Sensory, Emotional and Social Development of the Young Dog Version 1.1 - 6 Feb. 97 - 26 Nov. 2001- www.joeldehasse.com Dr. Joël Dehasse, DVM (Belgium)
This article has been published extensively, with images and charts, in The Bulletin for Veterinary Clinical Ethology, vol.2, n°1-2, pp 6-29, 1994 (Brussels). It is a long article of 72,4 K (20 pages and 3 jpg images). I have not cut it in parts, so it may take some time to load. - If you find any bug or if you want to comment on this article, feel free to contact me.
Introduction
The main phases in neurological development The concept of sensitive period The prenatal period The neonatal period The identification phase The socialization-domestication phase The emotional self-regulation (homeostasis) phase The precocious learning-conditioning phase Weaning-detachment and hierarchization The cognitive sensitization-rationalization in pre-puberty Puberty and hierarchization.
Discussion and conclusions Bibliography Key words
Introduction
In our Western culture, the relation between humans and dogs is played out in a historical and socio-economic context that fosters the emergence of behavioral dysfunctions in animals (the discrepancy between the imagined dog and reality). Many behavioral problems in dogs arise from a failure to recognize social and environmental constraints during their growth. In this article we shall briefly trace these phases of a dog's social and behavioral ontogeny and epigenesis. We shall also point out the risk factors that can undermine the harmonious interaction between humans and their dogs.
The main phases in neurological development Like humans, dogs belong to a species that matures slowly after birth: the new-born is not completely developed and is incapable of surviving on its own. This implies a structured and caring parental environment (caring for the young), reflexes that orient the young puppy to its parents, and the existence of optimal, even crucial, periods in the development of the animal's nervous system. 1-The growth of the nervous system underlies behavioral epigenesis. The immaturity of the nervous system at birth is obvious: Cragg (1975) calculated that in cats the number of synapses per cortical neuron grows from a few hundred to nearly 12,000 in the 10th to 35th day after birth (in Changeux, 1983). Various measurements (volume, weight, percentage of dry matter, oxygen consumption) of the brain show that growth is rapid until the 6-7th week when dev