This page is part of the Auxiliary section of the Beginner's Course of the
D.S. Dog Training Workshop, and an element of the Dog Science Network
The Critical Stage of Development
When you're shopping for a dog, arguably the most critical thing for you to understand is the importance of the events that occur in the first twelve weeks of your dog's life. There are two major developments that take place during those early days.
Those first twelve weeks are called the critical stage of development to denote that it is critical/essential that the dog has the right experiences and proper stimulation during that phase of development.
By training, playing with and in general, stimulating your dog during his critical stage of development, you will actually cause the animal's brain to grow new neural pathways and develop differently than it, otherwise, would have done. It seems that as you stimulate your young pup's interest and foster his learning in any particular domain, the portions of his brain that deal with processing those particular types of events will branch and develop to buttress that stimulation. Thereby, establishing the neural infrastructure necessary to support expert and eminent performance related to that domain later in life.
No amount of stimulation or experience delivered later in the dog's life can ever make up for what he misses early on. For each of the first twelve weeks of life, your dog must have enough of the right kind of high quality stimulation, otherwise, there's not a chance in hell that your pup will ever develop into the kind of bright, healthy, loving dog you would want as part of your family.
With that in mind, you should make it a point to cuddle your dog and, in general, interact with him in a physically affectionate manner during his critical stage of development. Snuggling is actually a skill, so unless someone teaches him how to do it during that brief window of opportunity, your dog may never develop the ability to physically express affection.
It's always sad to encounter one of those tense little dogs whose development has been so deficient that they simply do not possess the capacity to snuggle. And may not even know how to enjoy being petted.
That can certainly happen when a dog's critical stage of development is devoid of the kind of tender, physical interactions that must be in place to serve as prerequisites before the physical expresson of affection is possible.
Likewise, if you are into dog wrestling, you will want to set the stage developmentally by rolling your pup around on the carpet a bit during his critical stage. You really can't go wrong in that regard. Just be sure that you don't cause the animal any physical discomfort, and make sure that he clearly enjoys the roll-around.
However, if you are a habitually angry person, and especially if your dog seems distressed by the experience, you might want to rethink things. Because you have to know the difference between having a give and take, lighthearted romp with your pup, and pushing him around in a bullying fashion. The former will make him happy and well adjusted, while the latter is almost certain to have repercussions that will not be to your liking.
Dogs that are denied the opportunity to interact with other dogs during the first six weeks of life will, throughout their lives, be aggressive toward other dogs; or be indifferent to other dogs; or perhaps fail to relate to other dogs in any way whatsoever.
Dogs that are denied the opportunity to interact adequately with humans during weeks four through twelve will, throughout their lives, be all but totally indifferent to human companionship. If you attempt to interact with such a dog, you're likely to find that he just wanders away, because he will have no use for you and, as long as you leave him alone, he won't care what you do. Needless to say, it's nearly impossible to obedience train that sort of dog and even less likely that you would enjoy the company of a cur of that disposition.
If a puppy was raised in a dark room where nothing ever happened, you would expect him to be stupid. How could he be anything else if he was never given the chance to learn and be stimulated by new experiences?
So it isn't surprising that, the less stimulation a pup receives, the less intelligent he will be. It might surprise you though, to learn that a pup who is raised with inadequate stimulation during the first twelve weeks of life will never exhibit anything approaching normal intelligence, regardless of the amount of stimulation he receives later on. On the other hand, puppies who receive the proper amount of the right kind of stimulation during the first twelve weeks of life that comprise the canine critical stage of development, are likely to develop superior intelligence relative to other dogs of their breed. Not only that, they are also likely to develop a propensity to readily learn new skills throughout their lives.
If your goal is to produce a level four dog who has truly mastered the rigors of command training, then you will want to take pains to work intensively with your new dog throughout his critical stage of development, though you need to take care that you do so gingerly, and in an age appropriate manner.