How To Socialise A Dog

Learning how to socialise a dog in the correct way is really important. Most people get this wrong. 

Genetics

It is important to recognise that your dog’s genetics play a large role in dictating how your dog interacts with the world and therefore, how you should approach socialising it. 

Genetically, if you have a confident dog, you can take a bolder approach to introduce them to the world, its environment and distractions. The exposure your dog has to the world should be incremental in terms of distractions, but the nature of the dog will make the progress quicker. 

A genetically anxious or nervous puppy is going to need a gentler, slower and more empathetic introduction to the world. Especially around dogs, people and potentially scary things, like cars. 

Socialisation

Socialisation should be a process which progressively and positively exposes your dog to a variety of common distractions in your home and local environment. 

It is best done passively through positive reinforcement. For example, turning the hoover on at a reasonable distance and creating a positive association using food and praise. Socialising should not, overall, be interactive or forced. 

The Biggest Mistake… Free Play

The biggest socialisation mistake people make is letting their puppy meet and play with other dogs, with the impression that this will teach them to like and behave appropriately around other dogs. This is a common misconception. 

Letting your dog play freely with other dogs won’t teach it to like other dogs. 

Often in parks, there are groups of dogs charging about, chasing each other. This isn’t socialisation, it’s free play, which is popular because it’s easy and convenient for humans. But exposing dogs to free play is the biggest cause of reactivity in dogs. 

Even confident dogs can be overwhelmed by other dogs charging about, but anxious dogs can be traumatised by this. Dogs are selfish, and playing means finding out who is faster, stronger, and weaker. 

Future Problems

The best scenario to come out of free play is that your dog enjoys it and doesn’t have a bad experience, which would be typical of a strong, confident puppy. 

However, your dog will enjoy the experience so much that they will look forward to seeing other dogs and gravitate towards them, which will cause you massive control problems. 

When other dogs are around, your dog will be distracted by them and ignore you, which will affect the levels of obedience you can expect from your dog in public places. 

The more your dog gravitates to other dogs, the higher the chance it will meet a reactive dog and have a bad experience, which can, in return, make them reactive. 

A Good Mind Set… 

A good mindset to have during socialisation training is that we want our dog to not be anti-social, rather than super social. We want our dog to be calm and neutral around everyday distractions, like cars and people, rather than excited, fixating and jumping up. 

We aren’t going to create ‘calm’ and ‘neutral’ by play. 

Playtime as a Training Tool 

Play is a valuable tool. If your dog associates it with you, it will easily focus on you when you need it to, giving you control. 

If your dog associates play with other dogs in any way, then it will focus on the dogs they are around, meaning you will struggle to control your dog in these situations. 

Getting Socialisation Right 

• Socialise your puppy with calm people and dogs. 
• Socialise means to be around, not play. 
• Don’t let people or dogs crowd or pester your dog. 
• Don’t force friendship or social interaction on your dog. It doesn’t have to like everyone or everything it meets, but it does have to behave appropriately. 
• Keep introductions with people brief and at a short distance or passing. 

Environment Exposure

Gradually, expose your dog to as many environments as possible, starting with easier challenges, like quiet parks, and as your dog progresses, move onto more challenging environments, like busy streets. 

This also applies to household appliances and machines, like the hoover. Use them at a distance and gauge their response, responding accordingly. A confident or unphased response means we can move the dog closer or prolong the exposure to the experience. 

While we want a confident response to these experiences, this doesn’t need reinforcing or positively associated with food. The dog is fine with the environment, so move on. 

However, if your dog struggles with any environment or challenge, then go back a step. Dilute the experience around anxious dogs by reducing the impact of the experience through distance or time spent around it. 

Don’t Do This…

Don’t try to verbally soothe anxious dogs, as human soothing sounds sound nervous to dogs. You should continue to sound and behave confidently. Your dog will pick up on it. 

Don’t be an emotional crutch for your puppy. This is a perfectly normal parental response, but it isn’t going to make your dog more resilient or confident, but rather the opposite. 

To conclude… 

Most people like dogs, and many behavioural problems are caused because we get this part of socialisation wrong. 

If you let everyone say hello, fuss, and spoil your dog, especially as a puppy, there is a good chance they will become overexcited or activated by people. This isn’t the biggest problem in the world, but it can be a pain when you want to sit and have a stress-free meal in a pub or sit outside a cafe with your dog and a coffee. 

Of course, it’s okay for some people to say hello to your dog, but be firm and ensure the encounter is brief and calm. 

If you notice these greetings cause your dog to become overly excited, then reduce or stop them altogether. Remember, the key to socialisation is being around rather than interacting with. 

Bear in mind that the world is going to provoke different emotions in different dogs. We can’t expect dogs to like everything they encounter, but we do need to teach them to tolerate the challenges it presents.