Quality is Better than Quantity when it comes to socialising your puppy.
With recent events many people have purchased puppies, to give them a focus during the Covid-19 pandemic. With many of those people panicking about not being able to socialise their puppies with people and other dogs.
In many respects I see that as a positive !
Everybody has taken to social media and the web to find out what they should be doing in respect of socialising their new dog, and are under the illusion that your puppy has to say hello to EVERYONE and their dog. Imagine letting your dog say hello and play with every dog it meets on a walk, then when you think is OK, you let the pup off lead (normally because its pulling your arm out of its socket) and it buggers off to say hello to all the people and dogs in the area. Then you realise you are not as important to your dog as you are in the home.
Socialisation is teaching your dog to accept situations in a calm manner, NOT saying hello to all.
Perfect socialisation is where the pup sees other calm dogs, that actually probably have no interest in your puppy, and therefore provide a more stable environment, than two puppies running around the place totally oblivious to their owners.
Socialisation is not:-
- Letting your dog pull you to every dog or person it meets
- Totally ignoring you in the pursuit of another dog.
- Allowing offlead play in the local village hall (commonly accepted as socialisation)
- Allowing your dog to play with all the other dogs at doggy daycare
- Acceptance that not all people want to say 'hello'
- Not allowing your dog to play with all the dogs it meets.
- Acceptance of situations in a calm manner
- Experiences, lots of them and positive ones.
