What is Puppy Culture and why do we use it?

Written by Jane Messineo Lindquist at Puppy Culture

So many people ask us for a good written explanation of the Puppy Culture program that they can pass on to others.  This is something I have grappled with a lot lately as we are re-doing our website and I think we really need a true explanation of the program. I’m going to throw out some things but it’s still fairly “free form” so bear with me.

On the top level, Puppy Culture is a socialization and training program specifically developed for puppies from birth through the end of their critical socialization period, with age appropriate protocols and lessons laid out in an organized format. The program consists of videos, books and a Workbook that can be found on our website: http://shoppuppyculture.com  But that really does not get to the “why” of Puppy Culture, or what makes it different.

Puppy Culture is based on the premise that the puppy always leads the learning, and puppies learn best by appropriate experiences at the appropriate time. So what we are doing is teaching you to observe the puppy, and, based on the behavioral markers you see, serve the puppy the experience or lesson that is optimal for him at that moment in time.

By letting the puppy lead, we are:

•maximizing the benefit of any given protocol or lesson,

•minimizing any danger of overfacing or scaring the puppy

•creating confidence and self-efficacy by presenting the appropriate level of challenge that the puppy CAN do without failing or presenting a danger to himself.

Finally, we teach owners to enjoy each puppy for the precious individual he is, and to tease out the best qualities in that puppy, rather than holding the puppy up to an arbitrary yardstick and labeling him as a problem if he does not measure up.

Many puppies are labeled as having behavior or temperament issues when they are simply being served an inappropriate experience for their developmental age. This can hobble the puppy for the rest of his life with an unjust label that will cause people to treat him in an unthoughtful manner. By letting the puppy lead, you avoid this and enjoy your puppy for the wonderful individual that he is.

So you watch the puppy and see what learning experience he’s ready for. And learning what those experiences are and how to effectively serve them is a big part of the Puppy Culture program.

Why is this so important? Because things that are perfect in one developmental period could be useless or even detrimental in the next, and vice versa. So we teach you to know where you puppy is developmentally, and what to do right now.

Yes, Puppy Culture is a “positive,” reinforcement-based program and we do not use corrections or outmoded dominance theory, but that is really all a by product of observing the puppy and serving him the learning experience he is asking for.

And I will add that our program is based on the latest science and studies on puppy and animal rearing, and we include many experts and authors in the film to further explain the logic of the program.

Still working on all this but these are my current, somewhat unorganized, thoughts.