Puppy socialization may not be on your radar yet, but it should be! Bringing home a new pup to your house is an exciting thing. Your new companion will bring many moments of happiness, joy and sometimes strive to your life for years to come. The first few weeks after you bring your pup home are among some of the most important ones in the dog’s entire life.
In the first few weeks they are learning the rules of their new home, getting the medical attention they need to help protect them against disease, and having many, many new experiences that will help shape their personality for years to come.
Sometimes the medical recommendations and the recommendations of behavioral trainers can be at odds with each other. So who do you listen to? Your veterinarian? Your trainer? The breeder?
Well, keep reading because this post is for you!
Understanding Puppy Socialization
You may dream of taking your new dog everywhere with you. Think of them lying quietly next to you as you lunch with a friend. Or maybe bounding over streams and branches as you hike a remote nature trail. What if you’d like to register them as a therapy dog so you can bring your favorite four-legged friend into a nursing home to visit a relative?
All of these situations require different skills and behaviors of your dog- and some of them can be quite difficult for them if they were not properly socialized very young.
Set Your Puppy Up for A Win
One of the most important stages of a puppy’s personality development is the socialization stage. This is when your puppy is like a sponge, absorbing everything around them and determining what is scary or what is just normal. If you start teaching them early to be the dog that you need, they can easily adjust to what is expected of them.
The socialization period is the time when you are molding your dog’s behavior for the rest of its life. Both the positive and the negative events will stick forever in your dog’s memory- so you must be very careful on what your expose your puppy to..
Contrary to some misconceptions, socialization isn’t solely about interacting with other dogs. Instead, it encompasses exposure to various environments, people of different ages and appearances, unfamiliar sounds, objects, and experiences.
Here are some experiences all puppies should be exposed to during their socialization period:
- Car Rides
- Bathing (intro to the tubs, getting wet)
- Grooming (clippers, brushed, scissors)
- Touching all parts of their body (looking in ears, opening their mouth, playing with a single toe)
- New textures under their feet (grass, tile, concrete, carpet)
- Sounds (crowds, different accents of speech, cars, fireworks, banging pots)
- People (people from different ethnic groups, different clothing like hats/sunglasses)
- Tastes (offer healthy foods like carrots, green peppers, bananas, sweet potatoes)
Have fun with this. I once parked myself outside of a local gym for 30 minutes to hour a day for a few weeks to socialize my new puppy. I asked every one that came out of the gym or passed by on the side walk to pet to interact with him. I had a bag of different treats that they could offer. This has set him up for a lifetime of loving every person he meets! And I also made quite a few new friends myself 🙂
When to Start Socializing Your Puppy
The socialization period for puppies is the first 3-14 weeks of life.
Many puppies are brought into their new homes at the age of eight weeks old, while they are still in the socialization period. They may be introduced to their new dogs and cats companions at this time.
The intensity level of their future play is being set at this time, so each encounter with another pet should be carefully monitored. This will help to prevent severe biting or chasing behaviors that will not be tolerated when they are grown. Keep the puppy penned or crated when not being directly observed to prevent them from learning bad habits.
During the socialization stage, puppies engage in play with their littermates or new house mates, refining their understanding of bite inhibition.
Bite inhibition entails learning the appropriate force of their bites or nips through feedback received from their playmates. As puppies interact, one may yelp or withdraw if bitten too hard or if the play becomes too rough, signaling to the other puppy the need for gentler interaction.
Additionally, as the socialization stage progresses, puppies become increasingly attuned to their relationship with humans, demonstrating an increased interest in bonding with their owners and the most frequent guests to the house by its end.
Vaccinations and Puppy Health
All puppies received antibodies against disease from their mothers. These are pre-made fighters against body invaders like bacteria and viruses. The only protection that is passed is for diseases that the mother has either been vaccinated for or has gotten sick and recovered from.
These antibodies help protect the puppy from disease for a period of time while its own immature immune system strengthens and grows. The maternal antibodies will naturally die off overtime, leaving the puppy protected by its own rapidly growing immune system only.
The issue with antibodies is that as a medical community, we do not know how long they last. We also cannot predict when or if a puppy’s own immune system will be strong enough to fight off outside disease invaders.
Graph of maternal antibodies vs puppy’s immune system compliments of Rose City Vets, AUS
So we have a window of possible disease susceptibility to disease that lies right on top of our extremely important socialization window. While there are guidelines for how to balance socialization and vaccination- there is no hard and fast rule. Each new dog owner will have to choose what they feel is best for their puppy. There are places best to be avoided for young pups, however.
One place to strictly avoid for the first few months that you have your puppy is the dog park.
Dog parks are wildly popular these days; especially in urban areas where people may not have access to a personal yard or large open spaces. A dog park is where many dog owners come and allow their dogs to play together in a fenced area. They are amazing in theory, but can be a very dangerous place for a young or under vaccinated puppy to be.
The dogs at a dog park may or may not be vaccinated fully. The signs leading into most parks state that all dogs should be, but there is no one enforcing this.
I have had many sad cases where owners have brought me a very sick puppy that has gotten parvo virus from playing with unvaccinated dogs in a home or the dog park. A puppy with a parvo virus infection can spend several days in the hospital and run up a bill of three to five thousand dollars within a week!
While disease concerns are certainly high, behavior concerns are also an issue to be aware of. Dog parks do not generally have someone regulating the dogs’ play behavior closely. Most owners are responsible for making their own dogs mind and play nicely- sadly this doesn’t always work and fights or bullying can occur.
It only takes one negative experience during their socialization period for your puppy to develop behavioral issues for the rest of their life and should be strictly avoided for a while. Instead, introduce small and intimate play groups in your living room, someone’s back yard or attend a puppy socialization class.
Many training clubs, shelters, and vet clinics have puppy socialization classes for just this reason. In these classes all of the puppies are roughly the same age and size and have the same vaccination level to decrease the chances of one of the puppies getting sick. These classes are a great way to introduce your puppy to a variety of other pets and people without anxiety, aggression, reactivity, or the fear of disease transmission. Puppies should be dewormed and have at least one set of vaccines at least seven days prior to introduction to any new animal(s), but they do not necessarily need their full set before being socialized.
Balancing Socialization and Vaccination
Puppy socialization is a balancing act of the need for socialization with the risk of exposure to infectious diseases.. This can be extremely challenging but ultimately a fun time in your life with your puppy.
I cannot stress enough the importance of consulting with your veterinarian to develop a tailored socialization and vaccination plan for your puppy. Not all puppies will need every vaccine that is out there. Some will only need a few, others may need them all. Some pups may even need to have an altered vaccine schedule because of injury or illness.
Tips for Safe and Effective Socialization
Choose how you socialize your puppy carefully. Make sure each new introduction is a positive, happy one by keeping interactions short and rewarding good behaviors with attention and praise. Gradually increase the length of exposure to new things. If your puppy gets overwhelmed, remove them from the situation and start back in a simpler one.
For example, if a group of three puppies is too rowdy and one puppy gets scared, reduce the group down to two puppies and allow them to keep playing. Swap the puppies around so that a tired pup can be taken out to get a break to relax and recharge while still ensuring the group stays small.
You can always take the stress off of you and enroll your puppy in socialization classes or playgroups under the guidance of a professional trainer.
Now that you have a better understanding of the careful balance of puppy socialization and vaccinations, go out and have some fun with your pup!
I encourage you to prioritize these aspects of puppy care and raising with. If you ever have questions, please seek guidance from your veterinarian. We veterinary professionals love it when caretakers seek us out for personalized advice on their specific animals rather than taking the advice of Dr. Google!
Key points discussed
- The key socialization period for puppies is 3-14 weeks of age
- Pet caretakers must balance the need for socialization with the risk of disease in under vaccinated puppies
- Gradual, positive introductions to many new things will help you set your puppy up for a lifetime of health, happiness, and well-being.
- A puppy should be dewormed and have at minimum one set of vaccines done seven days prior to socializing with other animals
- Avoid dog parks at least until your puppy is fully vaccinated
Additional Resources:
The Puppy Socialization Project: This is one of my favorite resources on puppy socialization from a dog trainer and veterinary behaviorist
Guide to Puppy Vaccines: If you haven’t already ready this post, here’s a guide to dog vaccines, what they help prevent, and who should get them.