Boundaries

Watch this YouTube video. Then come back and read the text on this page. Then go back to the video… then back to this page. Rinse and repeat. Take note of every time you return and learn something new, every time you uncover something different or discover an unexpected thing.

The video has 84 million views as of April, 2025 (82M on 1/24, 83M on 8/24). Its title is

“How an experienced dog mother teaches her 8 [week] old puppies to be calm.”

A Better Title

A better title might be:

“How Nature establishes boundaries—when the brain takes over from the dog.”

There are so many things going on that could help every dog owner, but they’d have to be aware of what was happening, and most aren’t aware of them. It deals with the obscure concept of dogs and boundaries, which is something owners aren’t usually aware of. Dogs without boundaries have big problems, and those problems stem directly from not having boundaries. It’s a topic that needs its own chapter in a book, or multiple books itself.

Now that you’ve watched it, from 0:24 to 0:36, did you see six puppies shake their heads? Most don’t pay attention to it, although they see it quite clearly. (The shaking is the moment “The Brain” shows up on their insides. Until then, everything has been being driven by “The Dog” part of the package we call a puppy. You can think of the shaking of their heads as the confirmation of the collision on their insides of “The Brain” colliding with and taking over from “The Dog” which The DOuGTrainer considers to be the puppy.)

Watch how many of the puppies are making eye contact with their momma. (We’re told *NOT* to make eye contact with dogs. This caveat—do not make eye contact with a dog—is misinformation. It’s inaccurate. It’s only half right. You probably don’t know it yet, but it’s only half the story, and yet it continues to circulate. This needs to be talked about, though, because it involves the potential for aggression that cannot be addressed through texting. Voice-to-voice discussions are needed to go into detail about this.)

Watch how many of the puppies yawn.

Look at the distance every puppy now maintains from their momma, when seconds before, she was being mobbed by them. These are talk worthy points The DOuGTrainer needs to be discussing with you, and need to be discussing the reasons why they’re important enough to be discussing. Talking is easy—“talking about talking” is harder, but frankly, it’s more important than the talking itself.

Here’s another eye-opening video from a Maltese owner. Watch for the similar “ugly” momma’s behavior, and the puppies’ behavior of shaking the body, the brain getting triggered into action, the boundaries being established, the yawning, and the dogs keeping themselves away from their momma. I can only see two of the five shaking its body or yawning, but they all seem to be making eye contact. There’s the indicator that a Maltese is going to take longer than a Golden Retriever—compare the two videos and get your data:

Here’s another YouTube video showing similar interactions between a dam and her puppies:

Additional Videos to Watch

Click here to go to page 2 of boundaries, where more videos reveal to more aware dog leaders more about unexpected lessons in their relationships with their dogs.