Time to rethink what it really is
As dog parents, we all want our dogs to be happy, well-adjusted and able to socialise well with people and other dogs they meet. Often, that dream is not a reality and our best friend finds it challenging to be around them dogs in certain situations. We therefore feel it’s important to set the record straight as to what socialisation for our dogs really is.
Since its understood that puppies have a socialisation window to gain this learning and be well-mannered around other puppies and dogs, the pressure is on to tick this off the puppy to-do list. The thing though, is that what we once thought of as the best way to do this for our puppy has changed in recent years. Let’s look at what the experts say about puppy development. Puppies have a sensitive learning period from around 3 to 14 weeks of age, called the socialisation stage. After this period, young dogs learn to avoid certain things, which varies from dog to dog but is completely natural, if we consider that those who avoid danger also show good survival skills. Because of this, there’s a lot of pressure on dog parents by well intentioned trainers to arm them with lists of things to do and dogs and people to meet (factoring in the required vaccinations needed to do this safely) before this socialisation window closes. The result can be a high potential for overexposure and placing puppies in situations they are not ready to cope with, leaving the potential to do more harm than good.
Which takes us to adolescent dogs. From around 5 months of age (depending on the breed) puppies become adolescent, and with that behaviour changes, as hormones and other physiological process start to impact on the behaviour. Your once happy-go-lucky puppy starts to look at other dogs with not quite the same carefree enthusiasm. This is quite normal.
Probably the biggest request we get from puppy and adult dogs is to bring them for socialisation in our training classes. Dogs do not need us to teach them how to socialise, they are pre-programmed to do this as a species. However, if we look at dog interaction as a sequence or chain of events, in some dogs there are broken places along the interaction chain, which needs to be repaired. Does your dog get excitable when they see another dog? Or are they able to approach but when they get too close they become unpredictable? These are just 2 simple examples of the interaction chain breaking down.
New insights on what socialisation is and how it should look, actually suggests (and supports) the aim for quality over quantity. If you think about this for a moment, it makes complete sense. Overexposure is not the key, fewer encounters with positive interactions are more beneficial for the right kind of learning. Not all dogs are suitable for dog parks, where the odds for over exposure are high. Putting your dog in a free for all situation can sometimes go wrong quickly, and undoing the damage can take time.
What then, may you ask, is good socialisation. We believe that socialisation is encouraging your puppy and older dog’s resilience in response to interactions and changes in the world around them.
As Superhero Dog Training, the emphasis is on training concepts rather than behaviours, so that all dogs despite their age are able to make good choices in everyday interactions with other dogs, people and new places. For this to happen, we train for the situation, not in the situation, using games-based training. We start by focusing on puppy’s optimism and confidence with some other concepts in the mix for good measure. We want your puppy to see you as the most important person in their life, and that anything else can be treated as a non-event because of this relationship. In class, we will help you to teach your puppy and older dog how to have calm and polite greetings with other dogs. For reactive dogs we also offer one-on-one classes in our Reactive Dog Course.
So to sum it all up:
- Safeguard your puppy or dogs optimism by limiting over-exposure (prevention is better than cure)
- Ditch the puppy checklist
- Build confidence around new things
- Pair new experiences with positive outcomes
- Avoid overwhelm – less is more!
- Quality of interaction is rather than quantity
- Take individual differences in consideration