Empowerment Training for Your Power Dog by Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell

Author:Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell [Dawn Antoniak-Mitchell]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dogwise Publishing
Published: 2019-03-14T00:00:00+00:00

Keep a few basic rules in mind to socialize your power puppy for success!

Quality versus quantity

For years, trainers would often tell dog owners that in order to properly socialize their new puppies, they must have their puppies see at least 100 people in the first 12 weeks of life; if an owner didn’t meet that number of encounters, the puppy was doomed to a life of social incompetence and aggression. Many puppy owners would either give up on socialization altogether in the face of overwhelming expectations, or would force puppies into scary situations just to add another encounter to the tally. Yet there has never been hard evidence to prove anything magical about this number (or any other number of encounters, for that matter). It is true that your puppy needs to see a wide variety of people during the first four to five months of his life, but the experiences need to be individualized to the puppy. Quality is always more important than quantity. You should not give up or put undue stress on yourself and your puppy trying to reach some random number goal. Try to provide your puppy a broad range of experiences, hopefully every day, but don’t give up and stop if you miss a day or two. Keep working on socializing; your power puppy is going to need a lot of consistent work on your part to help him learn to control his protective instincts. You also want to be careful that you don’t create a dog who automatically assumes every person on the face of the planet exists solely to interact with him. If your puppy meets every person he sees, you might be inadvertently teaching him to drag you toward people. While you might be able to control this behavior when he weighs 10 pounds, when he physically matures at 100-plus pounds, you might have a social butterfly nightmare on your hands, who you have no way to physically control!

Approaching a dog head on, jutting out a hand to pet him (often on top of the head), and refusing to give the dog space when the dog asks for it (particularly if the person involved is a stranger), is a situation just waiting to explode. Even if people approach your puppy in a more appropriate manner, never allow them to force themselves on your puppy. Always be your dog’s advocate. Stop people before they can interact with your puppy if he is afraid. You have your puppy in a vulnerable position by having him on a leash, so be prepared to step between the person and your puppy, walk away, or do whatever else you must do to keep the situation from scaring your puppy or reinforcing any bad habits he already has, such as jumping up on people for attention. This same rule also applies to family interactions with your puppy. Don’t allow children to hit, tease, or ride on your dog at any age. Just because your dog might tolerate this

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