Socialization
Overview Information
Socialisation is a term that is often used in dog training books, in dog magazines and by breeders and trainers. But what does it actually mean and how will it affect you as a new puppy owner?
Like human children, puppies are not born with the social skills that they require to live with their family, be that a canine family or a human one. The term ‘socialisation’, in simple terms, means the learning process that a puppy must undergo in order to learn key life skills to ensure that it is happy and confident in its environment, and can communicate effectively within its social group. We ask a huge amount from our dogs in their role as a companion animal, as not only do they need to understand humans and the human world, they also need to become fluent in the language of dog.
This involves having pleasant social interactions with adults, children, vets, adult dogs and other animals, as well as careful exposure to different situations in the environment such as traffic, crowds, travelling in the car, vacuum cleaners and any sights and sounds it will have to cope with in life. It is so important that this is done thoroughly and correctly while your puppy is still young and he is young enough to happily accept new things.
Puppies that have been socialised effectively in these early weeks are far less likely to react negatively to new situations, noises, people, dogs and animals than their counterparts, who have not had these important early experiences. A well socialised puppy is far more likely to integrate easily into your life, therefore making your life together much more enjoyable and rewarding.
There are two parts to socialisation and both are equally important. The first is teaching the puppy to be social with people and other dogs, while the other (called habituation) is about teaching all the things we want the puppy to ignore and not be worried about (noises, traffic, household objects etc.).
Being a companion is the hardest job we ever ask a dog to do as our expectations are so high. We want dogs to get on with everybody and everything, and to go everywhere with us when we want, but also be happy to be left alone without complaint, to be accepting of loud noises, strangers, other dogs...the list is endless. It is a sad fact that one of the major causes of death in dogs under 2 years old is euthanasia, as a result of behaviour problems. Most of these behaviour problems arise from fear (fear of strange noises, fear of being left alone – and indeed aggression nearly always arises from fear – fear of strange dogs, fear of strange people or fear of strange situations). In addition, far too many dogs are ending up in rescue centres. Behaviourists and trainers up and down the country are seeing dogs with problems that could so easily have been prevented if the first 16 weeks of that dog’s life had been properly managed, and they had been prepared for the life they were going to lead.
Our litters are diligently socialised from a few days old. Over the course of the following weeks, we introduce noises, different surfaces, different play items as well as different play and feeding locations around the house – all of this habituation and novelty contributes to the puppies’ early development. This early groundwork that can be put into a litters’ social and emotional wellbeing has a direct impact on the puppies’ ability to be fit for function as a family dog.
It is imperative that a puppy’s new owner continues this when their new puppy comes home. From around 5 weeks old and continuing from the time the puppy goes to his or her new home, an important transition takes place in the puppy’s ability to take in new situations as his natural fearfulness increases.
It is therefore essential that new owners don’t miss this valuable window of opportunity for their puppy to experience new things – which will close at around 14-16 weeks. This time also coincides with the puppy’s vaccinations, so a balance must be struck so as not to miss out on this important learning opportunity. This can be achieved by taking your puppy out and about in your arms, while not allowing them to come into direct contact with other dogs until their vaccinations have taken place. Getting out and about with your puppy is key to them accepting everyday things, such as traffic and busy places, as part of normal life. It is important that you think about what life as part of your family will entail for a puppy; for instance, if you live in the inner city, spending a significant amount of time socialising your puppy to farm animals may not be of great benefit, as it is unlikely they will encounter them in their day to day life.
The same also goes for all the different people your puppy is likely to meet such as people with beards, people wearing hats, people wearing high visibility clothing, babies, children, people with pushchairs/prams, elderly people, people with walking sticks and people in wheelchairs to name but a few.
Puppy Parties
Vet surgeries often hold ‘puppy parties’ for their new clients, but these should be treated with some caution. Well managed puppy parties can be great social interaction for puppies of all ages and sizes. Well managed parties should:
● Match puppies up according to their size so that the bolder puppies don’t intimidate the more nervous or smaller ones, and thereby create negative experiences for the smaller puppies, and make the bolder puppies ‘social bullies’
● Manage any off-lead play carefully and if necessary, separate puppies that get a bit too boisterous so that they can calm down and re-join the party once they are calmer
● Discourage any kind of anti-social behaviour, such as biting that gets out of hand, very rough play and also show the owners how to discourage this
● Show owners how to handle and groom their puppies and have others do this too
● Be fun positive experiences for puppies and owners
Puppy Socialization
Puppy socialisation is critical and should be done from birth up to 16 weeks of age, otherwise important learning and development phases have passed. In the downloads section below is a socialization bingo worksheet that you can work through with your puppy to try and give the POSITIVE experiences with as many stimuli as possible in a safe environment. Think of all the things that you would like your puppy to be comfortable and happy with in the future, and try to build them into your socialization plan for your puppy.
Your pups have already experienced many of these things in their first 12 weeks from our stringent and dedicated socialization program that we undertake with all our pups, you will have seen examples of all of these in the pupdates of your pups.
It is important to remember that we are not simply looking for ‘exposure’ as this does not necessarily create good socialization, as, if the pup is exposed to lots of stimulus, but has a negative interaction or perception of the stimulus (For instance a loud noise makes them scared) then that interaction has had the opposite effect that we are striving for.
One negative experience is equal to around 8 -10 positive experiences, this means that if your pup experiences one bad car journey, it can take 8 – 10 good ones, to convince them that actually car journeys are a good thing. Think of a walk, you go out, the sun is shining, the sky is blue, the birds are singing, you even find a penny on the floor and say a nice hello to a neighbour, but on the way home someone walks into you, knocking you over, when you get home, which part of the story do you retell first? Most often it will be the person knocking you over. Right? You might even say that you didn’t have a good walk if asked. That one bad thing that happened, all of a sudden makes the whole trip an unpleasant one, despite all the good things that happened too.
Our dogs are just the same, so we want to build up a bank of wonderful happy interactions that can act as a buffer to the negative ones, so, when inevitably they encounter a dog that isn’t as nice, they don’t assume all dogs are horrible, because they have a healthy bank of positive experiences to build their confidence.
Understanding Positive & Negative Interactions
Ok, so we are armed and ready with a socialization diary busting to the gills and want to ensure every encounter is a good one. But how do we know if our dog actually found that experience good? Or if deep down, they were actually quite worried or nervous. Well we can watch their behaviour.
So to us we might see our puppy run headlong into a belly slide across some big sloppy cow pats and think that falling in a massive pile of poo is probably not that pleasant. But what our dog took from that was that running a mud is fun, and what’s more, it gets mum or dad to run over and immediately start paying attention to me.
Conversely things we think have been good interactions can be quite scary, so we take our new pup for a walk down a busy road, they don’t bark or cry but instead walk closely to our side the entire journey. We chalk that up to brilliant experience with lots of cars and people and our puppy had no freak outs. But to the puppy, the situation was so overwhelming that they spent the entire walk scared and nervous staying close to mum for security.
Ok, so there has to be some middle ground, we have to be able to find something between, wrapping our pup in cotton wool and not letting them interact with anything, and dragging them into a million situations and actually negatively impacting their socialization.
Understanding how your dog is reacting to a situation is a really powerful tool to understanding if your puppy is having a negative or a positive experience. Dogs communicate how they are feeling, through behaviour and body language. So understanding this is plays a key role in understanding your dogs experience and socialization.
Podcasts
STAS - Socialization
Shaped By Dog - The Confidence Pyramid
Shaped By Dog - Dog Body Language: Know Their T.E.M.P
Shaped By Dog - Understanding Your Dogs Body Language
STAS - Halloween
STAS - Trick Or Treat: Preparing For Novelty
Shaped By Dog - Preventing Fireworks Anxiety
STAS - Fireworks
STAS - Christmas Prep with Your Dog
YouTube Videos
That Dog Geek - Most Important Thing to Teach Your Puppy
A quick overview of socialization, why and how long you have to implement it with your pup.
Absolute Dogs - How to Meet and Greet My Puppy With Other Dogs
Our pups will inevitably meet other dogs, we even want to encourage them to do so, but how do we do it in a way that ensures it is a positive, good experience for our dogs, whilst also teaching our pups that there are some dogs that we don't say hello to.
Absolute Dogs - Puppy Confidence Games
Confidence and resilience are key concepts and skills for our pups to build good socialization experiences. Here are a selection of fun games you can engage your puppy in to help them face the world with confidence.
Spirit Dog Training Behaviour Basics - Rude Puppy Play
A look into how to understand and see the behavioural indicators of when your puppy is engaging in or being subject to rude interactions with other pups.
Spirit Dog Training Behaviour Basics - Polite Puppy Play
A look into how to understand and see the behavioural indicators of when your puppy is engaging in or being subject to polite interactions with other pups.
Blogs
Beacon Dog Training - Why Fearful Dogs Don't Need to 'Get Used To It'
A quick and insightful article into why simply flooding your dog with interactions, is not necessarily the best plan of action.
Spirit Dog Training - A guide to Dog Body Language
A guide to understanding what your puppy is saying to you, so that you can recognise when they are finding a situation overwhelming or scary or in contrast enjoying it and finding it rewarding. Arming you with the knowledge to understand and adjust your pups socialization accordingly.
Dogs That – Know Your Dogs Temp
A simple, easy to remember 4 step process from Susan Garrett to assess your dogs reactions to stimulus and understand what your dog is trying to tell you with their Tail, Eyes/Ears, Mouth & Posture.
Spirit Dog Training - 100 Ideas for Socialization
100 wonderful ideas for you to engage your puppy in fun socialization activities.
K9 of Mine - Puppy Socialization Checklist
A brilliant article all about the socialization of your pup and how to go about it positively and productively for your and your new family member.