Could those with experience of rescue dogs tell me whether young dogs suffer delayed development as a result of a bad start in life, and how long it takes to overcome? Im going to find Gwen Baileys book on the rescue dog as well. Ta.

Delayed development in which respect?

Christine

Hi Christine, I mean in respect of behaviour/socialisation/attention span. If a dog misses out on early training/socialisation experiences in its first 6 months will s/he behave like a pup for longer - I need a guide to judging what can reasonably be expected of my dog as he looks and acts less mature than dogs of the same age who had one owner form 8 weeks. Im following the KCGC award syllabus with him, keeping it all fun, only 10 minutes training in little bursts during his walk times, building up to Working Trials. So far we can stay for a minute in a sit/down, a little bit of heel work on/off lead, send away and recall in front of gates, and developing playing with people, search and fetch. All this is at the start just messing about and all efforts praised to the skies. So search is a pigs ear flung into an enclosed wooded space with long grass, with enthusiastic " Where is It? Find !" and send away is just " Go on!" and " Wait!" at the gate. The stay is taking advantage of being tired and " Down, stay" while I sit on the other end of the lead having a fag,and chuck treats if he looks like moving. I feel this may do for now to keep it fun and varied with new experiences added like going to see the cows or riding in a dog crate.

Hello,

Yes they will. A puppies brain is classed as an adult brain at 8 weeks old and they are able to behave like an adult at this age and also think and learn like an adult. Obviously the attention span is shorter because puppies always get distracted very easily, but it's all there.

A puppy who has not had the brain enlarged (in a manner of speaking) by learning and working things out for themselves, will be socially behind a puppy who has been trained and worked on from young.

A study was done by someone (can't remember who now) to show that if a puppies/kittens brain is subjected to problem solving, learning and many experiences, it actually becomes larger than a puppies/kittens brain which has not.

Therefore if a young dog has missed out on all this, unfortunately you will need to treat them as if they are an 8 week old puppy and start socialising and training from scratch. They are unlikely to ever have the full confidence and social skills of a properly socialised puppy, but it will help.

Good luck with your rescue and be patient, give him loads of encouragement and support and you will be fine.

manda
x

Thanks manda. I hesitate to call him a rescue as he was only in the pound 7 days but he had missed out on early training/socialisation. It has been like having a large 8 week old pup, but lots of fun!

I can only comment on my XB bitch who I got at 6 months from the Blue Cross, she had been in there a month after being left there with another dog. The father of the previous family had been abusive and she was very wary of men for a while. But in all other respects we had no problems, I blitzed the socialisation, took her everywhere I could, training twice a week, to visit friends with dogs and children, and very soon after it was like we had had her from the start, she is a lovely confident bitch, occasionally stroppy, but intelligent and such good fun, a real character, everybody loves her! I obviously don't know what she would have been like if I had had her from a pup, but I really feel you get out what you put in with a rescue, some dogs do just mature later than others, even within the same breed

Enjoy!

Hayley

That is lovely Hayley. :)