By: Thomas A. Beitz
Printer Friendly Version Socialization is considered to be one of the first and most significant contributions one could make to their dogs education. Socialization consists of more than just introducing your new puppy to a group of other puppies in a play time session. It includes exposing your puppy to as many different people, places and things as possible. The more situations your puppy experiences at this young impressionable time of its life, the better he will be able to deal with the changes in his environment as he grows older. Your puppy will learn to accept changes in his environment and grow into a well balanced confident dog. The socialization period of development of a puppy is between the ages of 6 to 20 weeks. Some puppies need more exposure than others. A puppy that missed out on this stage of development may begin to demonstrate timidity (avoiding strangers and new situations) which as the puppy grows older may grow into a more serious problem. If you begin to see your puppy becoming fearful, you need to intervene and work on developing your puppy’s confidence. You can socialize an older puppy or dog, but it requires significantly more effort. Should your puppy exhibit fearful behavior; DO NOT console your puppy. Consoling your puppy when fearful will reinforce the behavior or in other words reward the puppy for being afraid. Your puppy will actually think that there is something to be afraid of and the problem will become worse. The fearful dog can sometimes grows into a fear biter. A “fear biter” is a dog that lives its life in constant fear feeling threatened in what seemingly would appear to you or me as a loving nurturing situation. If you observe your puppy or dog beginning to exhibit aggressive behavior out of fear and your attempts to correct it are not working, please call a professional before the problem gets out of control or before your dog actually bites someone. During the winter months, it becomes a challenge to socialize a puppy due to the cold winter weather. By the time spring rolls around and your puppy is a little older and may begin to exhibit this fearful behavior, it may be too late for a group socialization class. A socialization group training class may end up being too stressful for a puppy depending upon how far along the problem has progressed. Regardless of the age of your puppy you can socialize him with other dogs on a one on one basis. Be sure that if your neighbors or friends have an older dog you wish to introduce to your young puppy that they are up to date on the immunizations and that the older dog has reasonably good social skills of its own. You do not want to socialize your puppy with an unruly or aggressive dog. We want to create the most positive experience possible for your puppy. Should your puppy experience a negative situation with another dog, it may be counterproductive. It is always best to introduce dogs on a leash so that you can more easily control the situation and intervene if needed. It is not unusual for a more dominant dog to jump up on another dog in order to try to lead the other dog or communicate he is over him in the pecking order. I generally will not permit two dogs that have never met to jump on one another until they have had a chance to greet one another more appropriately. If the two dogs are acquainted with one another and both are accustomed to playing rough, then it would be permissible. However, if the young puppy is not used to rough play, it would be better to introduce them gradually until they demonstrate they are comfortable with one another. Socialization is important for proper development of your puppy. It should be understood that this form of training is only the beginning of a series of training programs your puppy will need over the first year of his life. Every puppy should go on to learn the “basics” which would include commands like heel (walking on a loose leash), “sit stay” with distractions, “coming” when called and the “down command.” Basic obedience training will help you to begin to communicate with your puppy more effectively so your puppy actually understands what you are asking. More advanced training might include off leash training as well as agility, herding, tracking or search and rescue. Not all dog trainers work all forms or methods of training. My suggestion is to find a dog trainer that specializes in the type of training you are considering. Once your dog has achieved your desired measure of proficiency in whatever level of training you pursue, you will need to continue to reinforce the training in order to maintain reliability. Email this article to a friend:
Contact Information Tom Beitz is the owner of the Academy for Puppies and Dogs and is an authorized dealer for Pet STOP Hidden Dog Fences. Tom can be reached at (716) 628-0651 to answer your questions or he can be found on the web at www.smartdogtrainer.com . E-Mail: Tom@Smartdogtrainer.com
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