Socialize your Dog. In order to properly socialize a puppy, it is important to understand that dogs are social animals that live with a hierarchy system and learn from each other’s contacts how to behave, play and communicate.
How to Socialize your Dog
For this reason, separating a puppy from his family deprives him of his basic education as a dog and it is part of our duty to socialize him to prevent future behavior problems.
Socialize your Dog
How to socialize a puppy?
In order to socialize a dog, you must:
Socialize with other pets.
Socialize with people of all ages.
Socialize with society and the environment.
We invite you to continue reading our article How to socialize your puppy because in the next paragraphs we will develop more in detail these three points!
What is socialization?
The socialization is a gradual process that occurs during growth and allowing the puppy to know properly interact with his family, people and objects. It’s not just about your puppy’s visual awareness of these external factors that will accompany him throughout his life, but it’s mostly about learning how to interact with these objects.
For example, he must know the difference between a child and an adult by accepting both positively and taking into account that not all children will pull his tail.
The range of possibilities that your dog has since being a puppy will allow him in the future to interact in a better or worse way with the people he will meet throughout his life. For this reason, we can state without fear that socialization is a CAPITAL process in the life of any animal as education is CAPITAL for the proper development of a child.
Socialization occurs from the 3rd week of age and continues until its 12 weeks. It is during these 9 weeks that he will have to get used to everything in a pleasant way.
Socialize your Dog with other pets:
If you have a Maltese puppy who is we all agree a small breed dog, this could scare you to socialize him with bigger dogs for fear that these big dogs will hurt him. This is a serious mistake. In order for your puppy to learn to interact properly with other pets you should not be concerned about the size of other dogs but more by the character they have.
You will have to socialize your puppy with dogs , cats and even turtles if you can, you have to get used to everything he might encounter during his life. You are going to have to look for friendly, quiet and friendly animals that foment a positive attitude and that make sure that your puppy keeps a good memory.
If, on the contrary, you choose a dog whose character you do not know and that assaults your puppy, you will unfortunately harvest a very shy adult dog. You must correctly choose the animals with which your puppy will interact!
Socialize your Dog with people:
People also have a fundamental part to this process. We recommend having your puppy interact with all types of people including children and adults. On the other hand, never forget to explain to children who play with your puppy that it is not a toy, that it is a living being and that one should never harm an animal .
In addition, it is important that children learn to take care of pets because it will allow them to learn respect for other species and the importance of wildlife on our beautiful blue star.
Contact with people is the most basic and fundamental part of socialization for a domestic dog to enjoy life alongside, and receive attention from, human beings. A dog that interacts adequately with anyone or anything (bike, other people, other animals etc ..) is a real pleasure that will make your life incredibly easy and that will allow your pet to have a happy life.
Socialize your Dog with his environment
We will talk about a final part that is just as important as the two previous ones. You must remember that your environment is loaded with objects and items that your dog needs to know , such as cars, bikes or plants.
There are many adult dogs who are always afraid of things like skateboarding or bikes, which is due to bad socialization that has generated fear and insecurity. For this reason, it will be important to familiarize your pet with all these elements by bringing him to the park or in frequented places so that he is no longer surprised if he sees them.
The consequences of bad socialization:
Do not walk your puppy during his socialization stage reaches one of the 5 freedoms of animal welfare and is a stress generator for your new pet . From the moment we do our homework, stress can end up causing behaviors such as:
Of fear.
Insecurity
Aggressiveness
Apathy.
Stereotypes.
Excessive excitement.
We are sure that you have already seen in the street a dog with one of the symptoms of just listed because a bad socialization can affect your dog all his life, creating troubles that may end up being incurable even if he is treated by an expert. For these cases, there is no general rule as dog experts work on a case-by-case basis.
Avoid that your dog develops this type of behavior by offering him time, affection and the possibility of interacting with any type of thing and in this way you will have a healthy and balanced adult dog!
Some extra tips:
Never forget that socialization and addiction must happen gradually.
Never force your puppy to bear something that scares him because you could traumatize him and make him develop a phobia.
Try to prepare activities that will allow you to have a good time while socializing your puppy.
Work every day on the bite inhibition exercise so that your puppy inhibits his bite as soon as possible. Work it daily until your puppy celebrates 4 months and a half. This is not a very long exercise, in fact, 5 minutes a day are amply enough.
Plan short sessions (5 minutes) so your puppy gets used to different types of noises. Introduce these noises gradually, always be careful not to scare your puppy.
Never forget to take out your puppy daily. And even if you have to wear it because it is not yet vaccinated, walks are one of the best ways to socialize your puppy.
Try to book a few minutes a day to teach your puppy a few canine obedience exercises. Train him playing and do not expect hallucinating results at such a young age.
Accustom your puppy to be in the car.
Get your puppy to wear a collar and a leash even if you do not let him walk on the street because he does not have all his vaccines yet.
Get your dog used to bathing, remember that you have to wash your puppy after administering some vaccines. However, it will take at least two weeks.