04/01/2024
It’s a balance ✨
Socialising
Why do you socialise your dog? For your dogs happiness.. for your happiness.. for behavioural reasons? The list really does go on.. but did you know that you can of course under socialise your dog but you can also massively over socialise giving your dog no structure or manners when interacting with others.
Socialising your dogs can be something as simple as sitting in a car park people watching, or even sitting in a nice quiet cafe or reverse letting your pooch run and play with every dog in sight, structured play in the correct and controlled environment or a healthy balance.
Dogs are natural social animals however many see this as “ my dog needs to be friends with ever person and ever dog to stop them becoming nervous or reactive “ but in many cases this turns into the unwanted behaviour, socialising is a 50/50 balance, in the right environment ( for your dog ) and with the right knowledge you will have a well rounded dog
I’ve watched 1000s of dogs mix over the years and ultimately it comes down to balance, knowing how to read your dogs and others
We get asked by new comers frequently “ why do we keep our groups small “ the main reason is when you have a large group of dogs sometimes not always but bad habits can form, and your dog can become over stimulated, it takes us a long time to match our groups and there is 100 reasons as to why we may mix dog A with dog C but it comes down to compatibility, communication, age group, activity level and so much more! We take a lot of pride in how we do things here and even though it may seem like a dating programme it does work and consistently is key
So when socialising your dog remember the balance, research the professionals in your area, see what structures they have in place for the dogs, routines, systems, see what experience they have, see how they socialise dogs with other dogs and when it’s diy people watch ( my favourite thing ) 😄🙌
