You hear it all the time. “Socialize your dog”.
It’s one of the few things that the majority of dog professionals can agree with. Socializing your dog correctly has infinite benefits. It improves confidence, stability, and overall adaptability of your dog.
Now, what a lot of people AREN’T telling you. You can drastically hurt your dog through improper socialization. Shattering their confidence, promoting bad habits such as running up to strange people and dogs, obsessive jumping, over stimulation in public places, lack of focus, anxiety, and even fear aggression. Obviously, you want to make sure you aren’t causing these problems for your dogs.
So let’s talk basics.
When the word socialization comes to mind, the first thing many people think is interaction. Interaction specifically with new people and new dogs. But, it is important to instead think exposure. Exposing your dog to new experiences, while promoting what you want from them. You may hear about a socialization period for your dog- most professionals agree between 6 weeks of age until around 4 months. During this period, a puppy is more impacted by its’ experiences. So, it is even more important to take your time to properly expose them to new things. A dog can still be socialized and impacted by experiences after this period of age, it just often takes longer and may be more difficult to achieve the same level of impact they would have experienced during their socialization period.
For me, socializing isn’t taking your dog to the dog park and letting them run around freely with dogs and people. I want to control their experience from beginning to end, ensuring their success. Knowing your dog is important. What is too much for them? Where will they thrive? Will this be a positive or negative experience for them? All things to think about before taking your dog out.
Before worrying about socializing, I always want to make sure that the ground work is there first. Do I have a good relationship with the dog where I can help them through the new experience by communicating with them? If the answer is no, I work on that at home first. Engagement, focus, and confidence begin first at home. If I can not achieve these things there, an outing will not be successful or worthwhile for you and your dog.
Once I think the dog is ready, we go somewhere with low distractions first. A new environment, but preferably a low activity one. I work on the same things there that I would at home. Introduce them perhaps to new surfaces and make it a positive experience for them. If the dog needs to revisit this level of new location multiple times to be successful, then that is exactly what we do. Rushing your dog will only slow you down.
Next, I move on to somewhere with a bit more going on. Maybe some new people and (controlled) dogs around. Now, this part is very important. When I bring a dog out, it interacts mainly with me. Not the new people, not the new dogs. Working to be confident and neutral around these things is the ultimate goal. Save meeting new people and dogs for people and dogs you know and trust. If all your dogs interactions with dogs and people are positive, they will have a much more positive outlook on dogs and people then if you gamble with strangers.
Moving slowly and at your dogs pace is so important. Taking bigger steps then what they are ready for can set them back. Every dog is different, and you need to learn how to read your dogs signs. Slowly increasing the distraction and stress level at increments that are right for the dog is like taking a staircase to the top instead of trying to climb a giant cliff. At the time it may seem long, but by the time you get to the top you will see how worth it it was to end up with a well socialized dog that can handle any situation.