Early Training

Building a strong foundation!

The importance of socializing your puppy

We will be discussing things here that do not strictly fall under the heading of socializing, but everything here needs to be done in the first few months of a puppy's life, so let's just lump them all together into one category and consider them one job to be done in the raising of a well adjusted dog.

When a puppy comes into the world, his mind is like an blank blackboard. What gets written on that blackboard in the first four or five months determines how well adjusted your dog will be for the rest of his life. What he experiences in puppyhood, he accepts as a normal part of his world. If, as a puppy, he's never taken out of his own, quiet, back yard, he will learn to cope quite well in his little world. When the time comes, however, that he must visit the local veterinarian, or be boarded for a few days at the local kennel, he finds himself in an alien world that he's totally unprepared for.

Over the years we have had many hundreds of dogs stay at the kennels. Some were obviously well-adjusted, confident animals that seemed capable of handling whatever came their way. Others were, just as obviously, fearful, ill-adjusted animals, incapable of adapting to a new environment after days or even weeks.

What is socialization?

In our "lumped-together" discussion of socializing, we can roughly define the term as "exposing the puppy to as many and as varied experiences as possible and making it as easy as possible for him to develop behavior patterns and attitudes to cope with whatever life throws at him". Success breeds success, and the more challenges he deals with successfully, the more successful he becomes at dealing with challenges.

On a scale of one to ten, most dogs would fall somewhere between a three and a seven. To be completely unsocialized a puppy would have to be raised in a research environment, with no contact with the outside world and fed by an automated feeding system. The puppy raised in a backyard, or on an isolated farm, still gets a certain amount of socializing with his owners, other pets or livestock, occasional visitors, etc. At the other end of the scale, although I have tried many times to do the best job of socializing I could, I'm forced to admit that in the end there was always more that could have been done.

Socializing a puppy involves two distinct areas;

interacting with humans and other animals...: small children, teenagers, elderly, handicapped, other dogs, cats, livestock, etc.,
experiencing the various physical elements of his environment...: surfaces - from carpet to concrete, cover - from short grass to thick brush, water, traffic, trains, noise, lawnmowers, etc.,

Your goal should be to expose him to as many different experiences as possible while he is still young enough to benefit from them. If it is not done during the first four or five months of his life, he will never reach his full potential.

Be creative. Think "obstacles", but always obstacles that your puppy can be successful with. Think "boards", think "wire", "can he get over this?", "can he find his way around that?", but never let him fail. Help him if he needs it. Remember "success breeds success". It's an attitude. And socializing instills the right attitude.

Good luck with your training!

Neil

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