Puppy Socialisation
Visitors
Accustom your puppy to lots of visitors of both sexes and all ages. This will develop its social experience and help to keep territorial behaviour to manageable levels in later life. Ensure your visitors only say "Hello" and fuss your puppy once it has got over its initial excitement so as to prevent the development of boisterous greeting behaviour.
Children
Accustom your puppy to being handled by your and/or visitors children, but don't let them pester it or treat it as a toy. Remain in a position of supervision. Arrange to meet someone with a baby regularly, especially if you plan to have a family. This will help to overcome the common worries about how the family dog will react to a new baby and toddlers.
Feeding
Accustom your puppy to you and other members of your family adding food to its bowl when it is eating. This will teach it that you are not a threat and prevent the development of aggression over food when it is older. Conversely, teaching your puppy that you can take its food away when it is eating is a bad idea, as this approach can cause the development of defensive behaviour later in life.
Grooming
Groom your puppy every day. Grooming will accustom your puppy to being thoroughly handled and coincidentally it will help prevent the development of dominant behaviours.
Veterinary Examination
Every day examine your puppy's ears, eyes, and teeth, lift up its feet and check its paws. When your puppy is happy about this, get other people to do it too. The purpose of the exercise is to accustom your puppy to veterinary examination, very imporatant, especially if first aid ever has to be administered.
Domestic sights and sounds
Expose your puppy to domestic stimuli such as the vacuum cleaner, washing machine, tumble dryer, etc., but don't make an issue of them. The puppy should get used to them gradually without being stressed.
The postman and milkman etc
Carry your puppy and meet these people as often as you can. If your puppy gets to know and like them and more importantly learns that they will not 'run away' if it barks, it is far less likely to show territorial aggression towards them when it grows up.
Cats
If you have a cat introduce your puppy to it. Keep the puppy under control and reward it for not pestering. Be careful not to worry the cat, as it may scratch your puppy. Placing the cat in a cat carrying basket just out of the puppy's reach can be a useful method of introduction with little chance of an unpleasant incident occurring. This can be repeated after a few days so that both puppy and cat learn to become settled in each others company.
Other dogs at home
If you already have a dog introduce your puppy to it in the garden. Once the older dog has made the initial acceptance, the two should find their own level and settle down without too much intervention from you.
Prevent play-biting
In pack society once, puppies become active they play physical games with each other and pester the adults by pulling their ears, tails, etc. In the early days, puppies have licence to do what they like but as they grow up, adults and littermates alike become increasingly intolerant, especially of their very sharp teeth. By eighteen weeks puppies learn that hard mouthing or play-biting is taboo and a reprimand will quickly follow any transgression of the rules. When a puppy is introduced into the family, this learning process is normally incomplete. The family must take over where the puppy's mother left off. How is this done? Whenever a puppy uses its teeth in play the person concerned should respond with a SHARP "No!" and sound as if they have been really hurt. They should then walk off and ignore the puppy for about five minutes. In this way, the puppy learns (a) to limit the strength of its bite in both play and for real and (b) that biting is counter-productive as an attention-seeking device.
Lead training
Prepare your puppy for walking on the lead by getting it used to its collar and lead in the garden.
Once your veterinary surgeon has said that your puppy can be safely walked on a lead instead of being carried, carry on as before but go back to using quiet areas, then gradually build up to noisy and busy ones again. In addition, think about the unusual places to which you can accustom your puppy, for example, open staircases can be a problem, as can the vibration of station platforms when trains arrive or the movement of the floors on trains, buses and lifts. In the countryside keep your puppy on a lead and reward it for staying with you and ignoring livestock.
Going solo
Socialisation is very important, but so is learning to be alone. Puppies who are not accustomed to being left unattended on a regular basis are much more likely to suffer from separation anxiety (i.e. become anxious when separated from the owner) in adulthood. The three main symptoms of separation anxiety and destructiveness, incessant howling or barking and loss of toilet control.
To help prevent your puppy from suffering from this very common syndrome, you need to leave it unattended (i.e. in the house on its own) for over an hour on most days, preferably in the area that it sleeps in overnight, which should not be your bedroom, as sleeping there can contribute to separation anxiety and other problems.
For your puppy's safety, to prevent it from toileting in appropriate places, chewing inappropriate items etc., ensure its area is "chew proof" and free from hazards such as electrical cables etc. You may need to construct or buy some purpose-built barriers to make a pen. Crates/cages are often used and are readily available. Leave your puppy with some appropriate chew items, such as long lasting chews from the pet shop and fresh water.
Initially you should accustom your puppy to you sitting in another room, with the door between you open. Over a period of time, the routine can be carried out with the door shut. Once your puppy accepts this, you can start to leave the house; go next door for a coffee, for example. Gradually extend the time you are away until you are absent for over an hour on a regular basis. Do NOT go back if you hear your puppy crying. Return when it is quiet. If a puppy thinks it can "call you back" it may never accept being left.
Be very matter of fact about going out and coming home. If you fuss your puppy before leaving you will unsettle it and make it want to be with you all the time. You want your absence to be accepted. (There is nothing in dog language for "Bye-bye, see you later". Any interaction means, "Lets go!") Too much fuss on returning home highlights the loneliness of your absence.
Things to do away from home
Go to all the environments you can think of that will help your puppy become "bomb proof". Start in quieter places and gradually find busier ones.
The street
Expose your puppy to the sound of traffic and the movement of people. Start in quiet side streets and gradually build up to busy ones.
Childrens play areas
This is obviously a good place to meet many children (but consult your veterinary surgeon about the appropriate worming programme before bringing your puppy in contact with children). Children should not talk to strangers, so make arrangements with their mothers. Start with just a few children and control their enthusiasm to prevent your puppy from being overwhelmed, which can easily happen.
The car
Plenty of car travel will accustom your puppy to it and help prevent carsickness. Do not let your puppy sit on the front seat or on someones lap. Accustom it to travelling in the place it will occupy when it is an adult.
The countryside
Accustom your puppy to the sights, sounds and smells of the countryside and livestock etc. (In your enthusiasm don't forget the COUNTRYSIDE CODE).
Socialising with other dogs
Removing a puppy from its dam and littermates at eight weeks is ideal in terms of socialising it with people but its socialisation with other dogs stops. As already mentioned, socialisation can and does wear off, which means that some steps have to be taken to ensure that the process of learning to interact with other dogs continues if owning a maladjusted puppy is to be avoided. However, socialising with other dogs does not entail allowing your puppy to run amok with other dogs in the park. The dogs your puppy socialises with should also be properly socialised and well balanced, if they are not, their own social and communication skills may be poor, which can often result in a misunderstanding and aggression. This sort of encounter could result in the puppy learning to be aggressive towards other dogs. If you go to any town park on a Sunday afternoon, you will see plenty of dogs not getting on simply because they cannot communicate properly.
In order that their puppys canine interaction skills can be properly developed, it is very important for puppy owners to locate and attend one of the increasingly popular puppy socialisation classes, even if it means travelling some distance to participate.
Accustom your puppy to lots of visitors of both sexes and all ages. This will develop its social experience and help to keep territorial behaviour to manageable levels in later life. Ensure your visitors only say "Hello" and fuss your puppy once it has got over its initial excitement so as to prevent the development of boisterous greeting behaviour.
Children
Accustom your puppy to being handled by your and/or visitors children, but don't let them pester it or treat it as a toy. Remain in a position of supervision. Arrange to meet someone with a baby regularly, especially if you plan to have a family. This will help to overcome the common worries about how the family dog will react to a new baby and toddlers.
Feeding
Accustom your puppy to you and other members of your family adding food to its bowl when it is eating. This will teach it that you are not a threat and prevent the development of aggression over food when it is older. Conversely, teaching your puppy that you can take its food away when it is eating is a bad idea, as this approach can cause the development of defensive behaviour later in life.
Grooming
Groom your puppy every day. Grooming will accustom your puppy to being thoroughly handled and coincidentally it will help prevent the development of dominant behaviours.
Veterinary Examination
Every day examine your puppy's ears, eyes, and teeth, lift up its feet and check its paws. When your puppy is happy about this, get other people to do it too. The purpose of the exercise is to accustom your puppy to veterinary examination, very imporatant, especially if first aid ever has to be administered.
Domestic sights and sounds
Expose your puppy to domestic stimuli such as the vacuum cleaner, washing machine, tumble dryer, etc., but don't make an issue of them. The puppy should get used to them gradually without being stressed.
The postman and milkman etc
Carry your puppy and meet these people as often as you can. If your puppy gets to know and like them and more importantly learns that they will not 'run away' if it barks, it is far less likely to show territorial aggression towards them when it grows up.
Cats
If you have a cat introduce your puppy to it. Keep the puppy under control and reward it for not pestering. Be careful not to worry the cat, as it may scratch your puppy. Placing the cat in a cat carrying basket just out of the puppy's reach can be a useful method of introduction with little chance of an unpleasant incident occurring. This can be repeated after a few days so that both puppy and cat learn to become settled in each others company.
Other dogs at home
If you already have a dog introduce your puppy to it in the garden. Once the older dog has made the initial acceptance, the two should find their own level and settle down without too much intervention from you.
Prevent play-biting
In pack society once, puppies become active they play physical games with each other and pester the adults by pulling their ears, tails, etc. In the early days, puppies have licence to do what they like but as they grow up, adults and littermates alike become increasingly intolerant, especially of their very sharp teeth. By eighteen weeks puppies learn that hard mouthing or play-biting is taboo and a reprimand will quickly follow any transgression of the rules. When a puppy is introduced into the family, this learning process is normally incomplete. The family must take over where the puppy's mother left off. How is this done? Whenever a puppy uses its teeth in play the person concerned should respond with a SHARP "No!" and sound as if they have been really hurt. They should then walk off and ignore the puppy for about five minutes. In this way, the puppy learns (a) to limit the strength of its bite in both play and for real and (b) that biting is counter-productive as an attention-seeking device.
Lead training
Prepare your puppy for walking on the lead by getting it used to its collar and lead in the garden.
Once your veterinary surgeon has said that your puppy can be safely walked on a lead instead of being carried, carry on as before but go back to using quiet areas, then gradually build up to noisy and busy ones again. In addition, think about the unusual places to which you can accustom your puppy, for example, open staircases can be a problem, as can the vibration of station platforms when trains arrive or the movement of the floors on trains, buses and lifts. In the countryside keep your puppy on a lead and reward it for staying with you and ignoring livestock.
Going solo
Socialisation is very important, but so is learning to be alone. Puppies who are not accustomed to being left unattended on a regular basis are much more likely to suffer from separation anxiety (i.e. become anxious when separated from the owner) in adulthood. The three main symptoms of separation anxiety and destructiveness, incessant howling or barking and loss of toilet control.
To help prevent your puppy from suffering from this very common syndrome, you need to leave it unattended (i.e. in the house on its own) for over an hour on most days, preferably in the area that it sleeps in overnight, which should not be your bedroom, as sleeping there can contribute to separation anxiety and other problems.
For your puppy's safety, to prevent it from toileting in appropriate places, chewing inappropriate items etc., ensure its area is "chew proof" and free from hazards such as electrical cables etc. You may need to construct or buy some purpose-built barriers to make a pen. Crates/cages are often used and are readily available. Leave your puppy with some appropriate chew items, such as long lasting chews from the pet shop and fresh water.
Initially you should accustom your puppy to you sitting in another room, with the door between you open. Over a period of time, the routine can be carried out with the door shut. Once your puppy accepts this, you can start to leave the house; go next door for a coffee, for example. Gradually extend the time you are away until you are absent for over an hour on a regular basis. Do NOT go back if you hear your puppy crying. Return when it is quiet. If a puppy thinks it can "call you back" it may never accept being left.
Be very matter of fact about going out and coming home. If you fuss your puppy before leaving you will unsettle it and make it want to be with you all the time. You want your absence to be accepted. (There is nothing in dog language for "Bye-bye, see you later". Any interaction means, "Lets go!") Too much fuss on returning home highlights the loneliness of your absence.
Things to do away from home
Go to all the environments you can think of that will help your puppy become "bomb proof". Start in quieter places and gradually find busier ones.
The street
Expose your puppy to the sound of traffic and the movement of people. Start in quiet side streets and gradually build up to busy ones.
Childrens play areas
This is obviously a good place to meet many children (but consult your veterinary surgeon about the appropriate worming programme before bringing your puppy in contact with children). Children should not talk to strangers, so make arrangements with their mothers. Start with just a few children and control their enthusiasm to prevent your puppy from being overwhelmed, which can easily happen.
The car
Plenty of car travel will accustom your puppy to it and help prevent carsickness. Do not let your puppy sit on the front seat or on someones lap. Accustom it to travelling in the place it will occupy when it is an adult.
The countryside
Accustom your puppy to the sights, sounds and smells of the countryside and livestock etc. (In your enthusiasm don't forget the COUNTRYSIDE CODE).
Socialising with other dogs
Removing a puppy from its dam and littermates at eight weeks is ideal in terms of socialising it with people but its socialisation with other dogs stops. As already mentioned, socialisation can and does wear off, which means that some steps have to be taken to ensure that the process of learning to interact with other dogs continues if owning a maladjusted puppy is to be avoided. However, socialising with other dogs does not entail allowing your puppy to run amok with other dogs in the park. The dogs your puppy socialises with should also be properly socialised and well balanced, if they are not, their own social and communication skills may be poor, which can often result in a misunderstanding and aggression. This sort of encounter could result in the puppy learning to be aggressive towards other dogs. If you go to any town park on a Sunday afternoon, you will see plenty of dogs not getting on simply because they cannot communicate properly.
In order that their puppys canine interaction skills can be properly developed, it is very important for puppy owners to locate and attend one of the increasingly popular puppy socialisation classes, even if it means travelling some distance to participate.