Puppy Socialization Series- Part 2

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, a puppy's most sensitive period for socialization is between 3 weeks of age and 3 months of age.  During this period, these guys are little sponges!  They are taking in everything around them.  This is when they are bonding to other animals and people, learning about objects, people and environments, learning body cues and signals and what they mean.  Puppies who do not get adequate socialization during this period tend to be fearful of unfamiliar people, dogs, sounds, objects and surroundings.  For many of my clients, they think dogs that exhibit fearful behavior is because they were abused early in life, when in fact it is really only because these dogs were not socialized to the real world they live in.

In an ideal world, puppies should stay with their mother and litter mates until they are 8 weeks of age, where they learn what it is to be a dog. How to play, how to read other dogs body language, and interact as a dog and the consequences of their interactions.  By interacting with an adult dog, their mother, the learn to be respectful of personal space. However, most puppies are weaned at six weeks of age, and still need a lot of learning about social graces.  As a new puppy owner, it will be your job to give your pup the vital information it needs in order function as a good citizen in the real world of people.

Providing positive experiences with unfamiliar people of different sizes and genders.  Invite guests to come interact with your puppy while providing treats and toys.  If you do not children in your home, but as an adult dog your pup may have contact with children, it will be important to have children around for your pup to play and interact with.  Do not leave your pup unattended with children, negative experiences such as being roughly handled or dropped can have negative influence on how your dog will preceive children later in it's life.  Children who run and scream in play can look like prey to your dog and chasing to track them down is a fun game you think, until your dog is 30# and knocking a child down.  Teaching your puppy the correct way to play with children and your children the correct way to play with the pup will save you lots of trouble down the line.

In general, I tell my new puppy owners to give some good thought to what sort of things will your dog be exposed to as an adult, and expose them to these things now in a positive way.  Walking on different surfaces, visiting your veterinarian just for fun, climbing, playing with other animals (dogs, cats, rabbits, etc). Do you have a dog that will need groomed?  Play with your pup's ear, feet, tail, take them to the groomer just to hear the sound of the clippers while getting treated for being such a good pup.   Vacuum cleaners, bathing, loud noises, etc.  Teach them to love their pet carrier/crate.  This will be something you will be using not only for house training, but for trips in the car and to your veterinarian.  Take a car ride with your puppy in the crate for a drive around the block!

Why do you want to start this training now?  If you do not specifically familiarize your pup to these things now, you will be training unwanted behaviors instead.  Everytime we interact with a dog, we are training them either to behave or misbehave.  Just like raising our human children, we are teaching them good and bad things in what they observe us doing and not doing.

Part 3 of our series will discuss early training for good behavior.  Stay tuned!! This can be fun for you and your puppy.

Going out on a ledge

No pretty image attached to this blog...because there is nothing pretty about this blog.  Last evening's news reported a 11 month old girl was attacked by the family dog, when the child got too close to the dog's food bowl.  Currently, the dog is being held by the animal shelter and the family has stated they do not want the dog back into the home.  It was also reported this was not the dog's first offense.

The entire report lasted less than 5 minutes. It took me about 30 seconds to get angry about the report as a whole.  And about 10 more seconds to feel sorry for the dog and get a little put out with the dog's owner's.  Now before I get tarred and feathered, let me make it clear that it is horrible what happened to the baby girl.  As a child, how was she to know the dog doesn't like to share it's food.  How was the dog to know that this small human wasn't trying to steal his dinner?  The most critical question that comes to my mind is where were the parents?  Why was the child allowed to be around the dog while he was eating, and especially if he had a history of aggression.

I could spend hours and pages on how dog's communicate, about teaching children how to behave around dog's, and about how you can learn to teach your dog to be a good citizen.  I can suggest dozens of excellent books and even great websites for learning.  In fact I do.  The bottom line is that it was not the fault of the dog nor of the child... it is the pet owner and in this case also the parent who should be held accountable.

Dog's don't come naturally understanding our language and what is expected of them.  They are by nature just as they are...dogs.  As puppies, they don't even know what is expected of them in the dog world, they rely on the pack to teach them...just as we teach our children the skills they need to function in our human world (don't interrupt when adults are speaking, don't bite your sister, etc).  As humans, we remove them from their pack at a young age before they learn how to act properly as a dog and thus it places a huge responsibility on the human dog parent to not only teach the puppy how to be a good dog, but also teach it how to be a good dog in human terms....we have to teach the puppy to be bilingual!  This also means that as human dog parents we have to become bilingual as well.

Bringing any animal into our homes as pets is a responsibility just as raising human children.  Many of the behavioral problems reported by pet owners stem from the pet owner's lack of knowledge about the dog's breed, how a particular breed personality will fit with the human's lifestyle, the time the pet owner actually has to give to the puppy to teach it good manners, lack of knowledge about teaching a dog, lack of motivation to learn about teaching, lack of commitment to the dog (and it is a COMMITMENT!) and even the lack of honesty to themselves about their true reasons for having a pet.

Many dogs end up in shelters, just like this particular dog, because of behavioral issues and the owner's lack of commitment, ability and or time to properly care for a dog.  Many dog's are euthanized because once relinquished as adult dogs, special needs and training for these dogs is needed and rarely are there people willing to take these dogs under their wing and there is a limited number of people qualified to do so.

I am not trying to discourage pet ownership.  I don't know what I would do without a dog in my life.  My dog's have been a great pleasure and comfort to me over the years.  Sophie, God rest her soul, was one of the best.  A rescued Rottweiler pup from the Fort Scott Shelter, she proved to be one of the most loving and giving dog's I have had.  She was great with my children, my grandchildren and strangers.  There wasn't a delivery person, postman, utility meter reader that didn't want to take her home with them.  When the US Army showed up at my door to inform us of the death of my son-in-law, the soldiers were cautious about getting out of their car until they discovered once they did that she sat politely at their feet and waited for them to give her a nice pat on the head.  She didn't come to us with this knowledge...it was given to her through training and care.  Even though I trusted my life with her, I never and would never leave her alone, unsupervised with my grandchildren...accidents happen, body language can be misinterpreted, a child pulls a tail too hard or pinches and one quick snap of teeth can be extremely harmful to small faces close to the ground.  Even if Sophie had been a Chihuahua, bites are not fun and the rules are the same even if you are 5# instead of 80#.

Sigh...so...teach your children, teach yourselves, teach your dogs!  Learning is a life long commitment. It can be life saving for a child, a dog, yourself.  For me...I work at learning something new everyday and reinforce the things I have learned constantly!