Hooray, your puppy is 8 weeks old and gets to go home!
Most people think training starts when the pup is between 4 months and 6 months. Well, WRONG training starts from the day you pick your puppy up. Between 8 and 16 weeks is the most crucial part of this dog's life for socialization. We call this time the grace period because this is the time when the pups are fearless and explorers. If we can get specific stimuli to them in this time frame the better our chances are to reach the big goal later on.
Let's review the word socialization before we move on. Our goal is to aim for neutral socialization. What does Neutral mean though? We want to be in between the two extremes which are 1. Aggressive & Nervous behaviors and 2.) overly friendly & excited behaviors. PLEASE NOTE - socialization does not mean taking your dog to the dog park or letting your dog play with every dog and every human they come in contact with! This will cause issues in the future.
Can you believe at just 16 weeks puppies have reached half their full body weight, they have all adult hair, adult teeth, bladder control, and adult behaviors already developed. The puppy does so much growing between 8 and 16 weeks physically and mentally that this is a good time to keep their mind stimulated through training and appropriate play. If for any reason your pup at this age was spooked by a specific stimuli it is easier for them to bounce back and grow the confidence to that stimuli again. Sounds, Sights, and Experiences can be scary but if they are getting constant training around these stimuli it will become second nature to them.
How do we reach the goal of neutral socialization? Well, starting the dog between 8 and 16 weeks is going to be your best chance of this. The puppy brain at this age is like a tiny sponge, soaking up everything they experience and filing it away for the future. We want to gradually and systematically expose the pups to new things. Attached is a list of everything this new puppy needs to be exposed to. Go slow through the list and make everything you introduce intentional and positive. We can make things positive by feeding them next or by the stimuli, giving them treats, playing with them next or by the stimuli, and giving them words of praise and encouragement ( be careful with this one, try not to baby them and if they are nervous know when it is okay to back off a little but do not “save them” ). Body language is the way dogs communicate their feelings. If you are not quite comfortable with the meaning of a dog's body language please review it prior to training.
Socialization creates trust and a relationship between the dog and the handler. This is teaching the dog no matter what the stimuli is, that the handler always has their back no matter what.
Please be aware that nothing bad has to happen for your dog not to be comfortable with something, it can be the lack of exposure itself that creates nervous behavior. They need to investigate scary stimuli on their own but make sure you are rewarding them for taking the initiative
What happens if you miss this window, trainers call it “remedial socialization” meaning you'll have to make up for the missed time and flood your dog with stimuli. This can overwhelm your dog very quickly and cause more harm than good in the future. After 16 weeks they start to become weary of things and if we have already introduced them to the things, they will be more inclined to being confident. Between 6 months and a year and a half, is where we see certain aggressive behaviors start forming and some of them are lack of socialization when the dog was younger. Our goal is to prevent nervous and unconfident behaviors before they happen.
Although absolutely be careful, parvo, distemper, rabies and others can be deadly. These are some ways to keep your pup safe during this socialization process.
Stroller out in public ( Please wipe down after every use ).
NEVER let them on the ground anywhere outside your house ( even to go to the bathroom )..
Do not let people pet them if they have not washed their hands immediately before.
Written by :Trinity
K9 Service Companions
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