Bringing a puppy into your home is exciting. Positive socialisation and training are fundamental in giving your puppy the necessary skills to navigate our human-focused world successfully.
Socialisation isn’t just about letting your puppy meet many people and other dogs. This is part of it; however, it’s not the whole story. Socialisation is about allowing your puppy to build the social skills necessary to live as a confident dog. This means experiencing things it will encounter in everyday life with and without you and being able to deal with them successfully.
Socialisation is also about different environments. Gardens, parks with play equipment, beaches, woods, fields, quiet and busy streets. Not to mention all the other modes of transport, bikes, skateboards, cars, motorbikes, and buses.
Many dogs are afraid of bikes, cars, and trucks. Gentle and positive socialisation with these can often alley the dog’s anxiety. It may be that the socialisation starts at a distance where the puppy can see it but remains calm before slowly decreasing the distance.
The more confident your dog is, the easier it will be able to cope with the unexpected occurrences that sometimes happen in life.
To build these skills, the experiences must happen at your puppy’s pace, always ensuring it is not overwhelmed, overstimulated or anxious. The more positive the experience, the more comfortable and confident your puppy will become. It is essential not to rush socialisation; your puppy should always have the option to move away from stressors and approach when it feels ready.
Socialisation Development Stage
Weeks 4-14 is a crucial development stage for socialisation learning – this means having positive experiences with a range of humans (children to older adults, both male and female). People in hats, wearing glasses and using walking sticks and wheelchairs if possible.
Meeting other well-mannered gentle dogs (of various breeds) will also help the pup learn polite etiquette and how to interact and communicate with other dogs. The more variety the puppy can have positive experiences with during this stage, the better equipped it will be to cope with life when it’s older.
Studies (J Paul Scott, Freedman, King and Elliot) have proven that puppies who do not receive adequate socialisation with other dogs, people, or different environments and stimuli struggle to cope for their entire lives.
Positive socialisation throughout puppyhood is essential to becoming a well-adjusted adult dog able to cope with everyday life and new situations.
Continue Socialisation Throughout Puppyhood
When you have your puppy (after vaccinations), you should continue the socialisation. A good rule of thumb is to start in quiet locations and gradually build up distractions and noise (people, traffic, livestock). The aim is to make each experience a positive one for the puppy.
Take the puppy to many new places often, allowing them to meet different people (all ages, male and female). Allow them to be gently and appropriately handled, but only allow your puppy to be handled if it wants. Do not force your puppy to endure stressful situations. Over-socialising or rushing your puppy before it is ready will cause anxiety.
Be A Voice For Your Puppy
You must be a voice for the puppy, and observe its body language to ensure it doesn’t become overwhelmed or stressed. Remove your puppy from any situation that is uncomfortable for it. Do not rush socialisation; it will have long-term negative consequences for your puppy.
If a puppy is stressed or scared of something, don’t force it to confront the stressor. Instead, slowly desensitise the puppy to the stressor from a distance. Over time, you can get closer to the stressor as long as your puppy remains calm. Each time the puppy doesn’t react, reward.
If the puppy does react, wait until it has calmed down, and then reward. By waiting, you are rewarding calmness; teaching your puppy to be calm is rewarding and positive.
Travelling With Your Puppy
Modes of transport are also an important part of the socialisation process. Travelling in vehicles isn’t natural for puppies and dogs and may cause them some anxiety. Careful, brief introductions will be necessary to familiarise your puppy with how you usually travel.
Take the puppy in the car often (not in the front seat – start the pup in the location it will always be in); this gets the puppy used to car journeys and can prevent car sickness. My dog took a few weeks of regular car journeys before she became comfortable. I used puppy pads in her area to make cleaning up vomit and poo easier.
If you travel by bus often, familiarise your puppy with travelling on the bus. Start on short trips – one or two stops, and slowly build up the time spent until your puppy is comfortable.
Puppy Classes
Well-organised and structured puppy classes can help puppies and their owners learn about behaviours and positive reinforcement training methods.
The trainer should observe the puppies to ensure they aren’t anxious, stressed, or overwhelmed. There should be no more than 5 in a group. A smaller group ensures the trainer can monitor each puppy.
A negative experience at this stage can be detrimental to the puppy’s development. Puppy socialisation sessions should be controlled, and the puppies should stay on the lead.
Puppy classes can run 6 – 12 weeks blocks and should include positive reinforcement training and how to behave acceptably with people and other dogs.
A Puppy’s Start In Life Matters
Puppies born to an un-stressed mother dog have a much better start in life. If they are positively exposed to gentle handling and environmental stimuli throughout puppyhood, they will be better equipped to deal with life and new experiences as more confident adult dogs.
Puppies born to backyard breeders and puppy mill farms often begin life at a huge disadvantage as they have a stressed mother and have minimal human contact with environmental stimuli. Studies have shown that stressed dams pass on anxiety and stress to their puppies. These types of puppies are often very nervous and anxious and need a lot of patience and gentle socialisation training.
Each Pup Is An Individual
Every pup is different; it will have its own personality, likes and dislikes. It is a case of getting to know your puppy and observing how it reacts to its new environment. Watching how it deals with coming into your home will give you a good idea of its temperament and how you should proceed.
Socialisation and training take a lot of observation on your part. The quicker you respond to any anxiety, the more your puppy will trust you, which will make future socialisation training easier. Always praise and reward your puppy for staying calm and making good choices.
With each new experience and activity, try to keep it positive and fun. There is no rush. Going at your puppy’s pace will ensure you have a more confident and happy adult dog.
Good luck in your socialisation and training journey.
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