Content
- What is socialization?
- Socialize the puppy with other animals
- socialize the puppy with people
- Socialize the puppy with the environment
- Consequences of poor socialization
For socialize a puppy correctly, you should start by understanding that dogs are social animals that live in hierarchy and learn from their peers how to behave, play and communicate.
For this reason, by separating a puppy from its family, you are inevitably depriving it of its basic education as a puppy. So, your duty is to socialize him to prevent future behavior problems.
Continue reading this PeritoAnimal article to learn how socialize a puppy correctly.
What is socialization?
THE socialization is a gradual process that develops during the puppy's growth, allowing it to correctly relate with other animals, people or objects. It is not enough for the puppy to visually know these external elements that will accompany him throughout his life, he must also know how to interact with them.
You should know, for example, the difference between a child and an adult by positively accepting the two and taking into account that not all children are likely to pull their tails.
The range of possibilities that your puppy has known since a puppy will allow him to relate better or worse with whom we present in the future. For this reason, we can say that socialization is a very important process in the life of any pet, as it would be for a child.
Socialization takes place between 3 weeks of age and 12 weeks of age. It is during this period of time that the puppy should get used to everything, always in a pleasant and positive way.
Socialize the puppy with other animals
If you have a Maltese Bichon puppy, an example of a small breed dog, it can be frightening to socialize with larger dogs, probably for fear that they will hurt you. This is a serious mistake. In order for your dog to learn to get along well with other pets, he should not be so concerned about the size of other dogs but about the character they have.
Socialize your puppy with puppies, cats and turtles, and all the animals he may encounter in the course of his life. Then yes, you should look for friendly, calm and kind specimens that foster a positive attitude and make your puppy gain a happy memory.
If, on the contrary, choosing a dog to know its character, it ends up attacking our puppy, it can create a scared dog as a result. You must choose correctly who your puppy relates to.
If you socialize your dog correctly, you can achieve, for example, an exceptional relationship between dog and cat!
socialize the puppy with people
People are also a key part of this process. We recommend that your puppy interact with people of all kinds, including adults and children. Don't forget that, when relating your puppy to children, the little ones must respect and never hurt a puppy.
In addition, it is important that children take care of their pets to learn to respect other species and realize the importance of fauna on the planet.
Contact with people is the most basic and fundamental part of socialization as a trained dog enjoys life with humans, following them and receiving attention from them. A dog that gets along properly with whoever it is, will not cause headaches and allows our pet to be happier.
Socialize the puppy with the environment
Finally, we will talk about a last part which is therefore not less important. We must remember that, in our environment, there are objects and other elements that the dog must know, such as cars, bicycles and plants.
There are many dogs that, as adults, continue to be afraid of certain objects such as skateboards, which is caused by poor socialization that created fear and insecurity. For this, you must get your pet used to parks and other places with reasonable traffic and the presence of elements that he may find surprising.
Consequences of poor socialization
Not walking your puppy during the socialization stage undermines one of the 5 animal welfare freedoms and creates stress on your pet. Once we ignore these 5 commandments, stress can lead to behavioral problems such as:
- Fear
- Insecurity
- Aggressiveness
- Apathy
- stereotypes
- excessive excitement
I'm sure you've seen more than one dog with one of these symptoms on the street. Poor socialization can affect the dog for life, creating conditions that can become incurable, even in the hands of an expert. It depends on each case.
Prevent your dog from generating any of these behaviors by offering your time, affection and options with whom to relate to. Only then will you be able to have a healthy and balanced dog.
If you've recently adopted a puppy you should read our article on 15 Things Puppy Owners Don't Forget!