The Importance of Socializing

One of the most important pieces of training that you can offer your puppy is to socializing with everything that your puppy will see in their lifetime. Many people think that socializing just means to meet some other dogs and if there were other dogs in the household they wouldn't have to meet any new ones.

*Socializing is with not with things that they know but with things that they don't know. Dogs don't generalize which means that if your dog has met for example a couple of children it doesn't mean he/she will be good with all children. The more of one thing that they see or do the better that they will become.

If your lifestyle at the time you get your puppy does not include certain things like children doesn't mean that you shouldn't socialize your puppy with them. Your puppy is going to be with you for upwards of 10 years. Prepare your puppy for the future. There may be changes in your life that may at some time bring in these factors to your dogs life.

Socializing is with everything your puppy will possibly see during their life. Some of these are people of all ages, dogs of all kinds, strange smells and sounds, and all types of environments. Take your puppy with you whenever to see you can and do as many things as possible. This will be most important to do during puppyhood but it is an ongoing process throughout their lifetime. Most behaviour problems such as fear and aggression are caused by lack of socializing as puppies. These behaviours are very rarely caused by other circumstances like abuse. How you react during these outings will also affect how your puppy will view the sitsuation. Your puppy trusts you so if you show fear your puppy may also start to show fear. This tends to happen often with owners of small dogs when they come across a larger dog. Instead of letting your puppy learn to deal with these larger dogs many people pick them up as the other dog approaches and eliminate your puppies chance to socialize with this other dog. Another social mistake that is happening more often with little dogs is being carried everywhere they go. Even though they are little, they are still dogs and need to learn to act like dogs. This doesn't mean that you should never carry them but whenever possible they should be on the ground learning to do things on their own. There are more problems with aggressive small dogs than there is with larger ones. You just don't tend to hear about them as much because they are less likely to cause much damage.

*Many of the carry bags that are available can be very dangerous for your puppies physical development. The only bags that should be used are the ones that have a hard flat bottom. Any of the bags that are designed like a pouch cause their back to be curved.

Start to socialize your new puppy as soon as they have had atleast one set of vaccinations. Enrolling your puppy into a positive puppy training class is one of the best ways to get your puppy off to a good start in raising a socially well rounded dog. Besides being a place to socialize it is also a place where your puppy is going to learn a great variety of different things like how to play nicely with others and how to listen to you when there are all kinds of distractions. There are a few different styles of training that you can choose from. The most successful is the positive reinforcement training technique. When you are training your puppy you want them to love and trust you and not be fearful. Using aversive techniques may cause your puppy to become fearful of you or others. This style tends to use physical punishments with the use of pinch collars, choke chains and leash corrections. Be careful when choosing a trainer and facility. Do your research and check them out in person to see how their training is done. You should choose group over private training. When you are in a class by yourself you eliminate far too much distraction and leave no chance to socialize. You want to train your puppy in highly distractive area to ensure your puppy learns to listen to you no matter what is happening around them. This may be a little more frustrating in the beginning but it is the best way to train.

*NOBODY GETS A DOG TO HAVE A BAD DOG. Socialize and train your puppy to ensure you end up with a well behaved adult dog.





By Stacey Brickman