Puppy Training- The Right Kind of Socialisation

"Socialisation isn't about saying hello to everyone: Building Confidence, Focused, Puppies"

Many owners think and get told that socialising your puppy includes letting them meet every dog and person they see (myself included) but true socialisation is about so much more than greetings,

it's about creating positive experiences in many different environments so your puppy grows into a confident dog.

• Confidence over chaos;

  Many puppies can find socialising with many dogs overwhelming, puppies who lack confidence around dogs can find this a negative experience, if you are going to socialise you want to do it with confident stable well-rounded dogs, who create boundaries, and teach puppies manners in a fair way.

• Quality over Quantity;

  As puppies are growing their attention spans are a lot smaller, shorter session and often exposure to different textures, smells, sights and sounds are so much more important.

• The power of 'maker' words:

  Introduce your puppy to a marker word 'yes' or clicker from the get go, charging this with food, will allow clear communication to the puppy that they have done something right and an reward is coming, using their daily food to train and hand feeding builds a strong relationship and stops your puppies gaining any excess weight on their growing bodies.

• Engagement Everywhere:

  Focus on engaging with your puppy everywhere, doing some fun training around people and dogs, from early on and keeping their focus with you, will help as they get older and the training for heeling begins. Always start with recall, it's powerful when used in conjunction with a good marker word. Do it around people and dogs.

• Goal:

  The goal is to create a confident puppy who can ignore distractions because they have built trust with their humans to handle situations and look to their owner for guidance.

"Socialisation isn't about collecting hellos-- it's about collecting experiences that build your puppy's confidence and connection with you"

My baby boy- Monty.