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Puppy socialization tips for residents of Northern Virginia (Alexandria, Arlington, Fairfax), Washington DC, and Maryland (Bethesda, Chevy Chase) |
Puppy Training and Socialization
New puppies are so exciting! Not only are they adorable, but early puppyhood is an important time for socialization and also a great time to get started with puppy training. A reward based puppy trainer uses treats, toys and other "fun stuff" to get desired behaviors so even young pups can get started learning basics like sit, down, and coming when called. Check out videos of our trainers' newest addition, Firefly, learning basics as early as 8 weeks of age (scroll to puppy training).
Unfortunately, well-intentioned dog owners do not realize that they waited too long on getting started with socialization. It has been our experience that most suburban dog owners under-socialize their puppies. Did you know that most veterinarians, trainers, behavior consultants and certified behaviorists emphasize the importance of socialization before the pup is just 3 months old? Adequate socialization can help prevent many behavior problems such as shyness, aggression, fears and phobias.
Your puppy needs to meet people of all different shapes, sizes, ages and ethnic backgrounds. All these experiences need to be fun! Socialization includes not only the opportunity to meet many people, but also many dogs of different breeds, shapes and sizes, and experience different environments. Please do not take your young puppy to a dog park! Dogs at dog parks can have great temperaments or terrible ones and a bad experience now will have lasting ramifications. Additionally, you have no idea what the vaccination status is for dogs in the dog park. If you schedule private lessons with our trainer, we can provide controlled opportunities for socialization with our own well-socialized dogs and we can provide recommendations for additional socialization opportunities.
Your puppy also needs to have opportunities to explore urban settings and suburban and rural settings. This is especially important for people living in Northern Virginia and Washington DC area because there are many different kinds of environments relatively close together. If you dream of a dog that you can take hiking at Great Falls, for leisurely walks in suburban Fairfax, and will lie politely by your side while you enjoy lunch outdoors in Old Town Alexandria, you need to prepare your puppy for these very different environments now.
Please remember, you can overwhelm a puppy and create the very behavior problems you hoped to prevent. Do not force a puppy to "face" its fears.
An Important Word on Vaccinations
The notion that a puppy must have all or most of his vaccinations before starting a class is outdated! Inadequate early socialization is a common cause of serious behavioral problems.
Please be aware that there are numerous publications written by veterinarians and other qualified experts supporting the benefits of puppy classes before the puppy has had all his vaccinations. Refer to the links below. We follow AVSAB guidelines regarding vaccinations:
American Veterinary Society for Animal Behavior Position Statement: http://www.avsabonline.org/avsabonline/images/stories/Position_Statements/puppy%20socialization.pdf
Purdue University Animal Behavior Clinic Statement:
http://www.vet.purdue.edu/animalbehavior/forms/pc_letter_vacc.pdf
Veterinary Behaviorist Dr. RK Anderson’s Open Letter on Vaccinations and Socialization:
http://abrionline.org/article.php?id=75
A detailed article on this topic by a Veterinarian for The Association of Pet Dog Trainers' Newsletter:
http://www.4pawsu.com/Messer_Socialization.pdf
The importance of preventing behavior problems by appropriate socialization and reward based training cannot be overstated. Contact us to schedule a consultation so our puppy trainer can help get you and your pup off to a great start! Be sure to check out our recommended resources for puppy owners.
Puppies of all shapes and sizes benefit from training and socialization. Our private puppy training lessons are comprehensive and include opportunities for dog-dog socialization and extensive owner education.
We can often provide opportunities for socialization of young puppies with our own dogs. Here Louie, our smooth collie, plays with Peggy, an adorable Corgi puppy.
Tank-a Maltese/Yorkie cross pup and one of Cooperative Paws' adorable students.
What do we mean by controlled opportunities for socialization with other dogs?
Just putting a puppy in a group to play with other dogs or puppies is not necessarily an appropriate socialization experience and may actually teach your puppy inappropriate behavior!
An advantage of our private lessons is that we can cater the socialization experience to your pup's needs. If your puppy is shy, we can proceed with having your puppy spend time with our quiet adult dogs. If your pup is a little too pushy our dogs know how to set limits appropriately. Our youngest dog, Firefly, loves to play with friendly puppies.
We want your puppy to remember to always listen to you even when other dogs are around so we interrupt play frequently, incorporating obedience with the play experience. We teach owners how to teach their puppy to look to them for permission to play rather than just rushing up to all kinds of dogs - behavior that can lead to big trouble down the road!
© 2010 Cooperative Paws Training and Behavior Consulting