Socializing Puppy!!!

[Jennifer and Jack]

I have done a search on socializing and I didn't see what I was looking for in the first five pages. I am a huge believer in socializing a puppy and young dog. I believe dogs need to be socialized to as many things as possible during that crucial period, the first few weeks we bring puppy home.

 

We, are about to bring another puppy home. This puppy is going to be my mom's puppy. We finally decided that, but my mom will be staying with me for the first few months, so I can help her train the new puppy.

 

I thought I would start a discussion and people could join in of what you have done or are currently doing to socialize your dog. I thought I had my bases well covered with Jack until the first time I tried to get him to go down stairs at a year old, and he was clueless, He now is obsessed with cats because I never exposed him to them either.

 

I did from the day I got him take him for walks, carry him in a back pack around the neighborhood, and have as many next experiences with him as I could think of.

 

Some things I did

Drove him around in the car and gave him treats.

Vacuum while I carried him in my back pack, and then let him smell the vacuum

Blow dry my hair with him in the room or in my front carrier,

Let him play with all dogs current on their shots

Hold him in Pet Smart, and let other people pet him, He didn't walk the floors until he was done with his second set of shots.

He went to daycare and was exposed to all kinds of people and dogs

We walked in thunder storms

 

I didn't baby him at all when he was scared and coming to me for support, it broke my heart to see him scared but I stood my ground and made him "puppy up" and face his fears. I really tried to avoid negative experiences as much as possible so that he would have no fears. I failed in some areas, my bosses kids threw him in a baby pool when he was 10 weeks old, There was only a little bit of water in there a few inches at best, but I can't help but believe that is why he HATES water.

 

How about you, what have you done to socialize your baby?? I want to make sure all our basis are covered.

 

 

 

[BG and Gavin]

Long car rides (crucial to us since we travel with him every weekend in the summer)

Exposure to kids and babies

Have people randomly knock on your door and come in and out of the door

Bathes

Vehicles

Getting in and out of the car (Gavin hit his head jumping in the back early on and now will only put his front paws up and has us boost his butt into the back - no easy task at his size - plus it's kinda embarassing as our neighbour across the steet always laughs)

Grooming (brushing, handling his paws, cleaning his ears)

[Bonne Bouche]

Excellent post. I'll be following along closely, as this is something I want to make sure we do right. When are you getting your puppy?

[Jennifer and Jack]

Our second puppy is coming the first week of June!! She really is going to be my mom's dog, I am going to be her big sister. My mom is going to be staying with me for an extended period of time though and she is moving here once her house sells. How about you, when are you getting your puppy?

[Bonne Bouche]

March 6th. The weekend after this! I'm so very excited!

[Bonne Bouche]

That sounds like a nice arrangement! ;-]

[Jennifer and Jack]

Wow March 6th is a very special day in our household. That is Jacks Birthday.. He is going to be 2 years old... How exciting for you to be getting a baby. Tell me about your baby that is coming and where you are getting him or her from!!!! Yippie for new puppies..

[Bonne Bouche]

He'll be 8 weeks old. A male black goldendoodle. We're getting from a breeder in south east PA. Oxford to be exact. I got referred to them through goldendoodles.com and they had very high reviews. The breeder is very big on socializing with "people" at a very young age. I don't see much (anything) on here about them - Barleycroft Kennels (website www.goldendoodledogs.com -- nice url) We live just over 2 hours north of there, so its fairly convenient location.

 

I've recently been reading a lot about parvo, so I'm deathly affraid of that, but also have had rescue dogs in the past who were very poorly socialized, so I want to work so very hard to ensure that isn't the case here.

[Jenny & Henry]

Hey Carla, we almost were gonna get a puppy there but ended up going with a place in Ohio. How exciting. Our puppy is due to come home the end of March. I know your excitement. I am about an hour north of Oxford, Morgantown area.

[Terri H and Kramer]

When Kramer was a puppy I would wash his feet and face every day with a washcloth, give him a bath every weekend with a full blow dry. This has made him a joy for the groomer to work on, been to 2 so far ( and going to the highly recommended Taj MaPaw Spaw this Saturday!) and both loved working on him because he has no issues with grooming at all. Every day when I use my blowdryer he sits and watches and his expression says "do me next!!" I also took him to our block party on July 4th so he was exposed to fireworks, he sat on the curb and watched them with the neighborhood kids! The one issue he has is cats, he isn't mean to them but he soooooooooo badly wants to catch one to play with! Exposing him to cats was impossible, as every cat I knew had a major issue with dogs...! Expose a puppy to as much as possible, but every dog is different and I consider myself very lucky that Mine was pretty easy to deal with.

[Jennifer and Jack]

I love that idea about grooming them and the blow dryer. I did not do that with Jack and it took a lot for him to be semi comfortable at the groomers.. Thanks for the ideas..

[Debb, Lucy & Oscar]

Everyone's suggestions are great, but I would emphasize bathing and grooming and accustoming the puppy to grooming tools and the sounds they make, including a high velocity blow dryer. We started bathing Lucy at a young age and she loves her baths and blow dry now. Wish I had started the dremel earlier though.

Here's what I wrote about socializing Lucy back when she was 4 months old, about a year ago:

 

Lucy is now about 4 months old. We used a sound socializing CD (to accustom her to various scary sounds like thunder, machines running, babies crying, etc.). We were pretty protective of her before having all her shots so kept her home until 10 weeks, but had lots of visitors over (no dogs). At 10 weeks we enrolled her in puppy romp sessions at a local doggy daycare facility that sanitized the entire area every night. Only puppies with the same level of shots were allowed. The puppy romp sessions were a godsend for socializing Lucy to other puppies, people of all ages, and a different environment. She was very shy with puppies for several weeks, but during the 4th session she really blossomed and came out of her shell. Lucy has always LOVED people! Men, women, children.. she doesn't discriminate. She's also enrolled in a puppy class (which started last week), and is doing extremely well there. I think the puppy romps have helped her immensely in all areas of her socialization.

BTW, when we had Lucy home continuously, we set up a puppy obstacle course with a 2-sided ramp, raised broomstick for jumping over, and a ladder laid flat so she could walk through the rungs. She loved all that, and you could see how it really improved her self confidence with mastering all the elements. We also took her for drives and parked outside dog parks and horse stables so she could watch the dogs and horses as well as people. We trained every day on walking, waiting sitting, downs and coming when called. All done at short intervals to keep her interest.

Lucy is far and away above the level of training than her peers at puppy class. She's like a star pupil, but only because we started training her the moment we brought her home.

[Aimee Santa Monica]

Wow, that's great that you took your dog alot to the malls- we should've done that more.  I waited till he got all his shots and now, at the park, he barks at everyone  ;(  I will have to take him out more often and give him treats when he does'nt bark (also clicker training).