This Puppy Care article regarding their first walks is extracted from a handout provided to the adopters of Lexi's puppies. It was written by Lisa Hird, our resident behavioral expert who also runs the Dog Behaviour Clinic (https://www.dogbehaviourclinic.co.uk/), and she is available to support the needs of you and your dog.
Puppy Care Topic – First Walks
FIRST WALKS - SOCIALISING IN THE PARK – OR JUST A BIT OF A NIGHTMARE?
What the puppy sees:
The park is HUGE compared to the safety of my house and garden. It smells AMAZING! There are so many smells to sniff and so many things to see, and then there is that ball to play with, and look at all those dogs, and all those people who keep coming over to see me, and pat me on the head, and play with me, and this is just SO EXCITING
Or what the puppy might see:
The park is HUGE compared to my garden and house. Everything is moving so fast. Everything smells strange. There are too many people about and they feel scary. There are too many dogs around and they are getting way too close, and even though I normally love playing with my ball, I cannot even look at it right now.
There are very few puppies who do not feel like either one of these two. And, even though the first one may seem as if she is dealing with things ok, neither of them is in a good state of mind where they can learn what they need to about being in the park.
KEEP IT CALM
Puppies need to be calm to be well socialised. Over-excited puppies quickly become tired and overwhelmed. Scared puppies are already overwhelmed. The only way that a puppy can learn anything that she needs to about her new world is if she is calm:
A CALM puppy can CONCENTRATE and CONNECT with her handler, in order to make the right CHOICES and to build CONFIDENCE through her new experiences.
A puppy’s first experience of something new needs to Feel Good.
Then the next 10 experiences of that same new thing need to Feel Good
Only then is it alright for an experience of that new thing to just Feel Ok
You need AT LEAST 20 good experiences of something before one of those experiences can Feel Bad, otherwise, your puppy may develop fear issues.
Even a puppy who has been brought up in a litter with many brothers and sisters can become fearful of other dogs. In fact, puppies living with dogs of all ages can become fearful of other dogs if new introductions are not managed carefully in the first 8 weeks of living with you.
During this period, she needs to be introduced to as many calm, well-mannered dogs as possible, preferably dogs who are older than she is. Ideally, she needs to meet at least 10 CALM dogs before she meets another puppy. Those calm, well-mannered dogs will help her Feel Good about dogs.
After she has met 10 calm dogs, then it is ok for her to play with another puppy, in a carefully managed, brief period together. This will be her one Feel Ok experience of another dog, and it will need to be balanced with interacting with her 10 calm and well-mannered friends so that she does not associate dogs with feeling excited and playing with them all the time.
We all want our dogs to have other dog friends and feel comfortable with them, but we also want our dogs to walk calmly past other dogs in the street. If a puppy gets to play too frequently with other puppies, or with over-excitable dogs in these early 8 weeks, she will associate all other dogs with feeling excited, which soon turns to barking at other dogs in the street. Being around other calm dogs will help her to stay calm.
For this reason, avoid puppy parties organised by Vets, pet shops, or Creches. All meetings between your puppy and other dogs need to happen in the safety of your garden and to be carefully supervised by you, with plenty of time away from each other and with opportunities to rest. If your puppy keeps trying to play with the older dog, intervene and put her in her den/crate/pen with a frozen Kong so that she learns to calm herself down.
During this 8-week fear period, it is vital that she doesn’t have any interaction with dogs that make her feel intimidated. If another dog is too pushy with her, and she tries to hide from him, remove the other dog straight away. Never let your puppy feel overwhelmed by a dog who is trying to sniff her, paw at her, or loom over her. If your puppy has thrown herself onto the floor, with her head turned away and is showing the whites of her eyes, then she feels scared of the other dog. Do not let them work it out themselves, and don’t try to encourage her to play with the dog – this kind of interaction can result in puppies feeling very uncertain of other dogs and may create issues later in life.
If you do not know 10 dogs who are polite and well-mannered, then just 2 or 3 calm dogs are better than any excitable ones. It is much better that your puppy only meets a few calm, well-mannered dogs and is happy with them, than risking taking her into a park with off-lead dogs and having any unpleasant or over-excitable meetings.
You can discover more Puppy Care Topics, as well as other useful articles in our Article Archive here:
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