How to Socialize Your Pet With Other Animals. The process through which your dog learns to interact with other dogs and with humans called socialization. Your dog also learns how to associate with other animals and how to differentiate between children and adults thru socialization. Alternatively, habituation is the process through which your dog becomes conditioned to not pay attention to environmental stimuli that are not a threat. This way, a dog used to a city setting will not disturbed by the noise generated by traffic or the people in the streets.
We are going to regard both as constituents of the puppy socialization process. In practice, therefore, the socialization of your dog is the procedure through which you train your pet to respond properly (without fear or aggression) to varying environments, individuals, other dogs and other animals. Socialization is also fundamental in training dogs, as it serves to curb undesired behaviors in an adult dog, e.g. aggression or fear. But in a few instances, genetics will have the final word, and will have its sway in even the well socialized dogs. Therefore, we have to do this process to ensure.
How to teach your dog to socialize with other animals and people?
That we have a balanced adult dog at our side. What more, a well-socialized dog easier to train and can more easily accepted by other people and pets. When you choose not to socialize your puppy, you will left with a dog with obvious social inadequacies in the future, be it an aggressive or fearful dog. Obviously not well adapted to its surroundings. You will also find it difficult to walk your dog, take him to the vet or other places since he will fear everything and will not be able to trust a normal environment. What is the way of knowing whether your dog well-socialized or not.
The easiest guideline to follow when analyzing this is: the owner has nothing to fear; therefore, the dog must not either. The socialization process of an animal as a dog and just like any other animal, is a lifelong process. Nevertheless, the critical period occurs between birth and the twelfth week (third month). That is, unless your dog has properly socialized prior to the age of three months, it will have little to no chance of adjusting to its surroundings. Remember that the period of puppy socialization may differ among different persons. Actually, most professionals believe that the critical period stretches.
Why is it important to teach your dog to socialize?
Up to 16 weeks (four months). This is significant because the faster you begin socializing your puppy, the higher the chances that you will succeed. A puppy is extremely easy to socialize: every now and then you ought to make it meet other people and other pets. Visiting friends at home, visiting a dog park, or just walking are all good ways to begin this process. As opposed to what some individuals believe, you should not be too concerned about the other dogs size but more about their temper. A good interaction and a playful setting will make your dog understand that it is good and fun to socialize.
It will also be of great importance to go to various places and settings such as the forest and the city, which are highly dissimilar, and your dog has to learn to feel comfortable in both cases in case he will regularly need to travel those settings. The dogs that your new puppy plays with should be healthy and therefore you will not be at risk of passing the disease to the dog. Bite inhibition is also important. All of those dogs must be social dogs. This is normal in puppies between the ages of eight and twelve years, and it should not be a concern. But when you find an elder play-mate, be sure he is easy-going.
Practical tips for teaching your dog
In order to accomplish this, you need to see the way that dog interacts with other dogs prior to introducing the dog to your puppy. Until a puppy is completely vaccinated, do not socialize him in parks or other places that are open to the public. Instead, host healthy puppy playdates either at your house or at the house of another puppy owner. By doing this you will then avoid any disease in your puppy. Watch everything that your puppy does with other dogs. As we have described above, most adult dogs that have not been socialized usually develop fear-related behaviors like hiding or threateningly barking
At other dogs and humans. They are scared and insecure when faced with situations they do not know. You must know that training an adult dog is a very complex process, as dogs are inherently afraid and confused when put in a strange situation or environment. We have to give our dog time and space to learn the world he lives in and this approach has to be gradual and done with the highest sensitivity. At ExpertoAnimal, we always suggest to have the adult dog socialization process done with the assistance of the professionals, as only they can properly recognize the physical signals of our dog.
Conclusion
Depending on the extent of discomfort caused by some stimuli to the dog, the process can take an infinite amount of time. The dog with such serious problems in relations with other dogs, which barks a lot and even bites, must not be obliged to interact with other dogs, and if the dog is able not to bark, it can be regarded as a significant success. There are behaviors that are deeply entrenched and can hardly be treated, but these must always be handled with consultation of an ethologist or an experienced canine instructor who would have dealt with such kind of situations.
Ideally, when we lack the resources to seek the help of a professional, we should reinforce the dog by providing situations when he is receptive (which is positive reinforcement) and by attempting to prevent situations that make him obviously uncomfortable and nervous. Despite the fact that most dogs are capable of modifying fear-based behavior, the reality is that it is extremely hard to treat, particularly to a person who has no prior experience in animal behavior. Particularly in such situations, we need to make sure that the meetings with other dogs and individuals are always very positive.