BUILDING A RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN HUMAN AND PUPPY
November 2, 2016 Natasha Book recommendations 0
In May 2016, we were contacted by psychotherapist Dr. Beate Pottmann-Knapp from Brunn am Gebirge (Austria), who has been working with animal-assisted therapy dogs in her professional field of psychotherapy for many years. In her search for the perfect pictures for her book project, she came across the Beagle newspaper and www.deister-beagle.de.
In September the book “Gemeinsam gut starten – Beziehungsaufbau zwischen Mensch und Welpe*” was published and we are very pleased that some pictures of the Beagles vom Deistertal are actually used in it. For example, Indira and I are immortalized on page 144. There are several pictures of Lilli and her puppies.
The book is primarily aimed at breeders and people who, for other reasons, find themselves in the situation of raising a litter of puppies together with their bitch, as well as interested puppy buyers. It deals with the entire rearing of puppies from mating to around four months of age, whereby the boundaries between addressing the breeder and the future dog owner are fluid. The breeding focus here is not on specific breeds, but rather on special socialization and bond-building, which are essential for dogs that will later be used in animal-assisted therapy, but are also useful for family dogs.
All in all, I think it’s a good book, even if some aspects were dealt with too quickly in my opinion. The opportunities and potential that lie in loving, attachment-oriented rearing are clearly worked out. The reader also gets an idea of how much responsibility and above all work is involved for the breeder and his family and, by extension, the buyer.
What is mentioned in the book, but in my opinion could have been made clearer, is that the socialization program described can never be squeezed into the 8-9 week time frame that normal family dogs usually spend with the breeder before moving to their new families. However, this is what many puppy buyers I have had the pleasure of meeting in recent years expect as a matter of course. The obvious conclusion, which is also recommended in the book, that the puppies should be fostered longer by the breeder, represents an expense that cannot be nearly covered by the usual price at which family and pedigree dogs with pedigree certificates are usually sold.
The breeding goal of special socialization and promotion of bonding is associated with special effort, which deserves special appreciation.
Recent Comments