A puppy that pulls its paw away the first time you reach for it is not being stubborn. It has simply never learned that a human hand near its foot, ear or mouth predicts something good rather than something uncertain. That gap in learning is easy to close at eight weeks; it becomes harder at eight months and genuinely difficult at three years. The six steps below use desensitisation and counter-conditioning, pairing a mild version of the thing the puppy finds strange with something it already loves, to build real, lasting tolerance.
