Socializing Your Dog

Socialization

Proper socialization and early training are two irreplaceable ingredients in the recipe for a happy, confident, and socially appropriate adult dog. A dog's behavior is influenced by his genetic makeup and both the intentional and unintentional socialization experiences and training he receives. Puppy brains grow just like all the other parts of their bodies. Without proper environmental stimulation during the brain's growth period, the brain will not develop to its full potential. The stimulation and experiences you give your young dog should either the instincts you want increase in your dog or weaken those you want to decrease. Proper socialization and puppy training will maximize your chances of having an adult dog you will enjoy living with for many years.                                             Socialization is far more than just puppy play

In The Dog Vinci code, well known British behaviorist John Rogerson defines socialization as learning how to interact appropriately with people, other dogs, and the environment. Socialization involves exposing a puppy to as many things as possible during the first sixteen weeks of his life, before he develops a normal healthy fear of new things. Your puppy needs to learn how to interact appropriately with other dogs, how to tolerate physical confinement and brief periods of isolation, how to ride in the car, how to abide being handled by you and other people, how to cope with unique environmental conditions where you live (such as neighborhood noises, sights, and smells), and how to deal with unique family situations (including babies, the elderly, medical  equipment, and pets of other species). Every socialization experience should be short, pleasant, and puppy appropriate, but the experiences should reflect the environment in which you expect the puppy to live in and any work you expect of him in later life. Investing the time and effort to socialize your puppy properly will result in huge benefits that will last your dog's entire lifetime.                                                       Dogs don't always identify or respond to environmental stimuli the same way humans do. Canine instincts help a do to  survive in the natural world, but sometimes cause problems in the human-made world. For example, dogs are naturally fearful of loud noises. In nature, such noises usually accompany dangerous things, such as lightning or falling trees or a boulder. However, in the man- made world, there are loud things that are not dangerous, such as fireworks and large trucks and busses. Dogs aren't born knowing the difference between dangerous loud things and not so dangerous loud things. They need to learn the difference through socialization and experience. As behaviorist Carol Price explains, "Dogs are essentially creatures of instinct...This.... in turn means that when a dog is suddenly faced with something strange - be it sight, sound, object, person, animal, or experience - he has one of two choices. He can inherently trust that something is safe or fear that it is not - and then react accordingly." Providing as many appropriate safe socializing experiences for your puppy as you possibly can will help tip the scales toward an assumption that these new and/or different stimuli are safe. Your puppy also needs exposure to things that move quickly or erratically, such as bicycles, vacuum cleaners, or skateboards, so he can learn that they are safe objects that don't need to be attacked or controlled.

The same concept applies to developing proper canine social skills. Dogs have the instinctive ability to express themselves in ways that other dogs understand. However if a dog is not given the ability to practice and refine these skills during the first sixteen weeks of his life, while his brain is still developing those areas associated with canine communications, his fluency will be greatly diminished. He may have problems throughout his life being socially appropriate with other dogs. He needs to be exposed to dogs of both sexes, different physical appearances (for example color, size, shape, coat length, head shape), different ages, and different inclinations toward interacting with puppies. It is vital your puppy interacts with dogs who will tell him to bug off (in a socially appropriate way) so he learns that not every dog wants to play and how to stop potential conflicts from escalating. If the puppy grows up only interacting with other puppies or adult dogs who tolerate his behavior he may not act appropriately the first time he encounters a dog who wants to be left alone. Although it is very important that the dog learns  how to interact with other dogs he lives with, he still needs the opportunity to interact with dogs outside his family. If he is limited to interacting only with the dogs he lives with, his communication skills will be limited by the degree of fluency of h is house mates. He might also struggle with communicating with dogs you bring into your home in the future, if doesn't learn how to interact and communicate properly.                                                                                                   Play is another key part of socialization.  Puppy play is Mother Nature's way of teaching puppies how to be predators (eye, stalk, chase, and grab skills are all part of typical puppy play) and how to communicate with one another (bite inhibition, social deference, and other skills also develop through play). Once puppies are four to six months old, these lessons are pretty much learned (or not learned if the puppy was not adequately socialized) and the desire to play starts to naturally decline. Older puppies and adult dogs may still "play" with other dogs but the nature and frequency of that play changes. As puppies mature, their extended chase, tumble, and chew games evolve into more casual shared environmental exploration. A word of caution. Unfortunately adult herding dogs sometimes want to interact with other dogs and some people by herding them. The innate need to control other animals can cause problems and trigger fights if the dog never learns that "no" means "no" when he is interacting with other dogs. That is why it is so important that puppies learn that not every dog they encounter wants to play a game of run and chase or shepherd-and-sheep, and to respect that decision.                                                                                         Unfortunately, an intense period of fear development partially overlaps the optimal sixteen week learning period for many critical adult behaviors. Negative experiences during a fear period can last a lifetime. It is important to protect the puppy from traumatic experiences, while still providing him with positive ones. Throwing him into a mob scene with a pack of strange dogs at the dog park to socialize him is not a very good idea. Chances are high that your puppy will be scared by such an experience and this can greatly impair his social skill development. It is entirely possible that this type of experience can result in the dog developing a fear aggression or excessive shyness. It is far safer to have the young puppy interact with a few other socially appropriate dogs under the supervision of a trainer in a controlled environment than to toss him out to fend for himself in the dog park. Although this requires more effort on your part, remember that you are creating a behavioral foundation that will last your dog's entire life and you only have a few precious months to develop these important life building skills.