How Important is Socializing Your New Puppy? - By: Ron Ayalon

When dogs grow up, they choose what to trust and what they don't. The instinct to trust is based on the time they spent as wolves in the wild. As pack animals that were often forced to defend themselves in the wild, they used this trust to decide when to be friendly, and when to show aggression. This distinction helped them survive for centuries, until they were eventually domesticated into friendly dogs.

Even though they are household animals, that instinctual trust still remains. As dogs grow up, they figure out who/what they are supposed to trust and what is foreign or strange to them, requiring either aggression (growing, attacking) or fear (running away or avoiding). For dogs, they generally figure out what should and should not be trusted as puppies, and once they are older, they have those opinions set in their mind.

Though there are many things in this world to be fearful of for a stray dog or a dog in the wild, a pet that is in your possession has little to worry about, so you want to make sure that you teach your dog to get used to and trust in other people and animals early, before it has "established" what it trusts in the world.

What to Socialize

When you are ready to socialize, you should try to get your puppy used to anything that you expect it to encounter in life:

• People (including friends, family, children and strangers).
• Animals (Other dogs, cats, and any other animals in your home or outdoors)
• Things (motorcycles, bikes, skateboards and anything that moves)

Anything that your dog may come across that moves could potentially be something that your dog does not trust as it gets older, requiring that you socialize against those things at as young an age as possible.

How to Socialize

Socializing is both fun and easy, but does require a great deal of time and the careful watching of your puppy to avoid any bad behaviors.

• People – To socialize for people, you simply need to have people of all shapes, sizes – even genders, ages and races (if possible) – come close to your dog and show friendliness and affection in both public and private settings. That means that you should have guests coming into your house, take your puppy out in public and let as many strangers (including children) be friendly with your dog.

• Animals – Dogs can be a little more difficult, but are still performed the same way. Take your puppy on walks to dog parks and popular dog locations and let them sniff around and interact with other dogs. You want to be careful to ensure that your puppy does not encounter too many dangerous animals, because a few bad experiences can set socialization back quite a ways, but the more dogs of all sizes you can introduce your puppy to, the better.

• Things – Perhaps the most difficult aspect to socialize is the way your puppy feels towards objects. Herding breeds can be especially prone to disliking motorcycles and skateboards, and since it is dangerous (and difficult) to have your dog interact with a moving motorcycle, it may be hard for you to properly socialize your pet. But if you know an area of town where many of these moving items are being used, if you can bring your puppy there early and provide your dog with several treats, socialization can still take place.

Socializing your puppy is very important. The earlier your dog learns to trust these people, animals and objects, the better their behavior will be towards them in the future. As often as you can, you should take your puppy out to populated areas in order to give your dog the socialization in needs. Luckily, you can also enjoy all of the personal affection that is provided by those that appreciate how cute and friendly your puppy is.

About the Author

Yorkie Puppies in New York. Gotta Get A Yorkie has been breeding and raising AKC Yorkshire Terriers in New York since 1980. Their website is GottaGetAYorkie.com.

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