Those of you who have added puppies to your household this past winter have faced an incredibly snowy winter. But then I really didn’t have to tell you that, did I? People have told me stories of having to shovel or snowblow pee-pee runways and paths in the snow covering their lawns so their pups could relieve themselves and play. I’ve listened to their seemingly endless laments about puppies having accidents before they could even get their boots on and middle-of-the-night potty breaks in near-blizzard conditions. As a dog trainer, I am bracing myself for my classes to be filled with the next round of adolescent dogs that didn’t get the best start and haven't seen enough of the world.

For those of you who got winter puppies but haven’t ventured beyond your own driveway with them, it’s not too late to start their training and socializing. But you must begin NOW!

Puppy Socialization

The single most important thing you can do for a new puppy is to teach it that “Life is good.” Your puppy needs you to introduce it to the world in a safe and positive way. There is a window of learning that closes around four months of age that can never be fully reopened. It is a time when young puppies learn what is safe (and what is not). Early socialization is the key to your puppy's well being. Had your pup been "in the wild" it is the period when he would be taught by his mother how to avoid dangerous predators. This is the time when your pup needs to be introduced to the world in a safe and non-threatening way paired with lots of praise and treats to reinforce positive associations. The more your pup sees, does, meets and greets during this time, the easier it will be for you and your family to continue with his subsequent training. And you will have begun to successfully shape your pup’s temperament and establish a firm foundation of trust and confidence to build upon later.

What does ‘socialize’ mean? It means that your puppy will be exposed to all sorts of people of all shapes, size and age, doing, wearing and holding a variety of things in many different environments. Your puppy will have heard different noises and seen as much of real life as you can provide, preferably during that important window of learning before they’ve reached four months of age. But most importantly, these introductions to real life need to be carried out in a POSITIVE way to form favorable associations as part of the pup’s growing list of experiences.

You can accomplish this by controlling as many aspects of your pup’s environment as you possibly can. Letting your puppy run loose around unfamiliar dogs is not a wise decision. They are not yet educated in the proper way to approach other dogs and are ill-prepared to defend themselves, and shouldn’t have to. That means no trips to the dog park before they are at least 4 ½ months and until after they have been fully immunized. You must always be prepared to step in, leave, or not enter the park at all if the situation (with other dogs) looks unmanageable.

Don’t leave your home without a pocket full of treats. Be sure to reward your puppy’s brave steps and that you are not reinforcing fearful behavior. This means not encouraging your puppy to hide behind you or beg to be picked up. DON’T reinforce fearful reactions by coddling them. DO reward cautious consideration of a situation and praise them lavishly for approaching new experiences.

Are you too cool for school?
Ask yourself the following questions to see if you and your pup are ‘too cool for school’.
-Are you making time to take your puppy someplace new every day? If your puppy is young and you are a dedicated owner, you may be able to accomplish adequate socialization on your own. Most of the dogs we had growing up never went to school but were socialized naturally by inclusion in our day-to-day activities. Nowadays our busy lives and stricter leash laws make this harder to do. Set a goal to introduce your puppy to 100 new things, including both dogs and people of varying age, gender and appearance before your puppy reaches the four and a half month mark. Now get cracking! Visit everywhere that pets are allowed like schoolyards, beaches, a mall or a store.

-Do you know how to make your puppy physically and mentally tired? Are you making time to interact with your puppy several times a day? If the answer is ‘no’ (be honest!) think long and hard about attending a dog obedience school. Do you know how to read a dog’s body language? Do you know what friendly, bossy, appeasing, frightened or dominant body postures look like? (A blog on that topic is in the works along with pictures to illustrate the postures.) Many owners behave as though their dogs are children dressed in furry suits. But they're not children-they're DOGS!

-Have you trained dogs to a "liveable" level of obedience? By "liveable" I mean, can you trust them with kids and people of all ages, to come when called and not be destructive in the house, bark, dig or jump up without permission? Be honest with yourself. Dog school, when done right, is fun for you and your puppy (or dog). Harsh correction methods no longer need to be used. Are you familiar with the kinder, gentler approach to dog training? Methodologies have changed dramatically in the past ten years as trainers and owners have moved away from aversive (negative) methods and embraced positive reinforcement training.

-Do you have other dogs and a fenced yard and think your dog is fine back there? He’s not! There is a huge difference between familiar and unfamiliar dogs. Backyard dogs, even in a multi-dog home do not get adequate mental or physical exercise. Puppies need to get out and explore the world and spend time away from the family dogs to develop their own level of self-confidence.

-“But my vet said to wait until all He's had all of his shots!” Like trainers, vets want the best for their clients. They have seen pups contract severe and even deadly diseases. Sadly, more dogs are euthanized for (alleged) behavior problems than die from illness acquired through exposure. In the old days of compulsive training, pet owners were told to wait until pups were six months old before they started obedience training. Supposedly, this was done so their body could physically handle the training methods then employed. Training should start before we even take our new puppies home!

-Did you acquire your puppy from a pet store, farm, shelter, or rescue? Then you may need to attend obedience school more so than a puppy purchased from a reputable breeder who was raised in the home. Responsible breeders expose their puppies to all sorts of comings and goings, noises and people well before they are sold to their future families. Puppies that have not seen anything outside their small world are often afraid of simple and basic things such as kitchen cooking noises. Oftentimes pet store pups become fearful of small spaces and loud vehicle noises due to their limited exposure to unfamiliar situations before you bought them. “Farm-bred” often means that puppies were left unattended in a barn and haven’t seen the sights and sounds of everyday life. If I get a puppy , I will be sure it has been raised in a house and exposed to daily activities. But even the best bred puppy will most likely develop problems if you relegate him to the back yard.

If your puppy was eight-weeks-old by Christmas time and you haven’t started training yet, it’s not too late. You’ve lost the advantage of early socialization but can still make headway. With remedial help many young dogs can learn to readily accept the world. Here is where nature and nurture come into play. Dogs of sound breeding will overcome negative experiences and recover quicker than dogs who have both nature and nurture working against them. My own rescue dog suffers terribly from a rough start in life and is reactive to other dogs and certain situations. She physically reacts to some stimuli before her brain can catch up and we are committed to a lifetime management plan. That means I can never truly relax with her and will always need to keep one eye open to circumvent any potential problems. She’s a wonderful dog - well loved - but her underlying problems need not have occurred had she been properly socialized.

For those of you getting spring and summer puppies, you will have the advantage of meeting and greeting more people and dogs in your everyday life (by virtue of better weather) and that should help make your training and socialization efforts go a whole lot smoother!
So get out there now and become a social animal!

For a list of trainers in your area try www.APDT.com, or ask your vet or groomer for a referral.

Three recent graduates:
Gabby a very sweet Newfoundland, Gordon learning to sit for petting and how to act around kids, and Shorty getting ready to "chill" on her hand made mat