Well, life with almost one of “Juliet’s” puppies. Our newest dog pack member, Ries, is the
grandson of Jolie, the model for “Juliet” in “The Deadly Dog Show”. Ries, in turn, is the model for Juliet’s new
puppy Romeo, who will be featured in guest shots (or more) in upcoming books in
this series. He’s seven months old (that
milestone happened on March 26th), and most certainly has a
personality. In fact his personality is
bigger than he is at the moment. He
shows every sign of potentially becoming our best hunting dog ever---and that’s
quite an accolade with three of the women in his life (mother, grandmother, and
great-grandmother) having their Senior Hunter certifications and some, if not
all, of the necessary successful rounds completed to qualify as a Master
Hunter. Ries is working his way up the
hunting dog hunt test ladder, currently completing his final qualifying round
at the Junior Hunter level.
Dog psychologists have defined a “fear period” from 8 to 18
weeks when the puppy will fear any bad experience he/she has had for the rest
of their lives. The human analogue of
the “fear period” takes place when a child is 8-18 months old. As responsible breeder/owners, it’s our job to give the
puppy as many different experiences as they can possibly handle during this
period, and to make the experiences positive ones, to get the best possible
temperament and self-confidence in the adult dog to come.
