition artist proof prints by artist Jerry Raedeke that were gifts from two different conservation organizations for my payment of a life membership.
This was not the puppy’s fault but what I call owner/operator error. Ghost was just doing what puppies do. When I was under the sink with an Allen wrench twisting on the motor stem of the garbage disposal that was stuck, he crawled right under the sink with me.
Again, he was just doing what puppies do, but many dog owners would have reprimanded him for that action.
Ghost horseplays with my three other adult black Labs to the point where they get kind of tired of it. I gently help him refrain from these actions, but he was born to act this way.
All dogs are descendants from wolves, and if you watch any nature shows these wolf pack puppies always roughhouse with their parents and other members of their pack.
Getting excited and peeing a little as a baby dog when someone comes to the door is something they will grow out of but is again just a puppy being and acting like a puppy. They like to nip and bite, and gently training will fix this problem too.
I have come to the conclusion that after having more than 10 puppies in my life over the past 25 years, you are one of the lucky ones if your puppy is one that actually acts like a puppy.
Behavioral problems like overly aggressive, overly protective and the other end of the spectrum being so meek and timid as to shy away from all other dogs and in many cases most humans, are not considered a puppy being a puppy in my book.
These would be considered actually behavior issues that need immediate and proper attention.
Ghost is starting to settle in and be a little less rambunctious. This happens naturally as they age. As he was lying across my lap and I was scratching him behind the ears, I said, “Ghost, you are doing a fabulous job of being a puppy.”
He has done and acted just like any 6.5-month-old puppy should. What humans see from their perspective and their measure of what they think a puppy should do and be, they consider many puppy issues as bad puppy manners.
Things that frustrate and disappoint. The fact of the matter is that in most cases the puppy is doing exactly what almost every other puppy of its breed would do at their age. Dogs only live a short while and only about 1/20th of that is as a puppy.
Enjoy these early months because cute puppy breath goes away way too soon and their desire to chew up valuable prints will wane as well.
Scott Rall, Worthington, is a habitat conservationist, avid hunting and fishing enthusiast and is president of Nobles County Pheasants Forever. He can be reached at scottarall@gmail.com or on Twitter @habitat champion.