As a professional trainer, I'm here to tell you that socializing your puppy is way more than just play time with other dogs or meeting new people. In all honesty, I'd rather my puppy ONLY meet adult dogs I know and trust, and if they are neutral to new people (and not overly enthused by them) I'm a-okay with that too 😉
Socialization is simply creating positive experiences in a variety of places, situations and circumstances. We concentrate on socializing puppies because their brains are sponges and the more positivity we can create while they're young, the more likely we are to have positive associations in the future.
But I want to take this a step further, what we really want to positively create, is rewarding scenarios for behaviors we want to see long term!
Do you really want your adult dog out of their mind excited and jumping when they see every single new person? Probably not.
Do you really want an adult dog who thinks every dog in sight is their new best friend? Again, probably not.
So what do we want from our adult dogs?
👉Focus on their handler
👉Calmness around distractions
👉Confidence in new situations/new places
👉The ability to "bounce back" when they get nervous
👉Trust that their handler will guide them and keep them save
Therefore, start thinking about your puppies socialization as a way to
🔅reward them for calmness
🔅encourage them
to observe without interacting
🔅think through excitement
🔅and to build trust and focus on you as their handler.
Remember: you're not just training a puppy, you're shaping your future adult dog too.
Want help socializing your pup (or adult dog), reach out, we'd love to help ✌️
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