Natural Puppy Socialization

Natural puppy socialization is nearly as critical as natural nutrition to a long, healthy life as part of your family. The time period between eight and sixteen weeks is an important one in your puppy's life when it comes to socialization. But what is socialization and why is it so important?

Socialization has become quite the buzz word among trainers. Socialization is really a simple concept, but essential to your dog's healthy interaction with her world. Socialization is the exposure of your puppy to elements in her environment-humans, other dogs and animals, noises, smells, common objects in the household and neighborhood, to list several, but not all.This socialization comes from two sources-human beings and canines.

The first source of socialization is canine. A puppy is born into a litter where it learns to interact with the mother dog and his litter-mates. Quickly, a puppy learns what is acceptable behavior from its mother and other litter-mates through nudges, nips and an occasional paw-wallop. In the absence of mother-dog, it becomes the human caretaker's job to assume the responsibility of primary socialization. An early positive connection to humans is key to the development of a dog who is comfortable among people.

The second source of socialization is of course, human. Once a puppy becomes part of your household, it is important for you to first establish trust in your puppy and then with trust established, expose your puppy to a number of experiences within her environment. The training crate, other animals, children, household noises can all be stressful situations for your puppy, but proper exposure to these with a trusted human will reduce this stress to an acknowledgement of these things just being part of his home experience.

Puppy kindergarten is an excellent venue for socialization to take place. The environment is controlled and supervised. There are other dogs and humans present, as are the smells and sounds of the facility in which the program is held. A leash or harness is often involved and your puppy is learning to communicate with you and learning how to please you in the midst of a lot of potentially distracting activity. But as the term "kindergarten" would indicate, it should be the first of many "formal" socialization experiences your dog will have throughout her life. Continued learning is valuable and essential for your dog's optimal health, and part of a socialization process that is life-long. In fact, senior dogs do much better adapting into old age when they are continually socialized to new experiences whenever possible.

One of the easiest and most enjoyable ways to work socialization into everyday life is by engaging in play with your dog. In addition to a daily walk for exercise and socialization, games played with your dog go a long way in the socialization process. For example, a game of tug will teach your dog that you are the pack leader because you will always win this game.You can forgo a trip to the pet store for a tug toy by making one of your own through braiding strips of old sheets or towels, knotting them on each end. For a fetch and tug toy, drill a hole on either side of an old tennis ball and run the braid through, double knotting on the end to keep the ball attached securely. If your dog has a thing for rubber toys and you're looking for one that can't easily be destroyed, Planet Dog makes a great one that's also environmentally friendly-the Orbee Tuff Tug.

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