Socialising Your Puppy
How to Socialise Your Puppy the Right Way
A common misconception when it comes to socialising your puppy is that this means simply mixing your puppy with other dogs and making your puppy ‘dog friendly’. However, this couldn’t be more wrong.
Socialisation isn’t just about meeting dogs at all. In fact, although their ability to cope around other dogs is important long-term, there are actually more important things to focus on in the very early days of having your puppy. Being able to go on that lovely long summer evening stroll with your dog when the tractor turns up, or the cows appear, or a fence shakes, or the bird scarer goes off, or there’s a bridge to cross, or being able to walk your dog in the dark when it’s raining and some traffic passes, or being able to pass the lady pushing her shopping trolley whilst carrying an umbrella, or the man with a long beard… to name but a few scenarios, all have their roots in really good and necessary socialisation. But, let’s first talk about what socialisation is.
What is Socialisation?
Socialisation, simply put is the process within which your puppy learns key life skills. Habituation is the process where an animal learns to ignore environmental factors and both of these are crucial for your puppy. As everyone calls it socialisation though, let’s stick with that main term for now, but we really are talking about both socialisation and habituation when we say this.
What you want to do, during the socialisation period for your puppy, is help them learn to cope with and adjust to everyday life indoors and outdoors. The hope is that you help them become both resilient and robust to everyday occurrences and stressors that they might encounter for the rest of their life so when the unexpected happens at any point, they shrug it off without their world falling apart. It is about stress inoculation and yes, this is about environmental factors as well as dogs (well, all animals really).
When Does Socialisation Occur?
Socialisation essentially starts from birth, although it is fairly typical for people to collect their puppies from around 8 weeks of age in the UK and this is when most people think it starts. At whatever point you do get your puppy, it is important to know what socialisation plan your breeder (or rescue) has had in place for your puppy because a lot of work can and should have been done around socialisation before you bring your puppy home. Any breeder without a socialisation plan is to be avoided in my opinion.
From day one of birth, our puppies are like sponges and we only have a small period of time where it is easiest to get them used to and adjusted to the world: up to around the age of 16 weeks at the latest and 14 weeks for many. So that is essentially a four month window of time to get your puppy used to everything you need to get them used to before the window effectively closes. Not a long period of time at all!
It is not impossible to socialise them after this time and I have helped many older dogs socialise and habituate to the world in later life in my career, however it is not as easy to do as it is within the nice spongy comfort zone of the 16 week of age window.
How to Socialise Your Puppy:
In my experience, it is best to give your brand new puppy one or two days to settle in with you and your family at home in order to find your feet (or paws) together. Being removed from their mum and siblings is a very stressful experience for a puppy, so we want to give them a chance to breathe a little before we worry about our socialisation plan. This is a good time to start establishing your toilet routine, getting them adjusted to a pen or crate and generally getting to know each other and into a routine.
From day two or three however, it is time to get socialising! What you are going to do is start taking your puppy out and about with you and, if they aren’t fully vaccinated at this point, carry them in your arms so they don’t touch the ground or pop them in a puppy papoose or puppy pram and start getting them used to the big wide world. It is a good idea to take an old towel with you in case you need to pop your puppy on the ground to toilet. Then, here are some ideas for socialising your puppy:
Get them out and about in the car and in your arms as you walk around.
Sit and watch the world go by for 5 or 10 minutes…at the park and on walks etc. Let them see all kinds of dogs and people.
Visit garden centres and shopping car parks and watch the world go by from the car or in your arms as you walk around. DIY shops are great to carry them round as you usually find all sorts of different looking items and people there, most Wickes stores are very dog friendly and of course there are numerous pet shops around.
Introduce new and novel items in and around the house or even out on walks by popping them on the ground for them to simply explore. Don’t make a big deal of it, just let them in the room and let them encounter it. If they ever seem/feel worried by anything, don’t force them to interact with it, just give them a little more distance from it if need be or pop it away and let your trainer know. Another good thing to do is to rub your hands over any items they are worried by, as this makes it smell familiar and safer for them. You can scatter treats around the items for them to eat, but sometimes this places dogs in conflict with having to approach an item they might be worried about vs getting the food, so I prefer to use food at a distance from the item if I use food at all. Include things with/at different heights, things that make different noises, shiny things and so on.
Think of things they might encounter on walks…cones, bags on floors, people carrying bags, high vis jackets, umbrellas and so on. Grab some or all of these and walk about with them, lay them around the house and garden etc.
Peg carrier bags and scarves etc to the washing line so they get used to unexpected noises and things moving unexpectedly.
Let them see and watch all kinds of dogs.
Let them see and watch all kinds of people.
Let them see and watch kids on bikes/scooters etc
Get them used to passing traffic. This is a big one as puppies often find traffic quite scary if they haven’t been exposed properly and this can make walks very tricky. It’s best to introduce them to traffic from a distance at first and gradually get closer over time. Once they are allowed to walk on lead outside, you might find they worry about traffic a little as they are no longer in the comfort of your arms. That’s OK, just increase the distance again and get closer over time.
Get them used to household items and noises such as the vacuum cleaner or hairdryer (don’t blow it on them though). Sometimes playing with them at the same time as the noise is on in a different room is a good idea at first and gradually move them closer over time to where it is if this is necessary.
Think of different surfaces to get them used to walking on, different platforms/heights etc . Stones / bark / slippy surfaces (go slow) / things to crawl under or through / water (don’t force them in though, let them get used to it in their own time). Park gym equipment can be fun to help socialise puppies!
Download a puppy sound app and play with them while you have each sound on a very low volume in the background to start with. Work through all different kinds of sounds. As time goes on, increase the volume and play with your puppy at the same time.
Visit the Vets and your groomer and get them used to the reception area and salon. Make these spaces fun and nice places to be before. A good groomer will offer you introductory puppy socialisation sessions and I have a number of amazing local groomers to recommend to you if you need.
Get your puppy used to being handled. This is different to being generally stroked. When they are relaxed with you, get them used to having their paws touched and their ears checked and their tail lifted a few times a week. Introduce them to grooming process and being brushed gradually, starting with one small part of their body at a time.
Introduce them to their walking equipment such as collar / harness and lead gradually. If you need help with this, contact me.
How to Socialise Your Puppy with Other Dogs:
As well as the above, socialisation is about dogs too! However, we don’t want our puppies meeting and greeting every single dog they see as that can set us up for major problems further down the line with skills like recall and their expectations/frustrations around dogs on and off lead. Nobody wants to be that ‘one’ down the park who has that dog who runs over to every other person and dog and can’t be called back! Nobody wants to be that ‘one’ who has that dog who barks and screams at other dogs because they can’t get near them to say hi when, as a puppy, they were allowed to meet everyone they saw. And nobody wants their dog to not be able to emotionally cope around other dogs either. So, what do we do?
Good dog socialisation is not about letting your puppy loose or to play with a whole bunch of other dogs, or puppies, and expecting them to learn only good things from this. Firstly, puppies are very poor teachers of other puppies; they don’t play an adult game and they haven’t learnt or refined socially acceptable and polite manners yet. Secondly, quite often, leaving puppies to ‘get on with it’ when playing with each other runs the risk of issues arising between them, including bullying behaviours and/or fearful or reactive behaviours to emerge.
Ideally, we mix our puppy with older sociable polite dogs (ones who won’t get too stressed by a crazy puppy) as they are generally the best teachers! We ‘consent test’ any play time. To do this, hold your puppy back after a few seconds of play or interaction and see what the other dog does. Do they come back over to play / interact more? If so, great, the play / interaction was acceptable to them. If not, time to stop the play. Never place your puppy in a position where another dog might ‘tell it off’ as this is an unacceptable position for any dog to be put in and could cause problems for your puppy with dog fearfulness further down the line.
Yes, your puppy can play with other puppies, but I would keep the length of time of this down to a minimum as puppy play can turn frantic and silly very quickly.
It is a great idea to allow our puppies to sniff and greet other dogs for three seconds before we lure them away with a treat on their nose to focus back on us. This helps teach our dog that greeting dogs remains calm and doesn’t get silly but also helps teach them that we are also interesting too.
A two in five rule is a lovely rule to follow for puppy/dog socialisation. That is, one out of five dogs my puppy can meet and sniff for three to five seconds before I place a treat on their nose and lure them away. The second dog they can play with but ensure that any overtly boisterous play is interrupted simply by popping a treat on their nose and encouraging them away from each other (getting them to follow your hand with the treat in). If your puppy seems timid with another dog, make sure you also interrupt any play to give them space and time as you don’t want them starting to fear contact with other dogs.
For the rest of the dogs on walks, it is a great idea to teach your dog to largely ignore them and help them understand that the majority of dogs out there are not for them to play with. This will come in extremely handy for the rest of your dog’s life, especially if you want to give them an off-lead lifestyle.
Puppies generally experience a surge in stress hormone (cortisol) when they are between the age of 8-10 weeks so whilst we do not want to avoid our socialisation plan in this time, it can be a good idea to note down any major issues you find with it and discuss it with me or your trainer as soon as possible so that any potential long-term problems can be addressed early.
Try Not To:
Overwhelm or let people smother your puppy. Lots of issues can be caused in later life with dogs who experience lots of forced handling as puppies by people. I have seen awful issues of reactivity to people in dogs who were passed from person to person to person as a puppy which caused sensitivity towards humans.
Force your dog to ‘face their fears’. If your puppy is worried by anything in particular, contact a professional for help.
Forget that your puppy is learning all of the time.
Remember, your socialisation window is small. Don’t wait until it is too late. Contact me if you need help to train or socialise your puppy.
Happy training and enjoy your puppy, they don’t stay so little for long xx
