According to American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior Behavioral problems, not disease, are the most common reason dogs are abandoned in shelters.
Training and socialization of your puppy should begin immediately upon arrival in their new home, ideally between weeks 3 and 14 of their life. This is the critical socialization period, where your dog learns what is safe and what is dangerous. Unfortunately, the common advice to wait until vaccinations are complete can lead to serious behavioral problems, such as anxiety or aggression. The best prevention is early exposure to a variety of stimuli, people, places, and situations. Socialization is not only about contact with other dogs, but also about learning self-confidence and adapting to the world.
Puppy Training – When to Start and Why is It So Important?
Unfortunately, I often receive calls from terrified owners who say that the vet has forbidden them from going outside until the vaccination package is complete, i.e. at 12 or 16 weeks.
Every time I hear these words, I feel sad and frustrated. Not because the owners want their dog to be bad – quite the opposite! They were simply given the wrong information that could affect the dog's entire life.
When is the best time to start training a puppy?
As soon as you welcome a new puppy into your home, you naturally want the best for it. So you listen to the breeder, vet, and pet store clerk. The problem is that many of these people are giving you outdated or even harmful information.
The most common piece of advice you hear is, “Don’t take your dog out until they’ve had all their vaccinations.” Sounds reasonable? Unfortunately, it’s a myth that could harm your pet more than the potential risk of illness.
The Critical Window of Socialization – The Key to a Healthy Dog Psychology
Puppies have a limited time in which their experiences shape their adult lives. This is called critical period of socialization, which lasts from about 3 to a maximum of 14 weeks of age. During this time, the puppy learns what is safe and what to be afraid of. If during this period the puppy does not get to know different people, places, sounds and situations, it may grow into a fearful or aggressive dog.
Puppy development stages:
- Week 3–5 – Primary Socialization – The puppy begins to perceive its surroundings and learns to interact with its siblings.
- Week 6–12 – Secondary Socialization – The most important period of adaptation to the human world. The puppy should experience different situations, places and people.
- about 7–8 weeks – The moment when the mother starts correcting the puppies, teaching them self-control. This is also the optimal time to move to a new home.
What happens when you wait too long?
Starting socialization too late can lead to serious behavioral problems, such as:
- Separation anxiety,
- Fear of new situations,
- Aggression towards people and dogs.
How to ensure good socialization?
All families who adopt a dog from me receive a training package – 7 hours of webinars that I created precisely to provide the family with the first few years of functioning with a new family member. Familiarizing them with the world and much, much more.
Socialization should be done in safe conditions, bearing in mind that a puppy is not yet fully immune to diseases. That is, we do not take an 8-week-old puppy to the park, where it will certainly encounter the feces of other (unknown if healthy) dogs.
However, during these first few weeks you should:
- see different places – city, bus stop, traffic, children playing in the playground, other animals, for example, I use the moments when I go to football training with my son, I always take the puppy – we sit calmly and get used to different stimuli (without interacting with people), I also often stop at petrol stations, or in the parking lot near the shopping centre, and many, many other ideas that I share with you during conversations and in the videos that I send to you – waiting to pick up your little one.
- have interactions with people and other dogs – of course, in controlled conditions, which I talk about in webinars. And in an appropriate way (VERY IMPORTANT!), which I also talk about widely and pay a lot of attention to, few of us know that interaction with people must be appropriate for a puppy. What does this mean? Strangers, often unknowingly approaching our puppy, unknowingly send a lot of threatening signals – they approach straight ahead, stare at our dog and often in the eyes, bend over him, reach out and stroke his head and often smile (in dog language, what does it mean when another dog “bares its teeth”?) These are as many as 7 threatening signals. So does our dog have a chance to learn that people are cool? This is a very important topic for me and learning how to interact appropriately with strangers is aspect number one for me. Knowing my puppies, I describe the method of socialization for each of them adequately. Yes, it is never standard, because each puppy is different. One may end up withdrawing from people in an incomprehensible way, while the other may react to the same person and the same approach with excessive excitement. But this is just the way he reacts to an uncomfortable situation. Only you can see from the dog that withdraws that he does not like it. And a puppy that jumps at a newly met person, runs in circles, bites the leash - does not arouse our concern anymore. And it should, because in this way the dog presents the so-called "flirting behavior", i.e. pretends to be stupid. Unfortunately, both puppies will have behavioral problems in the future related to improper socialization ... and they showed it already when they were young puppies - and this is the time when they should be taught that people are safe. I will not write here because this topic is as broad and deep as the ocean for me. However, webinars and educational films on the socialization of specific litters thoroughly break down the topic into prime factors.
- be focused on different stimuli – sounds, surfaces, moving objects.
- have fun solving problems, overcoming obstacles that stand in his way – these help build the dog’s self-confidence.
But WARNING! The word SOCIALIZATION has become very popular, it is used by almost all breeders. Unfortunately, it often seems to me that they do not fully understand the concept, they make huge mistakes, unfortunately exposing puppies to permanent stress. Socialization is not about presenting puppies with various stimuli - socialization is what the puppy gets from these stimuli. If it gets information that is unfavorable for itself, then unfortunately we sensitize it to this specific stimulus. This means that all stimuli must be presented to the puppy in a way that will be acceptable to this specific individual. Oh, I could also write about this topic, I explain a lot about it in educational videos of a specific litter. Then I explain to you step by step how it should look, how to avoid threats or turn them into positive experiences.
Training and socializing your puppy isn't just about learning how to sit or walk on a leash - it's an investment in their future. The most important weeks are 3–14 weeks of life, and the best time to start learning is as soon as the puppy comes to your home. Don't be fooled by outdated advice - what your dog needs most is socialization, not isolation! And this is the most important vaccine a young puppy should receive in life.
I share my knowledge from the perspective of a long-time breeder, but also a behaviorist,
zoopsychologist, trainer, dog therapist, former court expert in the field of cynology and animal welfare and veterinary technician.
The author of the text is Edyta Gajewska. Copying, processing, distribution of these materials in whole or in part without the author's consent is prohibited.
