Читать книгу Clever Dog: Understand What Your Dog is Telling You - Sarah Whitehead - Страница 17

Amber’s story is not uncommon. Her initial inability to cope with life outside a very small, protected world was caused by a complete lack of experience in those precious, formative weeks. This gives clues as to how pups should be raised once they are in a new home, but also what should happen while they are still with their breeder, their litter mates and their mum. Pups need a balance of protection and stimulation, of security and gentle exposure. Such a tightrope cannot be carefully negotiated if the pup is over-protected, shielded from everyone and everything.

For those that are born in a barn, surrounded by the barking of other dogs, with only the warmth of a heat lamp and the feel of shredded newspaper for stimulation, the outcome is strangely similar. Sadly, puppy farms are still common in the UK, with enough prospective owners willing to take on dogs that have been bred and raised in social deprivation, despite all the problems that we know this can cause.

A pup’s early experience can make or break its chances of becoming a family member. Of course, it’s hard to turn down the kids’ pleas and say no to a pup, even if you know it hasn’t been reared in the right way. Sometimes it is precisely because you know that the conditions are poor that you want to ‘rescue’ the pup and offer it a home. Dogs have a way of getting into our hearts like no other animal. They compel us to take them, to care for them and to spend inordinate amounts of time and money on them. All those songs are right: love makes us crazy – and it can make our dogs a little bit daft too.