October 20, 1990 To: Dr. Peter Borchelt, Forest Hills, NY
From: Barbara G. Packard (Winedot People/Pet Services) 12640 La Cresta Drive, Los Altos Hills, CA

I am pleased to see you airing the topic of canine punishment of pups. In my work with behavior problems, it is my opinion that one of the behaviors that is most misinterpreted by well-meaning owners, is that of 'how to be a good canine pack leader'. They will proudly say they have shaken their dog in the manner that some quoted author has described in a book they read. When I am able to alter this confrontive behavior on the part of the person, they are willing to try other methods which I suggest are more truly canine. I like the following example:

Do Female Dogs Punish Their Pups?

Observation of a female Bernese Mt. Dog and her 3-puppy litter (between the age of 4-6 weeks):

For the first time, the mother retrieved a previously "used" fresh beef shank bone from the yard and carried it to the nursery room. As she deposited it, she lay down and started to chew it. All three pups were attracted and came running toward her.

The first to arrive was greeted with a threatening bark, which caused all three pups to freeze momentarily. As she resumed chewing, M#1 pup continued his advances toward her, M#2 pup observed from the spot where he had frozen and the one F pup retreated quickly to the nest box area from where she turned to watch.

For a period of approximately 20 minutes, first M#1 and then M#2 approached their mother from a variety of directions and received a consistant variety of threat responses without ever making body contact.

When approached from directly in front, she stopped chewing and bark-threatened;
-from the side, at head level, she stopped chewing and growled;
from the rear received little response;
-slow advances received less volume of growl than fast advances.
-If a pup successfully approached slowly from either the side or the back, it received a louder growl if it reached with its paw toward the bone.

On this initial exposure to the bone, the F pup advanced out of the nest box but did not interact for the bone.

During later, similar exposures by the mother, the F entered in to the interaction which became less testing and more predictable. After each exposure, the mother appeared to precipitously get up and leave the bone with disinterest.