SOCIALIZATION - THE KEY TO A FRIENDLY, HAPPY & CONFIDENT DOG!

Socialization is crucial to ensure that a puppy grows up to be a happy, confident, and friendly adult dog. It is a very important aspect of puppy parenting.

- Siddh Trivedi

The term ‘socialization’ broadly implies everything that a dog experiences in its daily life. These include interactions with different people of different skin colour, appearances, etc., different surfaces that it walks/runs on grass, stone, tiles, etc., other dogs & animals it interacts with, different sounds it hears, etc. It takes place throughout a dog’s life.

Socialization must be done in the correct manner, which has been discussed below:

1. WHAT SOCIALIZATION IS NOT

Normally, for socialization, people take their dogs/puppies to places where they meet other dogs, and all of them are left unsupervised to play.

I don’t recommend this activity at all as it can lead to dirty fights! You have no control over how well trained or socialized the other dogs are. Also, sometimes other dog owners themselves are unaware that their dog is capable of biting or attacking until it actually does so. This is a potentially dangerous & unpleasant situation for your puppy, and can damage its perception of other dogs.

2. WHEN SHOULD YOU START SOCIALIZATION?

The right age to start socialization activities for your puppies is when it has been given the first vaccination dose. It is very important to start socialization for a puppy during the critical window of 3 weeks to 3 months of age.

Socialization is an ongoing process throughout a dog’s life. As per my experience, one should give extra attention to social interaction till 1 year of age right up to early adolescence.