Episode #3 Effective Socialization

speaker 0:   0:00
Hi, I'm Amy Jensen, and this is The Puppy Training Podcast Episode #3: Effective Socialization. This podcast is for people looking to train their own dog, either as a companion, therapy, or service dog. This is The Puppy Training Podcast, and I'm your host,  Amy Jensen. 

speaker 0:   0:23
Hello. Today I thought we'd do something fun for Facebook Live. I have a sweet puppy here with me, and I thought I would introduce you guys to her. Her name is Remi. She's an Australian labradoodle. If you haven't met me before, my name is Amy. I am a professional dog trainer and the owner and creator of Baxter & Bella's Online Puppy School, and today I want to share with you some really great tips on how to socialize a brand new puppy.

Some people don't understand that there is a critical period when puppies need to be socialized. I want to make sure that everyone knows that today and that the information gets out there because it's a critical window.  We call it a critical window because once it passes, we can't get that time back. The time that we can spend with our puppy those first few weeks, introducing them to as many people, sights, sounds, smells, places as we can, the better. When we do this, we have to make sure that they're having a good experience. When I say socialization, I do not mean to just throw your puppy out into the world and let them be fearful and afraid and then you're just forcing them to do things. That's not effective at all and not helpful. But it is helpful to get them out and to have positive experiences.  Even if those experiences are neutral, it's okay. We want them to have experiences where they see new things, and if your puppy acts a little afraid or a little fearful then all you have to do is help them realize that it's not such a scary thing. What I'll do a lot of times is I'll just go up to the thing or whatever the puppy is afraid of and I'll show the puppy that I'm not afraid of it, and then I'll just kind of say, 'Hey, you wanna come check this out?' Sometimes the puppy does, sometimes the puppy doesn't. I never force my puppy to go interact with something that it doesn't want to. I just mainly want him to see things and to realize that he can bounce back or have a rebound from that kind of experience. That's a really good thing to watch for. When you see your puppy, let's say you take it up to a horse and the horse is big and your puppy is not so sure about the horse and acting a little fearful (like tucking its tail or hiding behind you), those are all signs that your puppy doesn't really want to interact with that big animal. What I'll do is I'll just walk up to the horse and I'll pet the horse, and I'll just let my puppy watch and see if he wants to come over. If he does make a move towards the horse, or I might even just toss it treats closer to the horse or just kind of feed him a treat if he wants to come to check it out. If he doesn't, that's totally fine. I'll still probably just feed him a treat for just being there and checking it out. That helps him kind of classically associate that this big horse or animal is not that scary. The rebound that we're talking about is that our puppy might initially act scared of that horse, but then, after he sees me interact with it or he gets a couple of treats for being by the horse, then hopefully it's not that big of a deal and the puppy realizes that he can go interact with it. That's what we're looking for. We're looking for that bounce back in our puppy where he realizes it's not so bad. 

speaker 0:   3:30
Back to that socialization. When I'm socializing a puppy, I just feed them treats and I'm just gonna rub down her body. I like to touch her ears and I pull on them a little bit, and then I rub her tail, I touch each little paw pad.  I'm pretending like I'm clipping her nails and she doesn't mind that. I'm just going to feed her treats while I pick up each little paw. I try to go slower, not too fast. Quick, fast movements aren't as great for puppies, they get a little bit flipped out by it. Another thing I love to do is to pick them up. I'm just gonna settle it back here like this. Lay it on their little backs. I'm gonna feed her a treat. I like to rub her belly. Remi loves a good armpit rub. She also likes her little ankles rubbed. If she doesn't want to, then I let her get into a more comfortable position. I don't want to force her to be in any position. We're just going to see if she can relax a little bit. She's kind of in a play mode right now, so she might not want to settle. We'll try to get her belly rubbed. I rub down their legs and I like to stick my fingers in their mouth and run my fingers along her teeth as if I'm brushing them because that's going to get her ready for some toothpaste on a little toothbrush eventually. She's not biting me. She's just kind of mouthing me, but I'm sticking my fingers in her mouth. I like to look in their ears. Most puppies actually really love a good ear rub. It's really relaxing for them and they usually just come and settle right into it. That's a really good thing to get into the habit of doing, rubbing your puppy down every day and having other people do it as well. Maybe you have family members or maybe friends that come over, and maybe they could help you do as well, because then when your puppy meets a stranger like the vet or the groomer, they're not going to be as sensitive or shy or anxious when that person is touching them. That's a really good way to socialize.   

speaker 0:   5:57
A couple of other puppy tips that I can tell you right now while I have Remi with me is a lot of questions I get about new puppies are biting. How do I get my puppy to stop biting? As you can tell puppies bite a lot. They have really sharp teeth. They're cutting their teeth, and so their gums hurt. They're by nature dogs and dogs chew and they try to keep their jaws really strong and they have to chew a lot to do that. It's just something that they do. Puppies don't know what they can chew or can't chew. That's our job to teach them what they can or can't chew, and so I always have toys or bones just around wherever I am. If she were to start biting my hand or my leg or my arm, I literally just have something else that I can replace it with. I don't want her to bite that bed, so I'm just gonna put something else in her mouth. Generally speaking, if your puppy is chewing on a table leg or a chair that's a hard object and I would replace it with a hard object like a bone. If my puppy is going for her dog bed or my pant leg or a sweatshirt or a pillow, then I would grab a softer toy, and I would replace it with a softer toy. Sometimes they do want to sink their teeth into something hard, and sometimes they would rather sink their teeth into something soft. For biting, the best thing you can honestly do is just replace, replace, replace. If they are mouthing you, it's okay to say 'ouch' and in a really high pitched tone, really quick tone. You're trying to simulate what a puppy would say to her if she bit them too hard. Then I take all attention away, too. If she was biting my hand, it's an 'ouch' and I move my hand away, and she responds like, 'Oh, she doesn't like that'. It teaches  what's appropriate and what's not appropriate. 

speaker 0:   7:41
All right, you guys have an awesome weekend. I'm gonna go back to training Remi. She's been really fun to have at our house. We have her over the next little while, so you'll probably see some more of her. You guys have a great week with your puppies. If you have a question about anything you heard on this podcast or any other puppy training question, visit my site BaxterandBella.com to contact me.