11/05/2020
♥️
One of our biggest responsibilities as pet parents is providing positive socialization experiences for our puppies, and even under-socialized newly adopted adult dogs! Growing up in a pandemic will present unique challenges to newly adopted dogs and puppies, but here are some ways to get a head start!
1. Normalize Masks - if your puppy has been at home with you during this pandemic, and hasn’t had much exposure to mask wearers, it’s a good idea to start now! Masks probably aren’t going away any time soon, and for a creature that is so fixated on human facial expressions, a person wearing a mask can really throw them for a loop! Start wearing one at home around your puppy or dog so they learn about this new object from someone they know and trust.
2. Introduce Novelty - Life in a pandemic can be literally over-sanitized for puppies trying to learn what baseline “normal” is for the world. Finding ways to increase your puppy’s resilience to novelty will help him or her learn to cope with all the changes that will occur when life goes back to “normal”! Dig through the recycling for plastic bottles, things that make weird noises, find tarps, odd objects, strange surfaces etc, allow your puppy to approach/interact if he chooses. Stay calm and confident as you praise him and give treats for bravely investigating. Never push or force an interaction, as this could backfire by sensitizing your dog rather than de-sensitizing.
3. Introduce Absent Sounds - such as the sounds of a city, crowds, traffic, other dogs barking, people shouting etc. Think of the sounds your dog may be missing by staying relatively secluded. This is especially important for puppies who are developing a blueprint for the world. Any sounds they aren’t exposed to during their critical period may induce a fear response later. Playing them at low volume on a tv or computer can help your dog to habituate to these sounds and find them less scary in real life later. Give treats to help counter-condition if your dog seems worried about any of the sounds he or she hears.
4. Distantly Socialize - Your puppy doesn’t have to actually interact with other dogs or people to become socialized to them. But your puppy does need to SEE the full range of humans, dogs and other animals that are in the world. Young and old dogs and people, wheel chairs, beards, hats, sunglasses etc. Pour on the treats for being calm and comfortable at a range of 6 feet from people, dogs and animals. Socialization includes visiting new places too. Try to find ways you can safely visit new environments to buffer against the chance that you miss exposure to something critical to your puppy’s social development.
5. Prevent Separation Anxiety - Start slowly normalizing separations. You don’t even have to leave the house to do it at first! Give your dog or puppy something to occupy them safely (peanut butter kong), then nonchalantly leave the room and close the door. Start with smaller increments of time and build up your dog’s tolerance slowly. Eventually you’ll want to start leaving through a main exit to the house following the same strategy. Brief separations at first, then longer and longer duration. The parting gift of a peanut butter kong helps to both signal to your dog that you will be leaving, and occupy them so they don’t fixate on the loss. The idea is to build a history of leaving so that by the time you actually have somewhere to be, this is a normalized routine!
