Socialisation – how to help your puppy grow into a confident
adult dog!
The socialisation period in puppies starts at around 3 weeks
and finishes at around 12-14 weeks. Most of the socialisation period happens
BEFORE puppy is allowed out after the second vaccination, and a lot of it
happens while the puppy is still with the breeder!
If your puppy is older than 14 weeks old, don’t panic, you
can still make a difference, but you may need to take things a little bit
slower.
Before your puppy is
fully vaccinated, you shouldn’t take them anywhere they can get exposed to
unvaccinated dogs, or where unvaccinated dogs may have fouled.
You also want to
avoid farmyards and water (rivers/ponds/canals).
This is a general
guide, please speak to your vet to find out what specific risks of diseases are
like in your area.
What is socialisation? It is our opportunity to teach your puppy
that the world is a safe place, so they shouldn’t worry about ‘weird’ things,
like push chairs, runners, other dogs, etc. and an opportunity to teach your puppy
how to behave appropriately in the human world.
During this period, puppy’s curiosity outweighs their fear,
so it is easier to expose puppies to new sights, sounds, environments, and
smells.
Important to remember:
· Quality vs quantity – better to have fewer
exposures, but positive ones.
· Socialisation does not equal interaction (very
important to teach your puppy that some dogs/people don’t get interacted with;
this helps lower frustration when they are older)
What can you do before your puppy is allowed out:
Take your puppy out in your arms or in a puppy sling, so
they can experience:
· Traffic
· Farm animals
· Supermarket car park (you can watch the world go
by from the car)
· Garden centres
· Dog friendly cafe/pub with your puppy on your
lap
· Dog friendly stores (John Lewis)
· Take your puppy on short car journeys (so their
experience of car rides does not only result in a trip to the Vet, where they
get vaccinated!)
· Friend’s houses
· Garden dates with fully vaccinated dogs
· Invite people to visit your house, so your puppy
gets used to guests.
· You can expose your puppy to recordings of
noises, such as fireworks (start with a very low volume and gradually increase
it to make sure puppy does not get scared).
After the vaccinations, when your puppy is
allowed out, get them to experience:
· Seeing different people
· Different dogs
· Take them on public transport
· Take them to the vets for happy visits
· Pet stores
· Enrol them in a puppy class with a positive
reinforcement trainer!
When approaching socialisation,
think ‘what would I like my adult dog to be OK with?’ and try and get your
puppy to experience it in a positive way in their first few weeks with you.
Some people approach
socialisation as a tick box exercise, however I find it is more helpful to
think about it as presenting a picture to your puppy:
Park/green space/countryside:
puppy is off lead or on a long line. This is where we interact with the
environment – other dogs, scents; I will play games with my puppy and practice
recall. I want my puppy to experience dogs of different shapes and sizes – some
of which we will interact with, and some we will just watch from a distance. I
want my puppy to learn that dogs come in all shapes and sizes, humans could be walking,
running, or riding bikes, children could be playing football, and we may even
see horses, cows, or sheep.
Pavement walking/urban walking:
Puppy is on a relatively short lead. For me this type of walking is usually to
get from A to B. We may encounter traffic, people, other dogs, cats, bikes. I
want my puppy to learn that all those things are safe, however we are unlikely to
interact with them. Yes, I avoid my puppy interacting with other dogs when on a
short lead – this helps to avoid frustration that can lead to reactivity in
adolescence.
Cafe/pub/park bench/bus/train: we
are stationary and not walking. Puppy is on a lead, and I will always ensure
that they have a mat or a blanket they can settle on.
When we are taking our puppy to a
cafe or a pub, I want to set them up for success and here we are just watching
the world go by, without any direct interactions. I will politely decline
people’s requests to say ‘hello’ to my puppy, as I don’t want to set my puppy
up to fail, and I want them to learn to settle and relax in those environments.
Puppy classes – I am a dog
trainer and I always take my puppy to puppy classes – more than one class, if I
can. This is not because I don’t know how to teach my puppy to lie down or to
walk on a loose lead, but rather because, for me, this is another picture I am
painting for my puppy. When we are in a class environment, we are working together,
we are a team, so under these conditions, I want my puppy to learn to pay
attention to me, rather than other puppies or people.
Veterinary clinic/Grooming salon –
I want my puppy to expect, and be happy with, being handled by different people
in this environment! I invest time in taking my puppy to the vets, and booking
appointments with vet nurses, so my puppy can have a ‘pretend’ examination with
treats and fuss.
Good groomers will offer a puppy
package to introduce puppies to grooming and handling in short fun sessions, so
this is also a picture I want to paint.
Your lifestyle will determine
what pictures your puppy will see often and how you would want them to behave
when those particular pictures are painted. So, before you even bring your
puppy home, think about what your socialisation needs look like.
My top tip about socialising your
puppy is to set up expectations from the outset – so if you don’t want your adult
dog to jump up at the waitress in a cafe – don’t let your puppy to do this!
