Socialize Your Dog - Dog Trainer in Milton

The period of time between 8 and 16 weeks in puppies is an extremely important time to positively introduce new people, places, objects and situations to your dog.

Utilizing reward for good social behaviour is key to creating positive experiences for your pup. Its good to remember to choose your socialization situations carefully. Young puppies should only be socialized with low key, respectful (fully vaccinated) adult dogs, or other young puppies. Caution should be taken at this young age when introducing other animals because puppies are vulnerable to disease. If you are unsure, speak with your vet about the best times to introduce others of the canine species.

When choosing people for initial social interaction, try to pick those who are not going to overwhelm your pup. For fearful, unsure, insecure and apprehensive pups, treats can be thrown from the person who the pup is being socialized to, as long as they remain calm and follow your instructions not to overwhelm your dog with rough petting, standing over them, over exuberance, loud voices etc. If your pup will approach strangers, even though cautiously, the owner can reward the approach, so as to avoid any overwhelming behaviour from the stranger. The best way to avoid those over exuberant puppy petters who need to be in your dogs face, is to simply tell them that your pup is in training and at this time can not receive any interaction (or even better for those very insistent people, tell them the dog has explosive diarrhea and may let loose at any time - that usually works).

For the outgoing, bold, confident pup, the owner rewarding the social behaviour, rather than the other person rewarding the pup, will help to teach the dog that you are the giver of the treats (pets, praise etc.) and that you need to be payed attention to. The outgoing, social pup will automatically gravitate to others if they are not taught that the owner is the one who is more exciting. This will help the social butterflies training later on, encouraging focus and attention on the handler, not on others.

As far as places and situations, the best thing to do is try and bring your pup everywhere you can that you think they may encounter later in life. Always create a positive experience while watching for and acting upon signs of stress; lots of yawning, lip licking, flattened ears, tucked tail, shaking etc. If you begin to see signs of stress end the session on a positive note (ie. with a reward for a sit or other obedience command), and bring the pup home.

The above techniques can also be used with older or rescue dogs, though if they missed their critical social period as puppies, the process can take much longer to achieve.

Over all, it is important to create positive experiences when socializing your dog. You will help develop a dog that is more confident and can be taken with you almost anywhere.

If your dog is having problems with socialization, fear or aggression towards others please don't hesitate to contact us at Smart Dogs Canine Training, we are always glad to help. dogtraining101@hotmail.com or visit the site for details www.smartdogsk9.com