What Is The Ideal Age To Adopt A Puppy?
Dogs go through numerous difficulties and varied psychological processes, as they face the development of their ages. Obviously, taming them at an early age has great advantages. But what is the ideal age to adopt a puppy?
The right thing to do is to establish a correct balance between the mother’s birth, breastfeeding and her immediate socialization process. It should be noted that any change may define the subsequent behaviors and perceptions of the animal. Defining the ideal age to adopt a puppy is certainly a key issue for the future life of the pet.
Living with the mother and siblings
This important question automatically leads us to another question: what is the best time to separate the puppy from its mother and siblings? What should be clear is that such family interaction is critical for newborn dogs. Being part of the pack has physical and psychological advantages.
You can feed a newborn dog through a bottle, but the ideal thing is to respect the mother-sibling-puppy bond. The natural thing is that the specimen is fed by its mother and faces early socialization with its peers.
Being with the mother allows them to socialize with larger members of their species without getting hurt. Of course, human beings can come into contact from the beginning, but the ideal thing is to respect the natural order.
Early weaning
Just stopping breastfeeding causes physical and behavioral changes in the pet. Some of the symptoms that are perceived are hyperactivity, aggressiveness towards other animals, stress and separation anxiety.
There is another problem that has to do with the lack of social inhibitions. Dogs weaned early can find it difficult to control their bite during play. In addition, many canines that have this deficiency then show some inhibition in mating tasks.
Not counting the physical disadvantages that are manifested in puppies weaned before their time. Its immune system is less strong against infections, which is a risk to the life of the pet.
What is the ideal age to adopt a puppy?
It was previously believed that eight weeks was more than enough to separate the cubs from their natural consanguineous group. Under this vision, human training is the most determining factor in a dog’s behavior.
But today, the best time to build an exclusive puppy-owner relationship is believed to be after three months of age. In this way, the interruption of family relationships is less traumatic, more normal.
During the first three months, the mother sets limits, teaches them to play without hurting themselves, and gives them affection. To interrupt this process abruptly is to create too many difficulties for the domestication of the pet. The result of getting it wrong: fearful or overly violent dogs.
Advantages of adopting a puppy from three months of age
This is the right age for the human being to begin to educate the animal. Your cognitive ability will be at peak and we will have an ideal time for social learning. Soon you will begin to obey orders through positive and negative conditioning.
The emotional aspect is also essential. At three months, detachment from the family group is less traumatic and attachment to its owner can be strengthened. In psychological terms, this is the perfect age to start adoption.
Each dog develops its own personality. However, this is the age where canines begin their earliest independence. When the pet is still a puppy, we would generate a trauma and as it gets older the difficulties in training it will be greater.
The problem of adult dogs
Not that adult dogs are troublesome. The only difficulty is that dogs already have a defined personality. In this case, the training will be difficult and the ignorance of his character could bring us a relationship with many problems.
Beyond this appreciation, there are adult dogs of these characteristics that do not bite things and that know how to relieve themselves in the right place. Everything will depend on the experiences and traumas experienced by the animal.
As we have seen, the ideal age to adopt a puppy is defined by the socialization process. What should be internalized is that not all dogs are the same, so any matter that we have explained will always have a certain relativity.
