Puppy Socialisation

[Steve K9Pro]

This article was written as a thread in 2005, for the original click here

People often talk about that they have socialised their dogs, now its time to move on to something else.

Socialisation is never done, it should continue on as necessary for the life of the dog.

There is also a great misunderstanding about what socialisation is? Often people feel that when they have an aggressive or timid dog, it needs to be socialised. This is untrue.

When a dog is showing aggression, it is past the point where socialisation can help.

Socialisation in its simplest form is: -

"introducing your dog to a new item, be it dog, cat, stairs, noise & teaching your dog that it has a value."

Some people also believe that you should teach your dog that some items, such as other dogs have a positive value, in other words, are fun to be around.

I don't agree with this but nor do I stop people from doing it. I just don't do it.

I prefer to neutralise my dogs to everything accept me & what I can give the dog. So that is me, my affection, praise, pats, prey items & food that my dog finds valuable, not anything else nor anybody else (outside my family)

This makes every type of training go so much smoother & faster.

I don't want my dogs tossing up if they would rather come to me or go play with another dog.

Options = unreliable dogs.

This opens up a huge can of worms when it comes to dog parks, meeting friends & letting your dogs play etc.

Allowing your dog to run free with many other dogs is a huge risk, many temperament defects such as unresolved pack issues, rank issues & fear issues can surface in a heartbeat, resulting in your dog being attacked or attacking another.

For those who like to see their dogs play with others, they also should know the risks.

I want my dog to see me as #1, there really is no #2. It also removes the possibility of dogs destroying my dog's temperament & my dogs becoming too distracted by other dogs when I need them focussed on me.

My plan is to take my dog everywhere I can when it is around 8 - 14 weeks, I run it up stairs platforms & teach it to ignore people & other dogs etc.

Certainly I let my dogs know what other people & dogs are, I just don't want my dogs getting anything of value from them.

Once I see my dog entering fear period one, see this model http://www.k9force.net/index.html?row2col2=develop.html I keep the dog at home when it's in this first fear period, this enables me to help my pup avoid the pitfalls in public.

When I see the dog's temp firm up again, its time to start some serious training, by 10 - 12 months, the dogs training can be 100 % reliable, even though some think you can't get that, you can.

So I feel that there are two very good reasons why that people should avoid the generic socialisation model.

1. Is of course that you end up with a dog that is harder to train reliably.

2. Is that in the attempt to socialise a dog with other dogs, it could inadvertently be attacked causing permanent temperament damage

To me either one of these are enough reason to avoid it.

I have added a scale here, neutralised dog is one that fits into the blue category...

Edited July 19, 2010 by K9Pro

[Mohican]

This all makes sense Steve, actually all of your training does for what we're looking for. My OH and are looking forward to 'raising our Puppy the right way' with your distance package. A lot of your fans have commented how they wished they had their dogs as pups again or had a new pup to start with your training - so we're glad we found you when Mohican is at 9 1/2 wks.

Looking forward to getting started

[BittyMooPeeb]

Thanks Steve

[ZEPING]

hey

just want to say how great steve is heard good thing about him decided to give it a go HE IS THE MAN!!