Paw Prints the Magazine

Social Butterfly – A socialized dog is good & happy dog

By Stacy Smith

In a perfect world, our dogs would never have to experience negative, anxious and frightening situations. Hey, my fantasy world includes never experiencing any of that myself. In the real world however, we and our dogs must learn how to cope and respond in a healthy and acceptable manner to the spectrum of people, animals, places and things encountered along the road of life.

By exposing our dogs to different kinds of people, animals and environments, involving them in everything from dog obedience classes to vet visits to walks to doggie daycare and dog parks, we can help them develop confidence and a high level of comfort. This goes a long way in helping them become resilient in the face of unsettling and unfamiliar situations.

Contrary to what you may believe, socialization should not end at puppyhood. While the foundation for good behavior is laid during the first few months, good owners encourage and reinforce social skills and responsiveness to commands throughout the dog’s life.

Very often, a dog’s response to environmental stimuli is a product of owner training and management, or the lack of it. No matter what the dog’s age when you bring him home, you can apply canine socialization principles to help him be a more stable, happy, predictable and trustworthy companion.

Socialization: It’s not just for puppies

If you are currently a dog owner, you’re probably already aware of the importance of socializing your pup. Dogs have a particularly sensitive period for socialization between the ages of 3 and 12 weeks. This means that pleasant exposures to people, other dogs and other animals during this time will have long-lasting influences on the sociability of your dog. Well-socialized dogs tend to be friendlier and less fearful of the types of individuals they were exposed to during this period.

Dog professionals urge new puppy owners to take their dogs to puppy classes and to provide other socializing experiences. Although this is great advice, a puppy class shouldn’t be the end of a dog’s social training.

Don’t underestimate the importance of continuing to socialize your dog well into adulthood. It isn’t uncommon to see dogs that have been well socialized early in life and previously friendly and accepting of people and other dogs, that later began to react with threats or aggression during social encounters. These dogs may have had no known traumatic or frightening experiences but for some reason became fearful and/or aggressive later, usually beginning around 8 months to 2 years of age.

There may be several things going on; for example, in her book “The Other End of the Leash”, applied animal behaviorist Dr. Patricia McConnell talks about “juvenile-onset shyness”, a period in adolescence when dogs may become more cautious and perhaps aggressive towards people and animals that are unfamiliar to them. If this aggression is due to a lack of experiences in adolescence or early adulthood, one way to change it would be to continue socialization well into adulthood.

These activities might include taking your dog out frequently to meet other people. Regular play dates with other dogs and/or trips to the park can help continue socialization. Dogs also need to meet and have pleasant experiences with people who come to the home. A recommended technique is to have every visitor toss treats on the floor for her immediately upon entering. (Of course the treats should be healthy and low in calories.)

Adult Dog Socialization

If you’re bringing a new adult dog into your home, your major task is to check out how well socialized the dog is and to strengthen any weak spots. For example, if you find that this dog is a bit uncomfortable with men in hats, then you must make a concerted effort to help your new dog to learn to love men wearing hats.

Invite over one or two friends at a time to meet your new dog. Ask them to bring hats, but not wear them. Have your dog on a leash and have everyone take a seat. Have one friend (without his hat on) hand-feed the dog his dinner. When your dog is comfortable, have your friend show the hat and feed the dog. Then ask him to casually put on the hat and feed the dog.

Make an effort to invite over as many as possible of your male friends, one or two at a time, to follow this procedure. Pretty soon your dog will be searching out men wearing hats because he has learned they are a pretty generous bunch.

Maintaining Socialization

Socialization is ongoing for the rest of your dog’s life. Your dog may have gone to a puppy class (yippee!), and the luckiest dog is walked to the park each day. But, while this dog has met a number of people and a number of dogs, it is also likely that he will meet those same familiar faces each and every day. To keep your dog socialized, he must continue to meet new dogs and new people. The two best ways to do this are walking a different route each day, visit different parks, try some visits to doggie daycare and you might even consider having parties in your home.

Problems Caused by Failure to Socialize

Socializing your dog is so easy and so much fun that a lot of people fail to take it seriously. However, without adequate socialization, your dog may become fearful and may actually develop two of the most serious and hard-to-resolve problems, biting and fighting.

Fear or Aggression with People

Reward-based techniques are the method of choice when dealing with fearful or aggressive dogs. If you have a dog that’s a little afraid of or doesn’t like people, you need to find a way to get the message to the dog, “Hey, Buddy, I like you. If you just come close, I’ll give you a treat.”

Obviously, using the food as a lure is an effective way to communicate when the dog is afraid of your voice or physical contact (in which case you cannot praise or pat). But it is easy to toss a piece of kibble to the ground. Eventually the dog will come closer, lured by the kibble first on the ground and then in your hand.

If you think your dog is fearful, stressed or worried, for both you and your dog’s sake please work on this problem. It’s no fun being anxious. If you think your dog has any kind of aggression problem, seek help immediately from a professional trainer.

Canine Squabbles

If your dog is unfriendly toward other dogs, it means he is not adequately socialized to dogs. (You, of course, can’t expect your dog to be best friends with every dog; after all, we aren’t with every person!)

Well-socialized dogs may still chase and argue with one another. However, socialization ensures your dog has the requisite social savvy to interact with unfamiliar dogs and to resolve arguments without doing damage. It is easiest to socialize your dog when he is young, but it is never too late to make him more dog-friendly.

Don’t Make Matters Worse

Dog on dog aggression is most often inadvertently the owner’s fault. Seriously, owners sometimes train their dogs to be aggressive toward other dogs without even knowing it. When an owner sees another dog and tightens the leash, the owner’s tension is relayed all the way down that leash and directly to their dog. Then dog growls, the owner tightens the leash more and maybe even yells at the dog. Over time, the dog becomes conditioned to get tense as he makes the association between other dogs approaching and his owner’s anxiety. So now the dog wants the other dog to stay away, and one of the ways he tries to accomplish this is by growling and barking.

Furthermore, if your dog is uncomfortable with another dog, tightening the leash removes flight from his possible options and leaves him with fight as the only option available. Tightening the leash can also distort your dog’s body language and can force him to lean forward on his front feet — a posture that the other dog may perceive as threatening.

Obviously, you should keep your dog on leash for safety, but you’ve got to learn to control your dog without tightening the leash. By keeping the leash loose and by acting calm, you may convince your dog to do the same!

Don’t punish your dog for barking or growling at other dogs. The punishment may teach your dog “I don’t like being around other dogs because I am punished whenever they show up, so I’ll bark and growl to keep them away.”

Instead, try to focus on making your dog enjoy the presence of other dogs by associating them with things he likes. For dog-to-dog aggression, the method of choice is reward training and the best feedback is kibble and praise. Start by hand-feeding your dog and getting him fixated on an object (like a favorite toy or bone). This way, you can expose him to one dog (or person) at a time at a safe distance and give him something to do, such as chewing a toy or eating his kibble. It will give him something to focus on and associate the presence of dogs with things he likes.

The technique here is to go outside and sit on a park bench. Whenever you see another dog, you say something like, “Oh, look, here comes a cookie dog.” And as soon as your dog sees the other dog, you give him a treat. Even if your dog is tense and growling (some trainers might say that you are rewarding the dog for growling and acting badly around other dogs), things will improve quickly. The dog cannot help but make the positive association between the approaching dog and the cookie, and soon he will look forward to other dogs approaching.

Any time your dog acts appropriately when a dog approaches, offer a reward. Be sure you give your dog enough space from the other dog to feel safe and comfortable. And watch for early signs of discomfort, such as yawning and excessive panting or activity. You don’t want to push your dog too far too fast.

A variation of this would be to get very happy whenever another dog passes by. Your dog cannot fail to make the association between the appearance of another dog and your positive change of mood. This is important because it is the owner’s negative change in mood that may have caused most of the problem or at least exacerbated it. If the dogs were left to their own devices, they would probably resolve the problem amicably.

* Sources: Daniel Estep, Ph.D. and Suzanne Hetts, Ph.D. and Andrea Arden

Tags: canine agression, canine socialization, fear agression, puppy classes, socialize, well-socialized dog