stunted emotional development

[Dal & Mad's Mom]

I wonder if people ever think that at the age a puppy is say placed in a strictly breeding enviroment will arrest them mentally to act like a puppy when finally released.

 

Sweetie who finally went out on a trial is one I wonder about.

 

She is 3 years old by her papers. She was sold to an 84 year old lady as a papered breeder at 6 months. So for roughly 2 years she was confinded to a wire kennel with only seeing the older lady 2 times daily for food and she was expected to produce. Her mate who was also the same age was the favored pup and spent time in the house with the woman. He acted normal.

 

Sweetie seemed like a 9 month old pup , Impulsive, over active, she seemed to have more hype than brains. We had to stop crating her because she bounced constantly and was cutting/rubbing her head on her crate.

 

It's a theory I'm working so I'd like opinions.

[aljones]

I'll be interested to see people's responses to your questions, too, Sheryl. I can only offer some observations based on a sample size of one, our current foster dog Ody.

 

We rescued Ody about six weeks ago from a puppy-mill situation; we were told he is 10 years old, and my vet said "at least that." The miller said he had at one point in his youth been housebroken, but we picked him up from a dark barn where he was in a small run with no outdoor access. Given his extremely poor physical condition and what my vet called his "well-used penis," I assume he had been only used for breeding for most of his life.

 

Some of your description of Sweetie also applies to Ody the first few weeks he was here: impulsive and over-active for sure. After an initial period where he would settle down fine in his crate, he went through a phase where he became extremely anxious in the crate, barking for hours, circling, and soiling the crate. Now that we have him more integrated into the household during the day, he is back to settling fine into his crate at night, thankfully.

 

However, despite the progress we seem to be making, Ody still behaves oddly, like he either has limited sensory input or like he has some sort of brain damage. My vets haven't seen evidence of vision or hearing loss, and, of course, it's impossible to know what he endured during his life as a stud dog. So we are just taking things one day at a time and trying to get him as healthy, mentally and physically, as possible.

 

Good luck to Sweetie on her trial!

[bc4ever]

So for roughly 2 years she was confinded to a wire kennel with only seeing the older lady 2 times daily for food and she was expected to produce. Her mate who was also the same age was the favored pup and spent time in the house with the woman. He acted normal.

I think this just reinforces the importance of human to dog bonding. I've read about studies done on newborns who were fed and changed, but weren't touched or cuddled and they ended up with all sorts of problems. Dogs want to be with their person. It's a necessary part of their physical and emotional growth.

[afrancis]

I think this just reinforces the importance of human to dog bonding. I've read about studies done on newborns who were fed and changed, but weren't touched or cuddled and they ended up with all sorts of problems. Dogs want to be with their person. It's a necessary part of their physical and emotional growth.

 

I agree with this. I think its not so much the breeding but the lack of socialization and interaction (bonding) with humans, and for a border collie especially, the lack of mental stimulation. Imagine being locked in a small room for two years, with your only interaction at mealtime twice a day AND being either pregnant or nursing. Oh yeah, I think that's called prison (except for the pregnant/nursing part ).

Ailsa

[SincereArtisan]

Being confined to a crate 24/7 with no stimulation outside of being fed, birthing and nursing...how unhealthy! I imagine any stimulus outside of the norm most certainly riles her up! She's never been taught to cope with anything else outside of her sheltered little bubble. I have no doubt it does a lot of harm to their developmental process, but I think that each dog deals with it differently. While yours is exceedingly excited, others may resort to cowering in fear, or aggression. I think that the way he dog handles the new stimulus is entirely different based upon the dog, but the original owner did them no favors by forcing them to cope with it themselves.

 

I second that the dog/human bond is extremely important to a dog's healthy development. They need your guidance, your comfort, and your love. This is what makes them PACK animals.

[mbc1963]

Can't say I have much experience with this in the dog world, but I was really interested in human language acquisition as well as development of deaf (languageless) children, and read a lot on the subject. There have been situations where human children have not developed language in childhood - usually because they were born deaf in a society that couldn't (didn't) accommodate them, or because they were separated from human companionship. From what scientists could learn, this situation being rare, the lack of language development and normal socialization do, indeed, cause significant impairment of brain function. Over a certain age, there seemed to be a limit to how much communication the person would ever develop, and a limit to social functioning. The lack of language actually seemed to impair the languageless person's ability to think about the world and process information.

 

Makes sense to me that a social animal, removed from the typical social situations that build neuronal connections in a developing brain, would be stunted in its development. I wonder if it's properly being "stuck in puppyhood"... or rather learning-impaired in a way that we don't have a name for?

 

Some cases of the "feral children": http://www.feralchildren.com/en/index.php

 

Mary

[juliepoudrier]

Makes sense to me that a social animal, removed from the typical social situations that build neuronal connections in a developing brain, would be stunted in its development. I wonder if it's properly being "stuck in puppyhood"... or rather learning-impaired in a way that we don't have a name for?

This is my belief as well. I think that an animal (humans included) that is deprived of social interaction in its formative years can still learn to be sociable, but I think that they probably never become completely "normal" in its social interactions compared to those raised with normal social interactions.

 

J.