We were very happy to welcome Ubu today. Gayle got him off to a great start with his house training, crate training, and socialization. He adjusted very well to a new environment.
When he got here, I gave him time to explore on his own. I don't want to overwhelm him with a new person, a new environment, and new dogs all at once. That can be a bit much all at once and we want him to have a good experience. Socialization is about good exposures to new things, not just a lot of exposures to new things.
When I start to introduce him to the other dogs, I bring them out one at a time and I let Ubu approach when he is ready. He was a little nervous at first so I'm careful to call my dog to me if it looks like Ubu is overwhelmed. I can help speed up the process by petting the new dog. This shows Ubu that I think the dog is safe. I can do this with inanimate objects too. If he's nervous about something I can go up to it and touch it and tell him "It's no big deal." I avoid forcing him to check it out as that can really backfire and make him more fearful.
Ubu quickly adjusts and soon we can have all the dogs out and he's having a grand time. His socialization with other dogs may not seem like a big deal since he won't be living with another dog but it really is a big deal. If he isn't exposed in a healthy manner to other dogs or if he has bad experiences with other dogs, he could develop a fear of other dogs. When dogs are fearful, they will tend to bark, growl, or lunge at other dogs to make them go away. That's not a behavior we want in a dog.
Ideally you have a dog who is comfortable with other dogs but really happy about being with people.
So far, so good! He's pretty into people and pretty comfortable around other dogs.
We started out with some real basics. They are easy exercises but very, very important to a good, solid foundation. One exercise is name recognition. Puppies don't come knowing their name and we want them to respond when we call them. Ideally they are looking at us when we call their name. I can easily teach this by saying his name and giving him a treat. I keep repeating this until he is readily looking at me when he hears his name. Even if it seems like he already knows his name, this is a good exercise to practice in increasingly distracting environments. This will help him learn that he needs to turn and look at you when you say his name no matter what is going on around him. It doesn't matter how good his other skills are, if you can't get his attention, they won't do you any good.
We can also work on attention where we reward him for simply maintaining eye contact with his handler. Just pretend like you can see his eyes...
Now that we've got his attention, we can start to get him to enjoy coming towards me. This is the beginning of walking nicely on a leash and coming when called. I can do this by talking to him in a happy voice, clapping my hands, moving away from him, and rewarding him when he gets to me.
Another thing we can start out on right away is sitting for greetings. Puppies jump to play or get attention. Of course, this is not very pleasant for people, especially children. Since he doesn't know yet what is expected of him (or more accurately he is just starting to learn), we want to teach a behavior we would prefer to jumping. I like teaching dogs to automatically sit when they want to be greeted by people. Dogs will repeat behavior that works well for them. If jumping results in people touching them with their hands (usually pushing them off) or kids squealing (which sounds like puppies playing), they get rewarded for that jumping behavior and are more likely to repeat it.
But if, in the beginning, everyone gives him a tiny piece of a tasty treat, he's praised, and pet when he sits in front of them, he is much more likely to repeat that behavior. This requires catching him when he's offering the behavior too. If he is sitting nicely and no one says anything to him, he'll try something else to get attention and it will probably be jumping. So catch him being good and reward him and turn your back on him if he starts to jump so he's not getting any attention for it.
This is a great age! Puppies are so enthusiastic to learn and eager to do what you ask.
I'm looking forward to the next couple of weeks with this cute boy!
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