Socialization

[Ashley Brock]

July 14, some puppies joined the Thunder Ridge family. They're adorable pups. This is my first litter here at Thunder Ridge and I guess I seem to want to connect with them more now that I get raise them from squirts. I'm just wondering what other kennels do to get their pups socialized and out there.
I take them for long walks, with Kaltag and Koyuck sometimes or another friendly older dog other than Mom. I'd like to get them around other people, I was thinking about taking them into town and letting people hold them and stuff while I pass out brocheres on our kennel tours and visits and stuff!

[Christian]

That is really funny, as I was reading your post, I was thinking that you should bring the pups into town, and then you said that yourself. Yes, bringing them into town would be great. It helps to put them into a lot of different situations.

[RedneckSledDogs]

haha, yep! there is always that one 'shy' puppy in a litter you have to work on more. If i have a litter during the season and i decide to run the dogs on a busy trail or park, i bring along a few pups and let my grandmother walk them around. who cant resist puppies? usually after doing this a few times or just walking around people alot and telling them "oh, please DO pet him! that's what he's here for" they come around just fine. My friend and mentor once took her entire litter into tractor supply in a shopping cart and we boasted them around like yeah, that's right... come check out the puppies. ha! (of course we only took them into there for socialization)

[swanny]

I am currently raising a litter, and since it may be the only breeding I'll ever do in my career I'm taking a very methodical approach, guided by a professional canine behaviorist (Janece Rollet - faculty member of Karen Pryor's trianing academy)

We started the litter with the old military "Bio-sensor" or "Superdog" exercises, a series of five simple exercises that are repeated once each day during the first 13 days of life. You can see a video we created of the process at http://s273.photobucket.com/albums/jj224/Swanny1790/?action=view¤t=NeonatalPuppyTraining.flv

Those exercises are done in addition to the daily handing, cuddling and 'loving up' that we do with any puppies (and in fact all the dogs in my kennel).

Now that they are older they are handled as often as possible, and are being introduced to as many people and exposed to as many different situations as we can create. This will continue as a concentrated effort through the first 16 weeks of life, and then will be casually maintained throughout the remainder of the lives.

Here are two very good articles on puppy socialization.

The first discusses the science behind the process - http://www.apbc.org.uk/article5.htm
The second describes the recommended process - http://www.apbc.org.uk/article6.htm