Whenever I work with puppies, I always discuss with the owners several actions to take in order to raise a healthy and happy puppy: to establish a good schedule for housebreaking and crate training, to consistently use positive reinforcement for good on- and off-leash manners, and to play and provide lots of TLC, among other things. But the most crucial piece of advice I offer these owners, and one that I cannot stress enough, is the importance of socializing and desensitizing your puppy and other puppies. We work both in the puppy home and outside of the home around other dogs and people. We will get around loud noises and sounds, too!
Why is Puppy Desensitization Training Important?
Now, many dog owners know it’s important to socialize a puppy. Socializing a puppy involves exposing it, once completely and properly vaccinated, to all sorts of different and varying social situations. Training your dog should be the dog’s own pace! It could be walking your puppy down the street to meet your neighbors, it could be taking the puppy to a daycare or a dog park to run and play with other dogs, or it could be taking your puppy to the city festival on a weekend. The point of socialization is to introduce your puppy to all these new people, dogs, and environments in order for the puppy to learn what they all are. The part where owners can fall short and a huge source, I believe, of several behavioral issues in many adult dogs with which I work is the desensitization of their puppy. Starting training before your puppy grows into an adult is ideal.
What is the Difference?
What’s the difference? Socialization, as I mentioned, involves taking your dog to new environments. Desensitization involves making sure the puppy has an appropriate reaction to meeting all those new people, dogs, and environments. It’s great that owners are doing what they can to make sure they are socializing their puppy; they also have to make sure the puppy is happy, confident, and comfortable while doing so!
Why is it important in a dog’s life?
Why is this so important? Let’s say, for example, an owner takes the puppy to a park and it is visibly scared of interacting with strangers; the puppy is cowering under its owner or tries to run away, maybe it even barks at the stranger, but the owner does nothing about these behaviors. As the dog gets older and continues to interact with strangers, its go-to behaviors will be barking, cowering, or maybe now it’s even starting to lunge and exhibit more aggressive behaviors towards other dogs. This is an example of emotional responses from the dog. Since the owner didn’t help to desensitize the puppy to meeting new people from the beginning, and teach it more acceptable behaviors in those situations, the puppy has now developed an inappropriate reaction to strangers, and now it’s become a potential problem. Owners definitely need to take the time to help guide the puppy through new social interactions and encourage positive reactions so that the puppy relies on good behaviors instead of any bad behaviors.
Let Buckeye Dog Training help your puppy!
How can Buckeye Dog Training help? We can assist owners through the desensitization process with their puppy, and help teach owners how to foster positive interactions with new people, places, and other dogs! Is your puppy starting to exhibit some negative habits as it grows older? Don’t worry! We have training programs that will still help to desensitize your puppy to those situations that provoke the bad behaviors – we can get your puppy back on the right track with just a few treats, so give us a call!
Buckeye Dog Training offers the best puppy training in Columbus Ohio, contact us today to get started!