DOG SOCIALIZATION – WHAT, WHEN, WHERE, HOW?

Note from Con Slobodchikoff (www.conslobodchikoff.com): The following post was written by Starr Ladehoff, Certified Professional Dog Trainer -- Knowledge Assessed (CPDT-KA), and Director Elect, Board of Directors, Certification Council for Professional Dog Trainers. She is an AKC Canine Good Citizen Evaluator (#71153) and a Canine Life and Social Skills Evaluator (#E750403). Starr does training and behavioral consulting at Arizona Pet Professionals, LLC, www.ArizonaPetPro.com. Her email is [email protected].

 

Most of us have been told we should socialize our dogs for them to be ok with other dogs, animals and people but what does that really mean?  Is it free-for-all play with all types of dogs and letting them “figure it out?” Should we take them to different places with lots of people and/or animals so they can “work through their fears?” To answer these questions, we should consider how a dog’s social development progresses from the time they begin the process into adulthood.

 

The primary socialization period starts at age 3 weeks! Puppies learn they are dogs. The littermates begin to play with each other practicing survival techniques for later on in life such as biting, barking, fighting, posturing and chasing. During this period, which lasts up to approximately 12 weeks, puppies go through major changes both physically and socially. They learn to accept corrections from their mother and to use submissive postures. They learn to relate to their littermates and develop a loose hierarchy within the litter. If puppies are separated from their litter before 7 weeks, their ability to get along with other dogs may be affected and they may not have learned to inhibit the force of their bite.

 

Between the ages of 7 and 12 weeks, they learn what human beings are and to accept them as safe. This is the time when rapid learning occurs and any experience the puppy goes through has the greatest impact on future social behavior, good or bad. Teach your puppy the house rules and give them structure but keep in mind their short attention span and physical limitations. Although puppies can continue to learn to be comfortable with new things, it is not as easy as during this period. This is why the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior recommends proper socialization classes and experiences as early as 7 to 8 weeks of age. Although puppies are not completely immune to disease this young, there is greater risk for behavioral problems developing later on in life due to incomplete or improper socialization. To read the position statement on puppy socialization from the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior, go to www.avsabonline.org.

 

As puppies age, they go through two “fear imprinting” periods. Any traumatic event the puppy experiences can have a more lasting effect and may last for life. The first fear period is between 8 and 11 weeks. Be careful not to put your puppy into stressful or frightening situations. No wild costume parties during this time of their life! The second fear period is between 6 and 14 months old. Many dogs will become more reactive during this time or become suddenly apprehensive about new things. In large breeds, this period could extend longer. Puppies have individual personalities just like we do so what is scary for one may not be for another. By becoming familiar with canine body language you will learn to recognize fear signals your dog might display.

 

So what is proper socialization? Socialization is not simply dog/dog play, though that can be part of it.

Socialization really is:

• Exposure to the world the dog will be a part of in a safe manner with rules and guidelines
• Learning to be calm when the world is stimulating
• Learning to respond to signals when that is not what they want to do

Yes! Socialization is learning and maintaining acceptable behavior in any situation, especially when they would rather not. It is learning to handle any experience they will normally encounter throughout their life without becoming fearful, overly stimulated, reactive or aggressive.

 

Getting to know the breed(s) in your dog will help you understand their predispositions to sociability. Some breed types are more likely to continue puppy sociability into adulthood like sporting dogs and companion dogs (retrievers and spaniels). More of the breeds however become less tolerant such as terriers, guard dogs, herding dogs and bully breeds. Some dogs grow to become consistent challengers and others consistently remain passive.

 

Seeking out proper socializing experiences such as well-structured puppy classes or one on one play dates with other appropriate dogs is a vital part of proper socialization. A great puppy class may have a safe, mature dog for the puppies to learn from who will teach them boundaries. Puppies should be matched by personality and play style. Sharing games like the retrieve/drop should be taught to avoid possessiveness and teach relinquishment of unsafe items. Learning to come happily back to their person during play is an extremely important skill to learn at any age. Your dog should look to you for guidance and be willingly dependent upon you.

 

If you have a mature dog who is easily stimulated, teach them to relax before allowing them to socialize. If you have an adult dog who would rather not be around other dogs or people, don’t force them to socialize – they may never change and you might end up with a fight or other problem behavior.  Encourage and teach passive play instead of overly aroused play. If you have a dog or multiple dogs who play rough, do a lot of interruptions and call them to you happily rewarding them for paying attention. Teach them to play together with toys instead of mouthing each other. Overly aroused play can lead to aggression as dogs mature so be careful, particularly with the breeds who tend to go from 0-60 in about 2 seconds!

 

Proper socialization is an art! Be patient, kind and consistent while teaching social skills. Both you and your dog should be having fun. If you feel you have a dog with socialization issues, seek advice from a qualified behavior professional. 

 

Comments

[megan]

It's important to socialize your dog early as the later you wait the more problems there will be.

[Celeste]

I have a small recent problem and I am not sure where to post it.

I have a 7.5 year old white Shepard. He is fixed and he has always been very friendly to other dogs. He would give a warning when other dogs would try to dominate him...meaning mount him. He would just turn quick and go away or at the most bark and nudge. Nothing out of the norm. But since February he is now blind. Cataracts due to diabetes. He was just unlucky because his weight and health were great until 2 years ago. Anyways he is actually doing quite well being blind and can even fetch a ball and run off leash in areas that he is familiar with. But when he meets a dog that tries to mount him or a dog that is for example young and or more wild. He now reacts quickly..barks or growls and he snaps his mouth..I know he can't see where he is snapping so it looks like he is crazy. If the dogs are calm he is fine and will even play well try to at least play. He will even still hang around the dog in question as long as that dog does not try to munt him or be too wild. This happens off leash of course when he is on leash he is with me and I have control. It is a rare situation and does not happen often. When this happens I do give a sharp hey! He stops or the other dog is gone. I don't want to have him on leash all the time because he does love his ball chasing. He is not aggressive in any other way and I think this is more fear or being unsure of the situation. Just asking for any advice. Thank you

[My pet's care]

This article is so full of important information, it should come with every puppy that is adopted. I will definitely use it with my clients who get new pups or have questions about socializing their puppies.
Thank you. I'll be following this blog!!

[e]

Any shelter worker would be thrilled to read this. I've seen my fair share of puppies die of parvo, and the smell is one of those things you can't ever, ever forget, but I've seen many, many, many more die because of a lack of socialization at the beginning of their lives. Dr. Dunbar talks about the shelter dog manufacturing process, and this article, if read by every new puppy owner, could save more lives than any spay/neuter campaign or nonsense "no-kill" effort.

[My pet's care]

This article is near and dear to me. I am a professional pet sitter and often have clients with new puppies who are basically scared to socialize their pups with other pups their age. I need to copy this as a hand-out for those pet parents! I have two pups that are just about a year old. I was lucky in the fact that I had an older dog in the house wh took over parenting responsibilities when "the girls" first arrived. He was awesome. Stopping play when it got too rough, getting the girls to calm down when I was unable too and generally being a good role model.
Thank you for this post. It will go a long way in helping ne puppies and their parents!

[rick smith]

I think the topic was sufficiently framed to start a discussion, and I too would like to hear specifics of how to get the most bang for the buck when your pup or mature dog starts to meet the world with you.

re: The process of primary socialization is defined as the development of attachment to mom and littermates."
- regardless of whether that is the accepted academic definition, it seems more closely related to imprinting and species ID rather than in the "training sense" of socializing, which is where the rubber meets the road so to speak.

unless it's feral, the minute a dog leaves it's momma and starts depending on a human it has started along the road of "training by humans". It has been my experience that the more carefully this is planned out and controlled the more chances you will have of a more balanced dog, regardless of what genetics were brought to the table.
- and for sure it applies when the dog is confronted with ANY new stimulus; environmental or social
- the problem with many owners is they don't consider themselves trainers :-)

[Suzanne Hetts, Ph.D., CAAB]

I have to respectfully disagree with some of the statements in this post that defined "socialization" - namely

•Exposure to the world the dog will be a part of in a safe manner with rules and guidelines
•Learning to be calm when the world is stimulating
•Learning to respond to signals when that is not what they want to do

Those points to me better describe a definition of early or "basic" (not the best term) training than socialization.

We just completed a two part webinar on "What Science Has to Say About Socialization" for members of our BehaviorEducationNetwork.com. In preparation for that we reviewed numerous scientific studies on the socialization process, which included much of Scott and Fuller's work and their colleagues - dating back to the 1950s which was really the time frame when the most objective data collection was done on behavior development in dogs.
The dog training world seems to have significantly expanded its definition of socialization from that which is typically used in the scientific literature as it refers to the social behavior of mammals.
The process of primary socialization is defined as the development of attachment to mom and littermates. Scott and Fuller then also talk about the development of species identity and as my husband and partner Dr. Dan Estep says, who to treat as friends and conspecifics, who to view as "enemies" who can hurt you and who to view as lunch.

Perhaps a better term for the procedures being discussed in this article are "early experiences". As we discussed in our BEN webinar, there is no one set of early experiences that is the best for all dogs, because each individual dog brings its own genetic tendencies to the table. And in fact as we reviewed the literature, some of the claims made about the effects of certain early experiences on later behavior don't actually hold up when subjected to objective research.
So I think this is a topic that deserves a bit more precise language instead of what seems to be an ever expanding definition of "socialization".

[rick smith]

Hi all ... been awhile since i posted here, but this one is dear to me.
Most of this was related to puppy development ... that's good to know

Next, since i started training over 20 years ago, my philosophy and techniques for socializing have evolved a LOT !

I would be interested in a discussion about some of the specific goals that one uses as they socialize, both for the pups as well as adult dogs (which are the cases i seem to get the most)
- i have found everyone agrees on what the end product should look like, but all too often actually DO it in MANY different ways that often results in the opposite of what they were trying to teach their dog

I'd be glad to post how I do it, and fwiw, I do not agree it is an art :-)

For me, it is a very precisely planned level of training that depends a lot on what the dog is expected to do for it's life situation, as well as NOT simply being a "take the dog out and expose it to a wide variety of environmental and social stimulus", which is often the entire "plan" for almost every dog owner I work with :-)

I think it would benefit all of the readers if this was discussed in a level of detail that any owner could actually use in daily life.