Socialising Your Dog

People

Every puppy should receive a good foundation of experiences to prepare it for it's life in our world as an adult dog. If your puppy comes from two temperamentally-sound parents and is lucky enough to avoid any traumatic experiences with humans during informative months, you might never see problems from lack of good early socialisation.

Bad experiences unfortunately happen without anyone being able to foresee or prevent them. If they do happen, you should give your puppy plenty of positive experiences to help your him forget them. That way when your dog has a bad experience with, for example, a man with a beard, several previous good experiences with bearded men will have already taught your dog that a bearded man is not a bad guy. If your puppy has met all kinds of people and all kinds of dogs that were nice to him then it is these meetings that he will remember rather than the odd bad one. It's very much a case of the good outweighing the bad. Sadly there will be some bad experiences that certain dogs never forget and all things being equal, no two dogs are alike in all ways. As long as you have done your very best with your puppy then you can do no more. Seek advice as soon as you think there may be a problem and try to overcome that problem while it is an early one. Once a problem becomes a total fear or a habit then it is harder to beat if you can beat it at all. Dogs jump up to try and greet us by licking our faces as they would greet one another in the wild. If you make sure that this jumping up is not rewarding to your dog, i.e it does not lead to fuss, treats or petting then your dog will quickly learn that the most rewarding way to greet a person is to keep all four feet firmly on the ground.

Don’t let the habit of jumping on people get started because changing this habit later can put your dog’s good attitude toward people at risk. It’s also much easier to prevent than to fix. If puppy is trying to jump up people he meets then ask then not to make a fuss of him until he has all his feet on the floor.

You should try and meet as many different people as you can during your puppy's early months. The people you introduce puppy to should ideally be of as many different appearances and smells as you can. You should interact with these people in the same friendly manner to show your puppy that looks and smells are not something he should pay much attention to. If you are wary of a particular person for whatever reason or you dislike a particular type of person then you could accidentally create a fear, suspicion or even defensivness in your dog. You should work hard to ensure that your dog reacts in the same way to all people regardless of their differences.

It is very important that puppy is taught that he should greet children equally clamly as when he grows up, it is not going to be a pleasant experience for either you, your dog or the child if he knocks a one over in his eagerness to greet them. This is also an excellent time to educate children in the importance of greeting a dog calmly and gently to avoid the dog reacting in an unpleasant manner towards them. With this part of socialising we are protecting both our puppy's and our children's future well being.

Another important thing to consider is the need to make sure that puppy is accustomed to the noises in our world. Vehicle engines, bangs,talking, shouting and all of the other sounds that we hear every day. My dogs for example have no fear of fireworks as when they are young I deliberately take them out on November 5th and while we are walking around listening to the bangs, whistles and pops of people wasting hard earned cash, I reassure my dogs without making a big deal of the noise to ensure that they also see those sounds as nothing to be wary of. An offshoot of this is that my dogs do not react during a thunder storm as to them it's just another loud noise and some flashing.

Dogs

By far the best way to socialise your dog in the etiquette of meeting other dogs is to allow your dog to meet as many other dogs as possible. The safest place to do this is either your veterinary practice (some run socialising sessions for puppy's) or your dog training school. In both these place you have experts on hand should anything untowards happen and also a wealth of advice on tap should you have any questions about your dog. Puppy will get to meet and greet lots of other breeds as well as his own and will hopefully leave the socialising sessions having had a good deal of fun and also having learned a good deal about the social niceties about greeting other dogs.

If you know someone who has a dog that is friendly and well mannered then you could also try introducing your puppy to their dog and perhaps allowing them to play for a while. Most owners with friendly dogs are only too pleased that their dog has found a new friend and will be only too happy to oblige. You should only try this after your puppy is fully protected by his vaccinations though.