Today I had a treat.
I went to see a fifteen week old Dogue de Bordeax called Porter. He is a very big puppy and he’s going to grow into a huge dog! His owners want to make sure that they start off the right way, so that he grows up to be a well-mannered friendly dog who, though will bark if he hears something, won’t assume the role of guard duty or be a threat in any way. He is also going to learn to walk nicely on a loose lead.
At just fifteen weeks old he is already a little wary of people coming up too close to him and he may bark at them. We are working to make sure he grows up to be confident and self-controlled. It is so tempting to play exciting and rough games with a puppy like this, but tug games not done properly encourage mouthing, grabbing and biting, and chase games encourage a puppy to run away or even to get scared if cornered – and this invites aggression.
He is unusually lazy for a puppy, he is house trained already, he doesn’t jump up and he doesn’t chew much – apart from socks – when they have feet in them!
