Socialising Your Dog

SOCIALISATION:
Dogs that don’t receive sufficient exposure to people, other animals and new environments during the “Critical Period” early stage, may develop irreversible fears, leading to timidity and aggression. After 13weeks, the puppy has potentially lost the chance to learn about these new situations without further problems occurring. Dog Day Care with Hound Dog provides extremely important socialization skills with a regular, stable group of very friendly doggy’s on a weekly and fortnightly basis. We visit the off-leash parks when they are quiet and we are often the only small group there.

By 7 weeks the pup has the brain capacity of an adult dog.

Positive experiences and things the puppy encounters during this time will be accepted by the dog, those that aren’t will likely be treated will fear and suspicion that has the potential to last throughout the dogs life.
There is a small window of opportunity, so you need to be highly proactive to ensure that your pup gets to see, hear and experience as much as possible that he may come into contact with during his life.

This includes: people, other dogs, cats, mammals, household noises such as vacuum cleaners, washing machines, phones, lawn mowers and the list goes on.

Can there be too much SOCIALISATION?
You can never do too much socialisation, so use your imagination and get to it! BUT remember, use it or lose it! Continue your dogs socialisation all through his life with regular reminders of how great things are.
**So don’t be complacent, you’ll never get this chance again.
HOW TO START:
If your puppy is initially fearful or shy in a situation, let it retreat somewhere they feel safe. DO NOT force them to confront the situation and do not attempt to comfort them as this will reinforce the behaviour: to behave fearfully when exposed to new situations and experiences..

PEOPLE: including men, children of all ages, people of all colours, hat wearers, men with beards, umbrellas, cyclists, wheelchair users, joggers, postmen etc

OTHER DOGS:dogs of their own breed, other breeds, puppies, adults, large dogs, small dogs. Make sure they’re all friendly dogs.

OTHER ANIMALS:cats, horses, sheep, cows: any animal that your pup is likely to come into contact with during his life.

LOUD NOISES:fireworks, traffic, thunder etc. If you cant find these noises, they’re are cds available to purchase.Play them during the day at positive time (feeding itme, playing etc) so that your pup gets desensitised to them.

OTHER: trains, cars, buses, trucks, shops, bridges etc

Once you’ve socialised your pup, you’re well on your way to bypassing many behaviour problems. Continue to socialize regularly, especially with other dogs, as some dogs’ attitudes to others change as they reach puberty etc so ensure all your dogs social interactions are frequent and positive. Socialisation is one of the most important parts of your puppy’s education and should be maintained throughout his whole life.

SHORT & SWEET:
Remember to keep your training sessions short and sweet and never continue if you see your dog getting bored. It is always best to clap your hands and say a cue word like “BREAK” or “FREE” to end the training session. Otherwise your dog may begin to associate training with a boring chore he has to do. Its ALWAYS better to finish on a high, positive note.

TONE:
Happy high tones are best for praising and rewarding.
Short, sharp, lower tones are best if you must quickly stop your dog doing something that is harmful or dangerous.

HAND SIGNALS:
Generally, dogs are more likely to register visual / hand signals than auditory ones and this is useful to remember in training situations.

Hand signals are a great way to reinforce what you’re trying to communicate to your dog – especially considering dogs do not understand language. They hear tones etc but having hand signals works alongside your voice cues.
*Generally, dogs are more likely to register your visual signals than auditory ones and this is useful to remember in training situations.

BRIDGE or MARKER WORDS:
A precursor to “you’re on the right track, you’re reward is coming”.
Bridge or marker words “bridge” the gap between the performed behaviour and the reward.
The bridge/marker word YES is the tick of approval before the reward is given.

(NAME RECOGNITION) The one essential word: Your dog’s name:
Saying your dogs name means “attention please” or “listen up”. Always use your dogs name in a positive way. You want him to know his name means “good stuff” may be coming, so listen up!
Dogs are like people, if they’re not watching you, they’re not listening. This exercise will get your pup to pay attention to you when you say his name and his worth listening to, and will form the basis of your entire training programme.
*When sitting at home, say your pups name, if he looks at you, say your marker word “YES”
and a treat.
*Repeat often at different times and places. Don’t use your treat to get the dogs attention, you
want your pup to look at you and not the food, so try and hide the food. If he doesn’t look at
you, don’t repeat it, he’s lost his chance for something yummy.
*Once your pup is reliably looking at you every time you say his name, you can make it a little
harder by waiting 5/10 seconds before rewarding him.
*After a while, you can start to phase out the treat and only reward every 3rd time or 5th time.
THE SIT:
* For any time that you need a little more control over a situation
* Just for basic good manners.
The sit is perfect to ask your dog for times when:
*Hes jumping around in an inappropriate or dangerous manner
*When visitors come over
*Before getting in and out of cars etc
HOW?
*Take a treat and with an open hand, put the treat under your thumb
*Begin at your pups nose so he knows its there & shows interest
*Lift the treat up and back slightly ie slowly raise your hand up & over
towards his tail
*Hopefully his nose/head should come up as he follows the path of your
hand and his rear should go down
*If it doesn’t, or he backs up, start again and move the treat much slower
*The word SIT is not said at this stage, just the hand signal and a YES with a
treat.
*Reward & Praise every single time

*After some practice, you may now add the verbal command SIT
*First: add SIT just as his bottom touches the ground
*Second: then start saying SIT when he’s about half way down to the floor
*Third: then start saying SIT just as he starts to commence the SIT
*Finally:you may then stand tall & say SIT and wait for him to do the command

** Teaching this way will associate the WORD and the HAND SIGNAL with the action of SITTING.

*Repeat often, at different times and places.

HARDER scenarios
1. After hes got the idea you can make it even HARDER : by taking the treat and waiting.
your pup should (if you’ve practiced enough) have worked out that if his bottom hits the floor,
he’ll get a reward!

2. Repeat without a treat and when he does, the treat magically appears!

3. After a while, you can move onto asking for two sits before rewarding, then
three etc etc
*Always be unpredictable with your rewards.

“Dog Gone”…until next time everyone,
The Pack Leaders
Leah & Angela O’Meara (Houndog Daycare Brisbane)