Puppy Development Fear Periods
This second fear period is also at the time many owners are.
Puppy development fear periods. The puppy responds only to warmth, touch, and smell. Try to avoid frightening the puppy during this time, since traumatic experiences can have an effect during this period. They already have a fur coat but they cannot yet control their own body temperature.
Many will go through a fearful time when they begin teething between four and five months of age. This also coincides with a very critical socialization period. We now know that the first fear period peaks at 8 weeks.
Your puppy is coming into a new home, leaving behind his mother, and litter mates, and is being introduced to a new family. Fear periods are a normal part of puppy development, but they also can be overwhelming for dogs. Puppies experience two fear periods during their development, and each fear period lasts for about 2 to 3 weeks, on average.
Puppies will experience two different fear periods before reaching adulthood. Newborn puppies are born at the end of nine weeks of pregnancy, with their eyes and ears tightly closed. Critical periods in puppy development.
If the puppy perceives an event as traumatic, he may generalize it and it could affect him for the rest of his life. So to take a puppy from everything it knows such as the breeder, littermates and mum at this critical time can have serious repercussions. He cannot regulate body functions such as temperature and elimination.
Fear periods are times during which puppies become more sensitive to a variety of external stimuli. Eyes and ears are open, but sight and hearing are limited. Tail wagging begins and the puppy begins to control body functions.