Q. After you delivered my Home Protection Dog he started exhibiting some signs of being shy and not wanting to be around people. If I had guests over he would hide behind me or want to leave the room. What is happening to my dog?
A. What you are experiencing is not uncommon. It is important to review the 3 critical phases that apply to the settling in period after delivery. I explained these before but I think it is important to visit the concepts again.
Those critical settling in concepts are:
1. The Bonding Phase
2. The Partnership Phase
3. The Ownership Phase
These concepts are very important to how quickly the dog is able to assimilate into its new environment as it relates to his or her new pack structure. Each one of these phases must be worked through in order to establish a pack dynamic that is conducive to the right relationship between your Home Protection Dog and new owner. These concepts in an ideal situation can take up to 8 months to come full circle with no adverse behavioral change noticed from the time of delivery up to the current date. Once in a while we have some unwanted behavior that manifests itself along the way, but over time and with a few modifications things work themselves out.
Let’s take these concepts one at a time and review their significance.
1. The Bonding Phase starts immediately upon delivery of your Home Protection Dog. This phase is really the beginning of trust and the open line of communication between you and your dog. This phase can last up to 4 months and continue getting stronger through the first 8 months. This is where the dog puts its trust in his new owners and relies heavily on the new owners for more than just food. This is where the comfort zone for learning begins in his new pack environment.
2. The Partnership Phase is exactly what it says. You are coming together with your new Home Protection Dog to partner with him and are building that bond to accomplish a task. This is not obedience work, but rather a time for the handler to be earning the right to be heard in the dog’s life. It is, however, the phase where you and the dog learn how to work together in unison as a team. This is not a slave/master relationship but rather a Partnership. This phase can be where the biggest problems for behavior occur. If the handler approaches this as obedience with a very heavy, demanding hand he or she can cause the dog to be over- sensitive to the handler, shut down and go into avoidance. This is not what we want. Your new Home Protection Dog has enough on its plate trying to work out the issues of fitting in to its new pack structure and does not need to be dominated with a heavy, demanding obedience routine. Avoid doing heavy obedience or keeping the dog on command for long periods of time. Remember, you want to cooperate with your new dog, not over- dominate him. Earn the right to be heard in a partnership. This is a co-equal relationship of bonding and partnership. This is how to build a great dog and handler team.
3. The Ownership Phase: This is where things are all coming together and the dog has found his place in the pack structure. He is sure of his boundaries and how to operate in those boundaries. This is where a lot of freedom for the dog comes in to play. This is where the skill-sets that the dog has been trained in can be fully recognized and utilized. This is coming full circle as there are a lot of learning curves along the way for both dog and other pack members.
In Summary, these are the phases the dog will go through during the settling in period after delivery. Once again, these phases can take up to 8 months and can have different behavioral issues along the way, all of which work themselves out in time with patience and consideration for the dog as he adapts to his new pack environment.
