Socialising of your puppy begins from birth and continues on with you from 8 weeks to 1 year and even beyond, it never really stops. Its this first year you want to ensure your puppy has as many positive experiences as you can subject him to.  Certainly the first six months should not be a missed opportunity.

Puppies are blank canvasses, what they experience when young starts shaping them as an adult.  One very important thing to remember is that your puppy is a dog and not a human.  When a human baby meets uncle bob for the first time, the big hairy bearded sunglass wearing hat wearing uncle, and gets scared and starts crying, we as humans pick up baby Jonny and start soothing him, “there there Jonny every thing is alright” and give him a big cuddle. Thats perfectly normal behaviour for a baby, as they get older they are able to rationalise more.

With puppies research has shown we should behave the complete opposite, don’t nurture an unwanted behaviour.  So the last thing you should do is pick up puppy and start nurturing.  What you end up doing is nurturing that behaviour.  What you are saying is Its ok puppy to feel fear, now you have just begun the process of puppy now being fearful of humans.  The better approach is to say nothing, tell uncle bob to ignore puppy and let puppy come to uncle bob on his own and realise its not the end of the world, uncle bob is no threat at all, in fact uncle bob is really nice and fun.

So just remember if you do not want your puppy to behave in a certain way don’t reward it, ignore it.

Reward for a puppy does not always have to mean positive reward, it can still be rewarding if negative. For instance if your puppy keeps barking its very easy for us to start shouting at puppy, “keep quuuuuuuiiiiiiieeeeetttt!!!!”.  We are looking at this from the point of speech, we all know what keep quiet means, your puppy doesn’t, he’s just hearing a loud noise just like he’s making, so in fact you are joining in so he keeps going.  A much better approach is to ignore it, don’t even look at him, no attention what so ever,  when he stops, praise him, the penny will soon drop that he gets made a fuss of when he’s quiet not when he’s barking.  I guarantee you, shouting at a barking dog will not stop the behaviour, it might stop temporarily if you instill a bit of fear into him, but he will do it again.  Remember with dogs if it feels good and gets them attention they will keep doing it, if they don’t get attention and therefore a good feeling they will offer a different behaviour, only nurture the one you want.

So big rule….DON’T NURTURE ANYTHING THAT YOU DON’T WANT DISPLAYED or DONE AS AN ADULT!

Don’t want a fearful dog, don’t nurture fear, don’t want you dog on the furniture then don’t allow it as a puppy, don’t want your dog jumping up at you then go down to him and praise when all four feet on the floor.  Not rocket science, just common sense, and remember everything is easier to achieve when they are a puppy.

My job starts from birth of your puppy, I want to get all your puppies on that road to being the lovely well rounded family pet that you want.  I try to get all the puppies as even tempered as I can before they leave here.  I want them all to be waggy tailed, confident little balls of fluff.

Week One

This is mainly all about mum, supporting her, making sure she is doing her job, cleaning the babies, helping them to poo (they cant do it on there own), feeding them etc.  Mum’s bodily resources really take a hit if she has more than four puppies, I’ve noticed four and below she does really well, above that and I notice she starts to get thinner really quick.  We up her food intake by as much as four times greater, she gets ravenous over four puppies.

With the puppies we are checking that umbilical cords are healing up, puppies are increasing in weight, like to see doubling of birth weight in first week, however as long as its going up we are on track.  Any that are significantly less than the others then we intervene and keep putting them on the best nipples.  Bigger stronger puppies can push them out of the way, so we try to get them all around the same levels.

Each puppy is handled very gently during this first week, its all about sensations, feeling touch, I blow on them, move them around in my hands to feel the movement. The brain is developing all the time, I’m helping get those pathways in the brain created.  We keep puppies under the heating lamp as they cannot modify there body temperature until older. Puppies can die really quickly if they get cold.

Keeping mum calm and relaxed so no anxious vibes are passed onto the puppies, if mum is happy puppies are happy.  Laying down with her and stroking her whilst she’s feeding puppies, I can see her body relaxing by the second as I’m stroking, she’s even fallen asleep.

Week Two

Much of the same as week one, checking each puppy that weight is still going up, ensuring mum is not getting thin as puppies stay on her for longer feeding.  Although the puppies sleep all the time they really start wriggling around and you can see that they are getting stronger and more substantial in there bodies.  Its amazing that although blind and deaf, they can always find that teat, amazing sense of smell already.  Towards the end of this week you may start to see eyes opening.

Week Three

This is were the fun begins, I now setup my puppy pen in the front room and move them all from the whelping room.  The heat lamp goes off as by now they should be able to start regulating there own body temperature.  I’m looking for shivering, this is a good sign, shivering helps heat up your body temperature.  As you get cold, shivering starts.  There eyes should be open and their ears start to open.

Handling still continues as does supporting mum, we now add lots of visual aids, roll balls around, let the other dogs run around the cage, as long as this doesn’t upset mum, she can get really stressed, I take my cue from her.  Drag anything I can find in front of the puppies, letting them see lots of movement.

This is also where the sound CD gets played, doorbells going off, fireworks, children noises etc.  Don’t play it all the time as it can really get on your nerves, I have to remember my stress levels as well.  I’m looking for shock response, ie so I know they can hear.  I want to see that they notice the sounds then return to normal.

They will be a bit more mobile now, so I introduce different floor surfaces, rubber, carpet etc.  This get ramped up a bit later, its just the introduction of it at this stage.

Its also during this week that mum should start the weaning process,  she won’t lay down to let them suckle as much, she will start standing and the puppies will start to stand up and hang onto a nipple for life.  She will even start walking around, probably hoping they will drop off her.  She wont stop feeding them completely, but starts to make if more difficult for them.  When I see this, I start introducing food, mixed up complete dry food wetted and stirred into a paste.  Never had a problem here, puppies seem to take to it really quickly.  Weight now really starts to pile on.

Week Four

The fun continues, but ramped up a bit.  Mum is still making it difficult for puppies to suckle, or she may just start that process now.  The puppies are challenged a bit now.  More surfaces are added, like screwed up tin foil for them to walk on, take them to the garden and put them on the grass, move them around the house to feel the different surfaces.  More toys added to the pen for them to play with, start frustrating them a bit by letting them tug on a bit of cloth and holding them still for a few seconds.  Research has shown that doing all this helps the puppies develop as better learners, working things out for themselves.

I also start to take each puppy out of the pen on there own, start the process of learning to be away from litter mates.  We don’t want any separation anxiety problems with our dogs when adults.

This is also where I start to think about the grooming process when they are older.  I like to get them up high on the grooming table and gently stroke them and give them a treat.  During handling I pay special attention to the feet, spreading the toes etc.  I’ve noticed that a lot of dogs even those well behaved at the groomers can have a problem when the feet are touched, pulling away etc.  So I’ve added this to start getting them used to it.  Some dogs when put up high on the grooming table go flat, nails dig in and they feel very unsafe, my puppies will be used to this by the time they leave as I will do it daily from now to the last day.  Brushing your dog is so relaxing when you can get them up high and they stand like a statue and allow you to get in everywhere.  If you put the work in early brushing never becomes a chore.

If they are eating solid food (pasted complete food), then I feed them all together out of one large special puppy bowls that I have.  I like to ensure that they are competitive eating.  I like to see all the puppies going mad for the food, each trying to get as much as possible and outdoing their litter mates. Nothing worse than a puppy that won’t eat or doesn’t finish his food. This can be really worrying for the owner.  The puppy will never starve themselves but they can get really thing by not eating.  Ensuring this competitive eating process helps to eliminate that behaviour.

Prospective owners can now visit during this week, its also another good socialising aspect as they get a bit more interaction with other people.  I start getting a lot more visits from family members now as the puppies are more mobile, nieces and nephews visit and handle puppies.  All this is getting them used to all sorts of people

Week Five

Everything above is continued, its just done for a bit longer and a bit more intensive.  Playtime outside of the pen increases, playing with them all together on the kitchen floor, taking them all outside on the patio and on the grass.  Getting down with them on the floor and have a bit of fun, making sure that they are all being inquisitive and joining in.  

Individual separated play is also stepped up a bit, increasing the time spent alone without their littermates.

By now I hope to see that feeding frenzy continuing, so I will start to use one of the feed times from individual bowls, ensuring that each puppy is eating a set amount.  If this goes really well and is easy I do this with more of the feed times, they are feeding four times a day now.  If you get the feeding right you end up with a food motivated dog, this will help enormously with training later on.

Week Six

First injection time.  The more enlightened vets are recognising the importance of early socialisation and therefore starting the injection course earlier. Most vaccines are licensed from 6 weeks.  Then the second injection at 10 weeks.  Sometimes in my area they have a third injection depending upon what diseases are reported to be in the area and local parks.  Never had to pay for the third injection, if its been needed its always been free.

Puppies can be off for a day after the injection, more often than not they sail through it.

The puppies are really mobile now running around waggy tailed.  This is also where you can start to see fearful behaviour, its a perfectly normal stage for a puppy to go through, if you start to see it, we just take it down a notch, we always want to ensure the puppy is happy and positive.  Each puppy is different and can go through this stage earlier or later, we just need to keep an eye out for it.  If you scare a puppy when this happens you can hard wire that fear into them for life, so its really crucial to be taking care.

If all going well, the other dogs start playing with the puppies outside their pen, this is very supervised, but I’m really lucky all my dogs are so gentle and love fun time with puppies.  Playing in the garden increases, puppies chasing after me, if it rains I still stay out there with them, letting them feel the rain on them, this can be hilarious as they haven’t a clue where its coming from.

I get them out in the car each day so they get used to the movement, only a short journey round the block.  I also stand outside the front garden with them, so they can see different sights and smells, never put them on the floor out the front though.

Mum really has had enough of them by now, there still trying to get to the milk and there little teeth and claws can be quite painful, she runs away from them more, but her instinct will still overwrite the pain so on occasion she will still let them suckle for a while.  This now just gets less and less until they go.  She will want to spend more time away from them, but will always been drawn back when she hears them crying.

Week Seven

All of the above but for longer and more intense.

Week Eight

All of the above but for longer and more intense, until the new owners come to pick them up.

Week Eight Onwards

This has been made easier for you as the Kennel Club have designed a Socialisation Plan that you can follow, there is a website will all the information you could want.

www.thepuppyplan.com

Just remember keep it positive, look out for fear periods, and introduce your dog to as many positive situations as you can.  Get your puppy enrolled in organised puppy socialisation classes and book up training classes.  Do this before you get your puppy home as if your area is anything like mine they all get booked up weeks in advance.