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Week 3 to approximately week 12 is a time of immense growth, particularly for species‐specific social behaviors and learning opportunities. Approach and avoidance emerge early in this period, followed by more coordinated motor patterns, such as play fighting with littermates. Pups increasingly send and receive intraspecific signals, and vocalizations become more complex and are incorporated into social situations. Dogs identify littermate and species members, and social learning from conspecifics and humans has been demonstrated in puppies as young as eight weeks of age (Fugazza et al. 2018; Serpell et al. 2017). Pups also show attention to and interest in humans, and from an early age they can follow human communicative signals like gaze or pointing (Riedel et al. 2008). A period of interest and investigation can be followed by wariness or fearfulness, particularly after week 5 and culminating between weeks 8 and 10 (Case 2005). The presentation of fear could be modulated by factors such as genetics, individual coping styles, or early life experiences (Rooney et al. 2016).

Premature weaning and early separation from littermates are inadvisable. Separated dogs miss valuable social exchanges, both observational learning opportunities and feedback on their own behavior. Dogs vary in weaning time even within breed, and weaning prior to two months has been associated with subsequent behavior challenges such as increased destructive behavior and possessiveness, excessive barking, and fearfulness (Pierantoni et al. 2011).

As suggested, the socialization period is the time when dogs acquire “behavior patterns appropriate to the social environment in which [an individual will] live, allowing them to coexist/interact with other individuals” (Blackwell 2010). Dog interest and comfort with all that the human environment has to offer should not be assumed simply because dogs are “domestic.” Instead, socialization involves short, repeated doses of enjoyable, varied experiences and exposing pups to social and non‐social stimuli that will be part of their environment. Individual dog behavior should be closely monitored for indications of discomfort with consideration for under‐ as well as overstimulation (Howell et al. 2015). Pluijmakers et al. (2010) found that puppies between three and five weeks of age exposed to audiovisual playback—consisting of animate and inanimate objects and noises at normal volume—showed decreased fear of novel objects and unfamiliar settings compared to a control group who displayed increased stress‐related behaviors. Veterinary professionals recommend considering puppy socialization classes as early as seven to eight weeks and with a minimum of one set of vaccines (American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior 2008). Early life restrictions can have profound effects on dogs. Numerous studies find that dogs raised in commercial breeding establishments (commonly known as “puppy mills” or “puppy farms”) or purchased from pet stores displayed ongoing behavioral and emotional challenges such as increased fear and aggression and difficulty with separation when compared to dogs not raised in such environments (McMillan 2017).