Socialization is taking the puppy and exposing it to as many different places and people as possible and is absolutely necessary in its psychological development. In 1961, Freedman, King and Elliot identified the age of three weeks as the start of a puppy’s sensitive period, in terms of environmental and social interaction.
My training experience and that of others provides evidence that differences in domesticated social behavior directly correspond to the breed’s phylogentics (evolutionary) and the variations of socially induced domestication.
Research evidence points to a critical period of development in which socialization and habituation must occur if the dog is to make use of his genetic inclinations and grow to be a stable and well-adjusted dog. This critical period is between the fourth and tenth week of your puppy’s life. While it is not recommended that you transfer the puppy to a new home before the puppy is eight or nine weeks old, a knowledgeable breeder will know the importance of human contact and expose your puppy to love long before you receive him.
Proper socialization means YOU socialize your dog. It is about exposure to new sights, sounds and smells. It is NOT a puppy free-for-all gathering with other puppies and dogs. Simply, how much we do and what we do, by our actions or inaction that are either deliberate or accidental, will influence the outcome of our dog’s over all mentality with regard to other dogs and people.
Further research indicates that amount of proper socialization seems to be reflected proportionately in the extent of fear-based behaviors and other maladjustments. A young puppy is very impressionable. He learns and adapts very easily. He is a pack animal by nature and as such he is inclined to find social order in his environments and will often exhibit the social traits of his parents and other dogs around him.
In fact popular “Puppy Play” sessions with other dogs can potentially do more harm then good. In these sessions your puppy can learn all kinds of things such as social dominance, submission, happy times and maybe some scary times too. These so called play sessions are really practice sessions for future behavior problems that could develop. The puppy soon learns that all things to love and hate are other dogs and not humans. He is con-specific (dog) oriented.
In contrast, a puppy raised alone with a good owner who takes the time to train him and limits his contact with other dogs and animals will create a human oriented companion that is attentive and responsive and often more aloof to strange dogs and other animals because his focus is on people.
The experiment conducted by Utrecht University researchers offer support to my position, when they placed in isolation half of a litter of several newborn puppies that had no prior exposure to humans, while the other half were exposed to many humans for a period of no more then 30 seconds for a few weeks.
Then both litters were kept in total isolation from humans for several weeks. When they were reintroduced to humans, it was found that the puppies that had received the early exposure to the researchers and their scent had a special curiosity to people as opposed to investigating other interesting things in their environments. The puppies that had not had the early experience showed no preference at all to the humans.
This was important research for all of us because not only does it prove that socialization is important, it also demonstrates that more people exposure can be more important then exposure to other dogs. One can infer that a pup who has had limited exposure to other dogs but has had steady exposures to people, regards people with special attention. This is an area I continue to study.
How pack dynamics fit into this picture is not clear because this is another dimension. We do know some dogs are fine and will work fine despite the fact they were raised together. It is a rare case that 2 or more, strong working-dog males are “ok” with the situation of living together in close and uncontrolled proximity. It is possible however. I guess this is because dog-to-dog interaction and dog to human interaction are dealt with on a totally different physiological frame in the dog’s mind…he know we are not dogs.
If trained properly and treated well, dogs are very loyal and protective animals. A human oriented dog does not make your dog more or less territorial in defense of his home. But what it can do is make him more consistent and alert to you and your training efforts.
Puppy training is really dog planning. I have heard a few owners balk when I tell them not to take their dog to a puppy romp. Lets face it, it is fun to get out with other puppy owners and dog enthusiast. They will tell me things like, “ My dog loves his social time with other dogs.” Their position is reinforced by often incompetent and/or greedy trainers who will not only encourage it but will actually tell them it is proper socialization training.
Many of these folks will claim such sessions will create a dog that listens to its owner, will not fight other dogs and this exposure will make an overall better dog because of it. For some this might be true but a great many dogs will not benefit so much from this ‘flooding’ experience.
I think if you do raise dogs together you better have a close view of the pack dynamics that are taking place when your influence of them is absent or diminished.
The truth is our socialization efforts do not indicate how your puppy will become in the future but they are a direction on how your puppy should be treated to avoid undesirable behavior.
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A dog teaches a boy fidelity, perseverance, and to turn around three times before lying down. - Robert Benchley
In order to really enjoy a dog, one doesn't merely try to train him to be semi-human. The point of it is to open oneself to the possibility of becoming partly a dog. - Edward Hoagland
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