Bonus - for those raising puppies

Ok by now I know most of you have spent a good bit of time figuring out how to socialize your puppies. But today I want to talk about the often overlooked aspects of socializing. This time in a young dog’s life it is easy to overlook certain things. We tend to only focus on people and dogs. But part of socialization is all the other things, events, situations and places you might want your dog to have experiences with. For example, if you are not a city person, elevators, loud traffic noises, etc. Or if you are a city person, cows, wildlife, etc. It is not always easy to find access to things you might not think about. So sometimes you just have to get as close as you can. Finding horse stables in town, finding a building with an elevator you can get access to. Taking a field trip on a weekend to expose your puppy to new environments.

Also, many things do not even require you leave home. You can work on having your puppy walk on weird surfaces by putting a tarp down, or set up play areas with lots of boxes to bounce around through. You can work on introducing them to muzzles, harnesses, Elizabethan collars, dog boots, even putting a sweater or shirt on them. The more experiences and things we introduce in fun low stress ways the more flexible we raise our puppies to be!