So many questions!
- Why socialize?
- What exactly is early socialization?
- What age to start?
- Is it safe before they have had all the puppy shots?
Why socialize?
A well socialized dog is a pleasure to the owners and everyone that encounters the dog. An unsocialized dog can have fear issues when outside its home environment. Imagine wanting to take a vacation and having a dog that could neither be boarded or taken along. A well socialized dog can accompany you wherever dogs are allowed to go. They also can more easily be left with friends, family or boarded if you can’t take them along.
What exactly is early socialization?
Early socialization means exposing the puppy to lots of people, children, elderly, handicapped (crutches, canes, walkers and wheelchairs), store carts, traffic noises, other animals, big hats, umbrellas, and your imagination should help you think of even more. Starting the puppy early makes it so much easier. A fear of places, people and strange things never happens.
To help socialize your puppy, take it with you when you go anywhere you can take a puppy along. Pet stores are great, parks, the beach, hiking trails, really anywhere you can think of that is safe for your puppy and where he can see new things and new people and animals.
It is as important to socialize your puppy with other canines as it is with humans. Dogs learn their social skills with other dogs from infancy. They have a body language they use in communicating which if not learned, would be similar to not providing your child the environment needed to learn to speak. When they meet another dog at the dog park that indicates it wants to play tag, your dog may not understand and misinterpret the other dogs invitation. Or perhaps another dog is giving a warning signal for your dog to back off. If they don’t understand the signal, they may get hurt or badly scared.
Playdates with other puppies and dogs, dog parks, and puppy training classes are all good ways to get canine socialization. The earlier the puppy learns the signals of other canines, the better prepared they are for life. Of course, if you already have other dogs, your puppy is going to learn from your other dogs.
What age to start?
A good breeder will have socialization as part of their puppy handling right from the start. This can be achieved by handling every puppy every day while cleaning the whelping area. Even before their eyes and ears are open, puppies can sense touch and have a keen sense of smell. Once the eyes and ears are open, the puppies can be held, talked to, gently rocked, sung to, and stroked. This helps them to love human touch from an early age.
It is also great to expose the puppies to other animals besides their dam and littermates from as early as possible. This can be the sire of the puppies, other dogs in the home, and even cats. A breeder who is able to do this helps prepare the puppy for other animals in its forever home as well as other animals it will encounter anywhere it goes.
Is it safe before they have had all their puppy shots?
When you bring your puppy home, it will have had its first vaccination, possibly the second also depending what age you get the puppy. The puppies get some early immunity from nursing their mom and will probably still have antibodies from mom when they get their first shots. They really don’t start to build their own immunity from the shots until after the antibody levels from mom have gone down. That’s why it is important to get their shots right on schedule as recommended by your veterinarian.
Although you may not want to take your dog to areas where there may have been a sick dog, such as a rest area dog walk or a dog park, there are lots of safe places to take the pup where he can still get the needed socialization. Once he has had his third set of puppy shots he is fine to go anywhere. Before he has had the third set, just use common sense when you are out with your puppy and if in doubt, carry him in your arms. I always feel like the least safe place is the veterinarian’s office because it is where sick animals are taken. When there I either keep the puppy crated or in my arms. There are lots of safe places where the pup can get socialization.
