Posts Tagged ‘socialization’
Puppy Training and Puppy Play – the Importance of Socialization
Puppy training is often considerably easier than training an adult or adolescent dog. One reason is that the puppy is essentially a “blank slate”, untroubled by past training techniques and other issues. Another more indirect reason is that you are probably more likely to spend more time and have greater patience with your new puppy than you would after the “novelty” has worn off somewhat. And it tends to be human nature to have greater patience with young (dogs and people), since we know that they’re inexperienced in life and they’re usually eager to learn. In other ways, however, the puppy can be a little more difficult to train than an older dog. One challenge to training a new puppy is that puppies are more easily distractible than older dogs. Everything is new to a puppy, and every new experience provides a new chance for distraction. For this reason, it is best to keep training sessions short when working with a puppy, and to end each training sessions on a positive note. It is also important to allow the puppy plenty of time to play, and to interact with other puppies and dogs. Socialization training is vital to making your new puppy a good canine citizen, as dog aggression is a growing problem in many areas. A properly socialized dog learns how to play properly with other dogs, and overly aggressive play is punished by the other dogs in the play group. This type of play learning is something that happens among siblings in litters of puppies. As the puppies play with each other, they learn what is appropriate and what is not. Inappropriate behavior, such as hard biting or scratching, is punished by the other puppies, by the mother dog, or both. Failure to properly socialize can be a major problem with your dog, and it is an important reason for always buying from a responsible breeder, and never taking your puppy home before he is 8 weeks of age. A large proportion of this important socialization experience occurs in those last weeks with the puppy’s mother and siblings. A responsible and experienced breeder knows this, and will never allow prospective puppy owners take puppies home until 8 weeks of age, but it is nevertheless a very important and useful fact to be aware of yourself. Unfortunately, many puppies are removed from their mothers and sold or adopted before this socialization has fully occurred. In these instances, even more than ever, puppy play sessions initiated by you are a very important part of any puppy training session. Most good puppy preschool training programs provide time in each session for this type of dog interaction. Introducing your puppy to new experiences and new locations is also an important part of puppy training. Teaching your dog to be obedient and responsive, even in the face of many distractions, is very important when training dogs and puppies. One great way to socialize your puppy both to new people and new dogs is to take it on a trip to your local pet store. Many major pet store chains, and some independent ones as well, allow pet parents to bring their furry children, and these stores can be great places for puppies to get used to new sights, sounds and smells. Of course you will want to make sure the store allows pets before heading over, and you will also want to keep the visits fairly short, both for your puppy’s sake, and in consideration of the pet store personnel. It is important for puppy owners to structure their pet’s environment so that the puppy is rewarded for good behaviors and not rewarded for others. One good example of this is jumping on people. Many people inadvertently reward this behavior because it can be cute. While it is true that jumping can be cute for a 10 pound puppy, it will not be so cute when that puppy has grown into a 100 pound dog. Laughing at your puppy, or paying any attention to him at all when he jumps up, will be interpreted as a reward by your puppy – he will learn that he will receive attention from you when he does this. So be very careful not to confuse your puppy. There are two strategies for undesired behaviors – firmly saying “No” to your puppy, and/or ignoring the behavior completely. For “repeat offenders”, the ignoring method works best, as it is possible that your puppy will be interpreting ANY attention (even you saying “No” to him) as a reward for the behavior. Conversely, of course, good behaviors should be rewarded immediately (either with treats or simply with lots of attention and fuss – saying “Good boy” in a very positive tone of voice, and stroking your dog at the same time is often just as well received as treats are). This type of positive reinforcement will result in a well behaved adult dog that is a valued member of both the family and the community at large. The positive reinforcement method can also be used in potty training the new puppy. Teaching a puppy to use a unique surface such as gravel or asphalt is a good technique. The theory is that the puppy will associate this surface with going potty, and therefore be reluctant to use other surfaces (like your kitchen carpet for example) as a potty. Many puppies can, with a little patience, be readily trained to use the same spot for toileting. This is a great technique, as it will train your puppy to go “on command”, and will save you having to scour the back yard when cleaning up after your puppy.
Related Websites
- Responsible Dog Breeders (source: About)
- Canine Good Citizen & Therapy Dog Test Las Vegas « Lianne Hassen's Las Vegas Dog Training Blog
- Dog Breeding By Experts » Blog Archive When you need to determine which dogs should be bred, and they should be allowed to breed? » Dog Breeding By Experts
- Your Mies Van Der Rohe Blank Slate: 2400 N. Lakeview in Lincoln Park
Puppy II – Puppy Training & Socialization – Paws & People, LLC
Puppy II is a class for 4-9 month old puppies. This is our most repeated class as it falls at the onset of 'adolescence'. We spend a great deal of time with socialization, capturing calm, and polite public manners. Owners are encouraged to spend time each day with their pups socializing to people, places, things, events and other well socialized appropriate dogs. Training each day, and working on capturing calm and 'play-settle'. Structure and mangement count for everything during this developmental stage!
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Barking Episode 4- Barking at Strangers- Dog training
This dog training video outlines a plan for beginning to counter condition a dog to certain types of people that a dog becomes reactive to. This video can also be used as a way to socialize young puppies to weird things in the environment. Another useful application of these exercises would be for a dog and handler team practicing to take a Canine Good Citizen test, as well as proofing a Therapy dog or Service dog for all types of situations they might encounter while on the job.
It is very common for dogs to become reactive to anything out of the ordinary. We have selectively bred them to be this way.
Many dogs will become reactive or show fear to stimuli such as a weird hat, a cane, a walker, a stroller, a person with bags, a big jacket, strange movement and anything that changes a persons profile.
You can set up training games to change your dogs emotional response from fear or arousal to calm friendliness using counter conditioning. Watch this video to check out what you can do.
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Another thing you can do to speed up the process, is to leave these scary items around in your house for the dog to habituate to and investigate. You can also wear them. If your dog is fearful of people with gloves, wear gloves when you watch TV in the evening every once in a while. Put on a different scary item before you put down your dogs dinner bowl.
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If at any point the dog were to become reactive, simply say ‘let’s go’ to the dog, and when the dog has stopped reacting you can let them watch as their favorite person removes the object, and walks away from it. You can then let your dog approach and check out the object on the ground to find out that is not dangerous.
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If you have a very shy or reactive dog, seek advice from an animal behaviorist, and during this exercise do not let the dog get within reach of the favorite person with the object, or they could get bitten.
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For a doorway. Have your dog on leash.
1- have the dogs favorite person enter and exit the doorway. Click or feed your dog for watching the person come in while the dog remains calm by your side
2- have the person come in pick up the hat or coat, and then put it on in front of the dog.
3- have the person leave in the hat or coat, and then come back in the door seconds later.
4- repeat with different scary items
Dog training clicker training how to train a dog to bark, how to train a dog not to bark at people when on a walk how to train a dog not to lunge on leash stopping aggressive behavior how to end aggressive behavior in a dog correcting a dogs issues of fear and arousal around people
Duration : 0:6:54
Posted in Dog House Training | 
Tags: aggressive, barking, clicker, dog, how, lunging, puppy, Reactive, socialization, stop, to, training | 
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Happy Tails Puppy Training 2 Pt.1
This episode focuses on Puppy training and includes information on potty training, crating and other basic commands. FMI visit the Oshkosh Area Humane Society at OAHS.org
Duration : 0:10:3
Happy Tails Puppy Training Pt.1
This episode focuses on Puppy training and includes information on bite inhibition, socialization, and other basic commands. FMI visit the Oshkosh Area Humane Society at OAHS.org
Duration : 0:10:6
Posted in Puppy Training |
Tags: basic, bite, Club, commands, Empyre, Happy, Humane, inhibition, Oshkosh, puppy, Pyctures, socialization, Society, Tails, tips, training |
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