What exactly is socialisation? It can be described as 'learning to take part in friendly interchange' or 'making a person or animal suited to fit into society'. Two very important attributes.
The critical socialisation period for dogs is between the third and twelfth week after birth. It is terribly important that you use this knowledge to shape your puppy's behaviour and attitudes whilst it is in this particular phase of development.
Try to meet up with other people who have healthy immunised puppies of similar age and size. If this is impossible then go to visit friends who have quiet older dogs. Somehow you must make sure that your pup has regular contact with its own species. Your pup should be handled by men, women and children of all ages. Give them some guidelines about how you would like your pup to behave so that they do not promote bad habits like jumping up.
Go out for short car trips which end with a romp in different parks so that the car is associated with pleasure and the pup experiences different environments. Take the pup to meeting your neighbours, the postman, to see cars, a bus, a train, different animals, the river, the beach. In fact expose it to as many positive experiences as you possible can. Later on you will have a dog that can cope with new experiences without becoming fearful or excited. In short you will have a well socialised dog! Studies have found that dogs learn to accept things in their environment easier if they have watched television from an early age and surround sound helps to make the environment more realistic. This is invaluable in dogs that are not fully vaccinated and shouldn’t be out in our public environment.
Yass Veterinary Hospital runs dog socialisation sessions on Saturday mornings.
These sessions are designed to provide a safe environment for your puppy or dog to meet other people and dogs.
We have two fenced paddocks that are suitable for on lead and off lead training and play. Dogs need to have had atleast one C3 vaccination.
Cost is $2 per session sold as a 10 week ticket
Times are from 9 to 11am on Saturday Mornings