Socialisation is very misunderstood, and this has had an affect on most of the nation’s dogs!
When the average person buys a puppy, they are told by all their friends & family to let the puppy meet everyone and to enrol in ‘puppy socialisation classes’.
Walks consist of your puppy dragging you around a park trying to find others to interact with, and your puppy does not develop reliable recall.
Some puppies are also genetically friendly, which worsens the problem later.
Some people buy a nervous puppy or adopt a nervous adult, and cannot safely mix them with anyone because they are so uncomfortable.
This isn’t right either.
The end goal for most people is a dog who can tolerate the presence of others, but who ultimately chooses the handler over anyone else and has reliable recall.
The problem is knowing exactly how much to allow your new addition (adult or puppy) to interact with others and with who.
We can’t give advice on this because every individual is so different!
Generally, as soon as your puppy or dog starts to expect & want greetings from others, they’re probably a little over socialised, and we would work to avoid frustrated reactivity.
If your puppy or dog panics at the idea of someone approaching, they are probably lacking confidence and are probably under socialised. We would work to avoid fear reactivity.
We all want to reach that middle ground of neutrality, but the journey will look different for everyone.
That’s why we thoroughly assess your dog and implement the foundations before restarting socialisation 👌🏻
