Training Tidbits

Hello friends!

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Puppy Socialization: What it means and how to do it right

It’s not just a buzz word!  Socialization simply means “learning to live in a society.”  For dogs, this means learning to live in a human society, which takes some active effort on our part.  Most young social animals are very receptive to new experiences, up to a certain age –  later on, new experiences can be viewed as threatening (this makes biological sense, really – it’s survival of the fittest!)

Dogs have a Primary Socialization Period, which spans from 3 weeks (when they begin to see, hear, and smell) to 12 weeks, and a Secondary Socialization Period, which spans from after 12 weeks for the rest of the dog’s life.  The Primary Socialization Period is the one you always hear about (but that doesn’t mean that continued socialization throughout life isn’t important!)

Done properly, early puppy socialization helps your dog to grow up to be confident, calm and friendly around strange people, dogs and environments.  Well-socialized dogs are less likely to bite or develop debilitating behavior problems.  Early socialization also opens the gateway to additional socialization throughout life.  If a dog isn’t exposed to enough stimuli during the primary socialization period, the secondary socialization period will be less effective, because the brain hasn’t developed enough capacity to be receptive to new experiences.  This doesn’t mean all hope is lost; it just means you have to go about handling your dog in a very different way.  Ask us for help!

Puppy socialization should be done carefully, gently, and thoroughly.  Animals learn by associating emotions with things; therefore, you want to make your puppy’s early experiences in the world happy and fun (hint: if your puppy is becoming increasingly fearful, he’s making the wrong emotional associations – STOP!  Your pup should be gaining confidence, not losing it.  Ask for help!).

Notice that a puppy’s Primary Socialization Period ends before most dogs’ vaccination series are finished.  This, admittedly, presents a problem.  You must be very careful about which Puppy Kindergarten class you choose, and the big box stores should be a last resort.

Early experiences should above all be safe; DO NOT take a young puppy to the dog park!!  Not all of those dogs are friendly. (Indeed, people with aggressive dogs often tell me they tried to take them to the dog park to “socialize” them – which is potentially very dangerous for your little pup!)  Furthermore, there is no assurance that any of those dogs are healthy.  Communicable diseases can reside in fecal matter or soil for years in some cases.  Likewise, do not take your puppy to the pet store, or any area that is highly trafficked by dogs of unknown vaccination or disease status, until he’s done with his vaccination series.  An excellent option for proper puppy socialization is a well run Puppy Kindergarten class.  This is a class in a safe, controlled, clean environment designed specifically for little puppies who are in their critical socialization period and who haven’t finished their vaccination series.  It should be indoors, include only puppies below a certain age whose vaccination records have been seen by the instructor, and should take place on flooring that can be sanitized.  Our classes have an emphasis on basic manners, off-leash play (to develop proper body language skills and bite inhibition), and aggression prevention exercises.

Here are some safe socialization activities for puppies that have not completed their vaccination series:

• Take the puppy on car rides: to the mountains, through the drive-thru, to a friend’s house
• Invite your tall, short, fat, skinny, old, young, hat wearing, etc. friends over to your house to meet your puppy! Invite people of different races to meet your puppy if you can.  (Bribe everyone with cake if you have to)
• Arrange playdates in your home with dogs who you know are well cared for, healthy, friendly, and polite
• Visit a local elementary school or playground and let your puppy watch the kids from the car. Bonus points if they’d like to give her some treats through the window!

Back by popular demand, this fun and informative 5 hour workshop includes snacks and take-home materials.  Using video and picture presentation followed by hands-on work with real dogs in a practical setting, we will teach you to understand canine communication and body language, including being able to tell when your dog is uncomfortable, annoyed, frustrated, relaxed, and what “I love you” looks like in “Dog.” You’ll be able to use this information to not only better understand your best friend, but also train and protect him.  If you’ve ever wondered what they’re thinking, whether it’s safe to greet that other dog at the park, why they do those weird things, how to avoid being bitten, or wished you could communicate with your dog better, this is the workshop for you!

Who should come:
dog owners
dog walkers
shelter workers
dog sitters
groomers
mailmen/women/delivery drivers
older children
veterinarians and staff
Anyone who interacts with dogs

This workshop tends to fill up FAST, so register early to reserve a spot!

When: Saturday, November 5, 2016

This workshop has been moved to Sunday, Jan. 22, 2017
Starts at 10:00am, ends 3:30pm

Where: Fur and Feather Works’ Training Center
9475 Double R Blvd, Ste. B-12, Reno, NV 89521
 (don’t worry, a map will be provided to you upon registration)

Working Spot Tuition (to bring your own dog): $150.  Working spots limited to 10
Working dogs must be healthy and friendly to both dogs and humans.

Auditing Spot Tuition (leave your dog at home): $125. Auditing spots limited to 10

In order to provide a comfortable and collegial atmosphere, space is limited to 20 participants and will be given first-come, first-served.  Registration and pre-payment is required, and cancellations less than one week before the start of the workshop or no-shows will not be refunded or credited toward future services, so please plan carefully.  Thank you for helping us to keep our workshops small and effective for you!

To register, please contact Brigitte at (775) 453-5753 or by email.

There are lots of animals out there with obvious prejudices against one type of person, or another.  This is especially common in our pet dogs, because they’re so intimately tied up in our social lives.  It’s very common for us dog trainers to meet dogs who particularly despise African Americans, or Asians, or Latinos, or toddlers, or people in wheelchairs or people who are otherwise differently abled.  Admittedly, it’s a little funny to hear their embarrassed owners’ apologies and frantic explanations of how they’re sure their dog didn’t learn those values at home; but really, it’s something that we should work to prevent.

Here’s what’s really happening.  Between the age of about 2 to 3 weeks, when puppies first open their eyes, to about the age of 16 weeks (or, 4 months), puppies have a critical socialization period. What this fancy term means is, during this period dogs greet brand new things, people, places, and objects with a hail-fellow-well-met sort of attitude; very rarely are they actually fearful, and if they are, they usually recover quickly and the fear is replaced by curiosity.  It’s terribly important to expose puppies to all of the things they will encounter in their later life during this period, and if you’re doing a good job, you’ll also expose them to the things they’re less likely to encounter, too, like people of a different race than you.  If you’re doing a really good job, you’ll make sure these early exposures are happy ones for your puppy, by offering lots of treats and play with toys in conjunction with the new thing, and avoiding any negative experiences, too.  (Our Puppy Kindergarten classes are designed to help you to do just this.)

At about 16 weeks, this critical socialization period begins to close, and new things, people, places, and objects are met with a more adult attitude: of caution, suspicion, and even fear, until proven (to the dog) to be safe.  This makes evolutionary sense: it’s why adult canines don’t walk themselves off of cliffs or trot up to the nearest larger predator and attempt to eat its food.  But, it also means that if your puppy hasn’t seen enough new people, places, objects, and things, he’ll have difficulty adjusting to the unexpected in his life.  Presto: you have a racist dog.

So what do you do? Ask for help.  It’s our job to change your dog’s emotional reaction to people who look different from one of alarm, to one of happiness and comfort.  Good trainers can do that.  Call us or email us and we’ll get you started, or if you’re not in our service area, we’ll find you a referral for an educated trainer who is.

In the meantime, don’t be surprised, and don’t get angry, if your dog does the canine version of the pointing and staring toddler in the grocery store.  We’re all mammals here.

In my line of work, I hear debasing comments about small dogs all the time.  They have a reputation of being “yappy,” “ankle biters,” and difficult to train.

 If you’re looking for agreement from a dog trainer, you’re talking to the wrong one.  I love small dogs.  I used to think I was a “big dog person,” until I saw the light: having a small dog is just like having a big dog, except they’re more portable.  I think of them as “travel-sized.”  So why do they have such a bad reputation?

It’s important to know that small dogs come programmed with the same brain as big dogs do.  They come with the same hard-wired needs and behaviors. They are not dumber or harder to train or different in any way.  The problem is in how differently people treat them.

1. Many small dogs are undersocialized.  While very tiny dogs are more physically fragile than larger breeds, isn’t healthy for a Chihuahua puppy to be raised in isolation (read: in a purse) any more than it is a German Shepherd or a Labrador.  This leads to fear and aggression problems, the same as it would in any other animal.  For some reason, socialization is always very important to large dog owners, but not so much for those who own small dogs.

2. Many small dogs are underexercised.  That little dog has a perfectly good set of legs, and he needs to use them regularly.  Small dogs need walks, fresh air, play dates, and extracurricular activities just as much as big dogs to maintain good behavior and health.

3. People aren’t as concerned with a small dog’s behavior.  The first time a small dog barks and lunges at a person, it’s considered funny and even encouraged with teasing.  The first time a Golden Retriever does it, it’s considered a serious behavior problem and it’s take care of immediately.  Why is that? Both dogs are in an equal amount of distress.

4. And on that note, people tend to take the house training of a small dog less seriously.  If a toy Poodle has an “accident” on the carpet, it’s easy to clean up.  If a Great Dane has an “accident” on the carpet, it’s a major project.  If this goes on for 6 months, which one of these breeds do you think is more likely to work with a professional to get it under control?  It’s not that small dogs are hard to housetrain; it’s  that accidents are much harder to miss or ignore until the habit is ingrained.

5. People don’t respect a small dog’s right to say “no.”  Let’s say you’re a fluffy little Pomeranian whose favorite spot is in your owner’s arms.  You hate being touched by strangers (perhaps because you didn’t meet many as a puppy); it’s violating.  But, when you’re in your owner’s arms, you have no way of escaping.  You try to say “no thank you” with a sharp look, hard stare, freeze or growl, but you’re so darn cute, people pet you up anyway and laugh when you’re grumpy.  How long will it take you to figure out that growling is ineffective, but a bite makes people back off REALLY fast? Considering how smart most small dogs are, my guess is not long.

The moral of the story: Treat that small dog like a big dog.  Ask yourself, would this be okay if my Rottweiler did it?  Be aware that small dogs are more physically fragile than big dogs, but mentally, they are the same, so pretend you have a Labrador retriever instead of a Shih-Tzu and you will have a much better behaved dog!

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