Socialization refers to exposing a puppy to as many
different sights, smells, people, animals, places and experiences as you
possibly can.When you provide
quality socialization your puppy learns positive interactions.This lays the foundation on how your
dog will react to new people, places and things for the rest of his life.Socialization builds a dog’s
self-confidence and resiliency although it must occur only during a small
window period.There is some speculation
on how long the socialization period lasts but it is generally believed to
start around five weeks of age and ends before the puppy is sixteen weeks
old.Puppies who are well
socialized will generally grow up to be confident and well-adjusted adult
dogs.If a puppy is not socialized
at an early age he may have fears, anxiety, obsessive or destructive behaviors,
and in many cases even aggressive tendencies.Worse yet, if a puppy was traumatized during the critical
imprint period by a loud noise or a man with a beard, he may develop a phobia
of loud noises or become aggressive with men. If a puppy is removed from his mother before
eight weeks of age, he misses out on critical socialization that he would
receive from his mother and his brothers and sisters.For example, puppies learn what is called “bite-inhibition”
by play fighting with their littermates.When a puppy bites another puppy too hard, the puppy yelps in pain.The first puppy then learns how hard is
too hard to bite.If a puppy hasn’t
learned about bite inhibition he may bite someone’s hand hard enough to draw
blood during play.Socialization
is crucial to your puppy’s health and well being.
When should a puppy be
socialized?
Soacialization should begin early on while the puppies are
still with their mother.Until the
puppies’ eyes begin to open, handling them should be kept to a minimum.When they open their eyes at or around
three weeks of age they should be exposed to gentle handling.At five weeks of age, when the puppies
are more independent from their mother, early socialization can begin.Puppies should be at least eight weeks
old before they are removed from their litters.Once this happens, it is suggested that you introduce
your puppy to three new things each day.It is important that your puppy be exposed to all different types of
people; men and women, big and small, with or without hats and/or beards.Expose him to new sounds and to
different substrates on which he walks such as grass, sand, gravel and
linoleum.Teach him to climb
stairs even if you do not have stairs in your house.Once your puppy grows up to be 100 lbs and you move to a
house with stairs, you don’t want to have to carry him up and down for the rest
of his life!Take your puppy for
car rides whenever possible and always ensure he is in a crate or harnessed in
for his own safety.Socializing
your puppy to other dogs is also very important but always follow your
veterinarian’s advice on whether or not to expose your puppy to other dogs
before he has had all of his vaccinations.Ensure that dogs that you do choose to expose your puppy to
are current on their vaccinations.
The Critical or Fear Impact
Period
The critical imprint period occurs between eight and ten
weeks of age.It is also commonly known
as the fear impact period.During
this period puppies are especially sensitive to negative experiences.If a puppy is exposed to rough handling
or extremely loud noises during the fear impact period it may have a negative
effect on his behavior once he is an adult.Traumatic experiences during this period may take months or
years to recover from.
The Primary Socialization
Window
The primary socialization window overlaps the critical
imprint period and occurs between eight and fourteen weeks of age.During this period,
socialization, or lack thereof, has the most impact on your dogs temperament as
well as his behavior overall.Now
is the time to introduce your puppy to people, places and other animals.This period is the best time for
housebreaking and beginning to learn formal commands such as sit, down, stay
and come.However, please
keep in mind that until your puppy is about five months old he cannot be
expected to behave “obediently”.
Discipline and controlling
your young puppy’s environment
Puppies should
not be disciplined before they are five or six months old.Prior to this age, when they have no
understanding of what is expected of them, it is your responsibility to be a
patient leader as well as a teacher.Puppies are driven by instincts and will act on them without
restraint.No matter how hard we
try we cannot take away a dog’s urge to chew, bark, or eliminate.Instead we must patiently teach our
dogs to fulfill such urges at appropriate times and in appropriate places.A young puppy cannot understand
discipline yet.Trying to teach a
young puppy using discipline would most likely do more harm than good.Instead, constant supervision is a must
for the first year.This way,
controlling your puppy’s environment is easy.When you control your puppy’s environment you ensure that he
has very little chance of being naturally rewarded for unwanted behaviors.An example of a natural reward is when
a puppy digs a hole.It is
naturally rewarding because it is fun and it is a cure for boredom.The more time your puppy spends time by
himself in the backyard, the more he naturally rewards himself for
digging.By the time you find the
holes he has dug, it is already a bad habit that may be difficult to break
because the fun he has when he digs outweighs any punishment you can
muster.That’s why they say that
an ounce of prevention is worth ten pounds of cure when it comes to dog
training.
Fearful behavior
Often times, people inadvertently reward fearful behavior in
their dogs.For example, during a
thunder storm a dog may shake and try to hide.This dog’s owner sees that her dog is frightened and she
then picks up the dog and tries to comfort him by cradling him and telling him
“it’s okay” in a soft voice.What
this dog owner doesn’t realize is that she is actually rewarding the dog for
his fearful reaction.What is the
best way to handle a situation such as the one above?The best thing to do would be to act in a matter-of-fact way
as if the situation is not a big deal.Furthermore, only reward calm behavior.
Creating positive
associations
A dog can be reconditioned to view a scary situation as an
enjoyable one by creating a positive association between the scary situation
and a reward.(The reward is
usually a high value food reward but some dogs are more highly motivated by a
squeaky toy or a tennis ball.)To
create a positive association with a new or previously scary situation,
remember to take it slow.If you
force your dog to move too fast your training will inevitably suffer.Expose your dog to the situation slowly
and reward him for calm behavior.Soon he will associate the situation with good treats and fearful
behavior should disappear.
