Dog Training Podcast #120 Understanding and Managing Canine Socialization and Exposure with Will Bangura M.S., CDBC, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP

Does your puppy squirm at the sound of thunder or quiver at the sight of a stranger? If you've nodded in agreement, then this enlightening episode promises to transform your understanding of canine behavior. Today, we unravel the complexities of canine socialization and the significance of exposing puppies to a variety of scenarios during the decisive socialization period from three to 13 weeks of age. We're busting myths, replacing misconceptions with facts, and guiding you on why you should swap the term 'socialization' with 'exposure' to prevent future phobias, anxiety, and other issues in your dogs.

Our in-depth conversation takes a fascinating turn as we explore the stark contrast in canine cultures between Germany and America. We also shine a light on counter conditioning and desensitization - two powerful techniques that can help your four-legged friends become more comfortable with triggers in their environment. If you're apprehensive about taking your fur baby out before they've received all their vaccinations, we've got you covered there too. Tune in to this episode, where we share essential insights and practical advice on managing your dog's socialization process effectively. Will Bangura M.S., CDBC, CBCC-KA, CPDT-KA, FFCP

Chapters

• 0:00 Understanding Canine Socialization and Exposure
• 12:33 Canine Socialization

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Did you know that there's a critical socialization period? It starts at three weeks of age. However, it ends at 13 weeks of age. There is so much misinformation, so much misunderstanding when it comes to canine socialization. When you should, where you should, what you should socialize your puppy or dog with, don't go anywhere. This is a big podcast. You need it. Our host and favorite pet behavior expert, will Van Gura.

Speaker 1: 1:11

Happy Tuesday everybody. I'm Will Van Gura. You're listening to another episode of Pet Talk today, and today we're going to be talking about puppy and dog socialization. It's such an important topic, but before I get started, I need to ask a huge favor of you. If you love what we do, could you do me a huge favor? Press that pause button. Whatever platform you are listening to this podcast on, please give us a five star review. If you have not subscribed to the Pet Talk today podcast, please hit the subscribe button. That's the only way this podcast ranks. It's the only way that more people can benefit from what we do here at Pet Talk today.

Speaker 1: 1:59

All right, so today I want to talk about canine socialization. As I said when I opened up the podcast, it is a hugely misunderstood concept. Socialization is not about your dog interacting with every person. Socialization is not about your puppy interacting with every person. It's not about your dog or your puppy interacting with every dog that's out there. Canine socialization is a not. It's not about taking your dogs to the dog park. It's not about taking your dogs to doggie daycare. Well then, you must be asking hey, well, what the heck is canine socialization? Get that S word out of your vocabulary. I want you rather to think about exposure. So I want you to swap out those words, swap out socialization with exposure, and you have from three weeks till 13 weeks of age to get that exposure done. And what needs to be done is you need to expose your puppies to as many things as possible during that time. If you don't, it's very possible that they are going to develop fears, phobias, anxiety, stress. They're going to be triggering on different triggers. You may end up with reactivity, aggression, issues. So critical is that three to 13 week period that you expose your puppy, your dog, to everything different sounds, different sites, different smells, different locations, different sounds, different kinds of touch and grooming. Everything happens during three to 13 weeks of age. And that's how we do preventative work by exposing our dogs to everything. Now, I've talked about it before on the podcast.

Speaker 1: 4:15

If you ever go to Germany, the culture is extremely different with dogs and the wonderful thing is, anywhere you go there's lots of dogs and the dogs go everywhere with their pet parents. They're allowed to go in restaurants and stores, they go into their doctor's appointments, you name it, they get to go. And no, they're not service dogs. But how they approach socialization. I know I said to get that S word out of your vocabulary.

Speaker 1: 4:47

The way that they handle exposure isn't about having their puppy meet people, isn't about having their puppy meet a bunch of other dogs. Matter of fact, when you're in public with your puppy or dog in Germany, nobody ever comes up to you and says, hey, can I pet your dog? Nobody ever comes up to another person, another dog, in public in Germany and says, oh, can my dog meet your dog? That is unheard of. Everybody leaves everybody's dog alone and you would be amazed how calm, how relaxed, how aloof the dogs are to distractions, how well-mannered and well-behaved there are, because they don't trigger on things. Hardly at all. Very few dogs do trigger and it's because of this attitude. Leave my dog alone. Go get your own dog. Now it's not that bad.

Speaker 1: 5:54

But you know what the people in Germany understand. Think about this. Either it's happened to you with your puppies, your dogs, or you have seen this happen and maybe you've been part of the problem. Here's a dog owner. They're walking down the street. They've got their new puppy, maybe they've got their new dog that they've rescued. And here comes some person going oh, what a cute dog. Can I give your dog a treat, can I pet your dog? And they get your puppy. They get your dog all jacked up, excited. Now it's difficult to control your dog or your puppy. They just caused your puppy to need to be corrected.

Speaker 1: 6:38

Nobody goes up to somebody else's dog and says can my dog meet your dog? But here in the United States what happens? Everybody wants to run their dog up to your dog. Can my dog meet your dog? And now a strange dog gets your dog all jacked up and excited and very difficult to control. And guess what? That's all fun, that is a blast for your dog to get all jacked up and excited and get all wiggly and waggly and wag that tail in front of strange people or strange dogs. But that gets conditioned. That gets conditioned so that the next time you're out walking and your puppy or your dog sees a strange dog, the next time you're out walking and your puppy or dog sees a strange person, they all get excited because it's positive reinforcement. And we've allowed that to happen. We've let person after person, dog after dog get our dogs or puppies all jacked up. And then we wonder why we can't control them. We wonder why they can't pay attention when there's distractions because we've made that a part of our lifestyle here in the United States Canine socialization Get the S word out of your vocabulary.

Speaker 1: 8:00

It's about exposure. Now that's a real problem. Part of the problem is that most people are scared to death to let their puppies outside of their home until they've gotten all their vaccinations. Maybe your vet told you be careful, don't take your puppy anywhere. You got to wait till they get all their vaccinations. Or maybe they're going to get parvo or distemper or they're going to get sick. That is rare. That is extremely rare.

Speaker 1: 8:32

Now, folks, I'm not a veterinarian. I can't give you veterinary medical advice. What I will tell you is that the American society of veterinary behaviorists now they're all veterinarians, there's about 90 of them. They're also applied animal behaviorists as well as full-fledged veterinarians. All of them are in agreement. They put out their organization has put out a position statement saying you need to get your puppies exposed to everything right away.

Speaker 1: 9:09

But when you weigh the risks and the benefits, it's more beneficial to get your dog out there and exposed to everything than be worried that your dog doesn't have all of its shots. First of all, if your puppy, if your puppy, was nursing on its mother. It already has some built-in immunity. Most puppies, before you get them, have one or two sets of shots. If they only have one set of shots, it's usually pretty quick. From the time you get your puppy to needing that third set, they've already got protection Highly unlikely.

Speaker 1: 9:51

Now one thing I will say is don't and this is common sense don't put your puppy, don't put your new puppy, don't put your dogs in places where there's lots of canine feces and in a place where every dog is peeing and there's bodily fluids everywhere, where your dog can get sick. During this time, this three to 13 weeks, you need to know your dogs, need to know your family's dogs, need to know your friends' dogs and what I recommend is that, as far as them actually playing together, make sure you have play dates with very stable, very calm dogs that are well-behaved and listen to their pet parents, and you have play dates and one-on-one. Don't overwhelm your dog by having a play date with three or four other dogs and then just your dog, one at a time. To begin with, your dog does not come up to you and say hey mom, hey dad, can we go to the dog park? Hey mom, hey dad, can we go to doggie daycare. Hey mom, hey dad, can I have this huge play date with all these dogs? You're doing that for your own emotional needs, yeah? Does the dog ask you? Of course not. They don't know what they're missing.

Speaker 1: 11:15

You know, dog parks, doggy daycare those are really well-intentioned ideas that are a disaster waiting to happen for your puppy or your dog. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when your dog frequents enough dog parks with enough dogs. It's not a matter of if it's a matter of when your dog or puppy frequents enough doggy daycares before they get into some kind of altercation with another dog and it could be bad and that could ruin your dog for life. You know what doesn't happen? Hardly at all. That never happens. Much and see never. It rarely ever happens in Germany and I know I use Germany as my model because I want your dogs to be an extremely close proximity, within an arm's length or two of any person, any dog, regardless of that person or that dog's energy level.

Speaker 1: 12:10

I want your dog to be aloof. I don't want your dog to be afraid of people or dogs. I don't want your dog to be overly excited about people and dogs. That makes it difficult to control. I want your dog neutral, Ben. They're done that, don't care Because you've gotten your dog out and about so often.

Speaker 1: 12:33

That's the true meaning of canine socialization. But get that S-word out of your vocabulary. Let's refer to it as exposure. Now you might be saying, hey, will we have passed that timeframe a long time ago? How do we go about exposing or socializing our dogs right now? Well, first of all, get that S-word out of your vocabulary. Now it's about counter conditioning and desensitization.

Speaker 1: 12:58

If your dog's got anxiety, fear, asphobia, stress and it's passed that canine socialization period between three weeks and 13 weeks, now it's about changing your dog's underlying emotional state. If your dog has fear, anxiety, stress or phobias around a trigger in its environment, it doesn't matter if it's a trigger they see another person, a dog, they might be afraid, they might be reactive. It might be a noise that they're fearful of or reactive towards, could be anything, it could be touch. At this point, once we've passed that critical socialization period, now we've got to do behavior modification. Now we've got to put a plan together on how we're going to start to present those triggers to your puppy or dog and pair that with positive reinforcement and, over time, gradually, systematically changing your dog's perception of what it considers to be a trigger, what it considers to be threatening, whether there's a real threat or not. We need to change your dog's emotional underlying state and its perception of that trigger as something positive.

Speaker 1: 14:08

Now, if you don't know anything about counter conditioning and desensitization, go to my website. Go to my website at dogbehavioristcom. Go to articles on the menu. Look for the article on counter conditioning and desensitization. That is the mainstay, that is the golden magic wand. Even though there's no quick fix, it's a journey to how you rehabilitate, how you help a dog with anxiety, fears, phobias, reactivity and aggression. If you don't go to the website dogbehavioristcom and get that article, you can go right here on this podcast, the Pet Talk Today podcast, look for episode 98. Episode 98 is at least an hour long podcast that goes through all the details of counter conditioning and desensitization. So there you have it, folks. There you have it. All about counter conditioning and desensitization, all about canine socialization. Remember, get that S-word out of your vocabulary. It's all about exposure and it's all about exposing them. Just right, I'm outta here.