The Importance of Puppy Socialization

March 21, 2020

Why is It Important?

One of the most important and often overlooked parts of training a puppy is socialization. Puppies are particularly receptive to socialization during the first 3 months of life, during which time they need to have positive or neutral experiences with a variety of people, animals, and environments to become mentally healthy adult dogs ¹ . The critical socialization period varies in length between individuals, and may last until 4 months old for some puppies ². Whenever that critical period ends for your puppy, socialization will still be important moving forward, but doesn’t have the same level of impact.

Imagine a child named Sally who never left her house or met anyone other than her parents during her early development. One day, her parents take her on a family trip to the zoo. Sally might spend the whole time hiding behind her parents because the crowds, vendors, animals and everything else that is completely different from her home are all terrifying to her. Or, she might be so happy to finally be out that she runs around screaming and getting in people’s faces because she can’t contain her excitement. If another child tries to touch her to start up a game of tag, Sally might overreact, thinking the other child is trying to hurt her. Poor Sally would have a lot of catching up to do, and she may never become the socially adept, mentally healthy person she could have been if she hadn’t been isolated early on.

Dogs are the same way, and yet many people keep their puppies isolated at home during the critical socialization period. Sometimes a veterinarian suggested they do so to avoid diseases, and other times they simply didn’t make the extra effort to find playmates for their puppy. But no matter the reason for the isolation, to keep your puppy from experiencing other dogs, people, and places during the first few months of her life is to miss valuable opportunities to socialize your puppy and help her to become a socially skilled, mentally healthy adult dog.

Socialization with Other Dogs

Puppies that do not spend time with a variety of well-socialized dogs during the first few months of life may have social deficits later in life. After all, they didn’t have a chance to practice giving and receiving important body language cues while their brains were the most receptive to learning ²

Under-socialized dogs may have difficulty playing with other dogs without conflict, because they exhibit the wrong body language cues or misinterpret the body language of other dogs. For more information on the delicate social dance that is dog play, see my Dog Play blog post.

Another possible result of under-socialization is that the dog becomes fearful toward other dogs, avoiding close proximity and responding with defensive aggression if approached. Young puppies are usually more curious towards new things than they are afraid, but that curiosity is quickly replaced by cautiousness as the puppy gets older ¹

Alternatively, an under-socialized dog might be so excited when she sees another dog that she can’t contain herself, lunging and barking wildly in an attempt to greet the other dog. Not only is this type of reaction embarrassing for the owner, but once the over-excited dog greets the other dog, conflict usually occurs due to the dog’s rude behavior. Jean Donaldson refers to these under-socialized/over-excited type dogs as “Tarzans,” after the story character that didn’t meet another human until he was an adult ³. Like Tarzan the character, Tarzan type dogs make social mistakes that stem from their overly eager greeting and their lack of basic social skills.

Dogs in the same household help with socialization but are not sufficient to socialize a puppy fully. The puppy should meet well-socialized unfamiliar dogs during this time, otherwise she might be fine with the dogs in the household but fearful or overly-excited toward new dogs she meets later. The number of dogs a puppy needs to meet early in life to develop normally varies between individuals, so there’s no magic number. As long as the experiences are neutral or positive, the more dogs your young puppy meets, the better.

Socialization with People

Puppies that are not introduced to a variety of people during the first few months of life might be fearful or overly-excited toward strangers as adults. Alternatively, the under-socialized dog may be fine with some people but fearful towards particular types of people, such as one gender, size, or age group to which they did not have sufficient exposure.

More than once, people have told me that they think their adopted dog was abused by a man because she is afraid of men. While in some cases that may be true, dogs are more likely to show fear towards men than women in general. On average, men are larger and have deeper voices than women. They also have behavioral tendencies, such as maintaining eye contact and approaching directly, that seem threatening to dogs ⁴. A dog that is afraid of men probably didn’t meet enough men early in life to be comfortable with them as an adult. Or she may have had very few positive experiences with men and one scary, but harmless experience with a man.

Socialization with Places

Puppies that never left the home during the the first few months of life might be overly cautious or even fearful in new environments. This is especially true if the only outings the puppy had were negative, such as trips to the vet to get vaccinations. Such a puppy might also become afraid of the car, the leash, or anything else associated with the unpleasant events.

To avoid this, take the puppy on some pleasant outings in the car and put a leash on the puppy when you aren’t taking her somewhere scary. You can also take trips to the veterinary office with your puppy when you don’t have an appointment just so she can have a pleasant experience at that location without getting restrained and stuck with needles.

Socialization After the Critical Period

Although the first few months are the most critical, socialization is still important for dogs after that point. Many dogs go through a phase in adolescence during which they are particularly sensitive to developing fear responses. Therefore, it is important to keep socializing the dog as much as possible throughout the first year of life and avoid exposing the dog to any scary experiences. A scary experience during the sensitive adolescent period could translate into a lifelong fear.

Socialization after a year old is still important to keeping a well-socialized dog’s social skills sharp, and there is some remedial socialization that can be done for adult dogs that are under-socialized. Remedial socialization is time consuming, may never be as successful as early socialization would have been, and should only be performed by an experienced dog handler. See Jean Donaldson’s book “Fight!” for more information on remedial socialization.

The Issue of Vaccinations

There is a major obstacle to proper socialization (other than needing to know or find a lot of people with dogs). That is, puppies are not fully vaccinated until around 4 months old. In fact, many veterinarians advise new puppy owners to keep their puppy at home until they are fully vaccinated. Mine did. While this may be the most cautious course of action for the puppy’s physical health, the risks to the puppy’s mental health are very real. “Behavioral issues, not infectious diseases, are the number one cause of death for dogs under three years of age,” ¹. Plus, puppies are provided some protection from diseases by maternal immunity and by their first round of vaccinations ¹.

I wouldn’t advise taking your new puppy to a dog park (although not just because of diseases but also because dog parks may be a bit too overwhelming for a young puppy), but it is important to find safe ways of socializing your puppy during the critical socialization period. Options may include taking your puppy to visit a friend with fully vaccinated dogs, or taking your puppy to an obedience class where all the puppies are required to be up to date on vaccinations. Some pet stores offer free off-leash play sessions for vaccinated puppies under 6 months old.

I recommend puppy owners read this article by the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior to help them think through their decision on socialization:

Socialization Steps

Since the critical socialization period ends between 3 and 4 months of age and puppies are not separated from their litter until 8 or 10 weeks, some of the most important socialization opportunities occur before they come home with you. Therefore, when you buy a puppy it is important to choose a breeder that takes the socialization of his/her puppies very seriously. If you choose to adopt, you may want to find out what you can about the experiences the dog had during the first few months of life so you know what you’re getting yourself into.

Since you will only have the puppy at home for about a month of the critical socialization period, it is important to begin socializing your puppy immediately. Proper puppy socialization is not easy, but it’s fairly simple. The more friendly people, dogs, and places to which the puppy is introduced in a positive way, the more comfortable she will be with these types of things in the future.

It is important to allow the puppy to approach new things on her own, rather than forcing her to get close. Most young puppies have a natural curiosity that, if given enough time and space, overcomes their cautiousness when introduced to new experiences. If your puppy is overly cautious, you may need to introduce him/her to new experiences more slowly.

For example, with a puppy that is cautious around strangers, start by having people throw treats to the puppy without approaching her. That way, the experience isn’t overwhelming and the puppy learns to associate meeting strangers with yummy treats.

For a puppy that shows fear towards other puppies or adult dogs, keep the other dogs from approaching her at first while she gets used to seeing them nearby. Tie the other dogs up or put them behind a see-through barrier like a metal fence. Then give the scared puppy the option to approach if she so chooses.

A mixed breed puppy named Archie came to one of my off-leash puppy play sessions with his tail between his legs, cowering in fear as the other puppies approached. I placed him behind a metal fence so he could watch the other puppies play without being overwhelmed. After just a few minutes he wanted to join in the fun, and soon he was happily wrestling with another puppy his size. Archie’s owners brought him back week after week, and that fearful reaction never recurred.

The best choice of a playmate for a puppy that’s wary of other dogs is a puppy or well-socialized adult dog similar in size, with a non-physical play style. Such a playmate would be less overwhelming to a cautious puppy than a larger puppy or dog that likes to wrestle and jaw spar.

Socializing your young puppy properly isn’t easy, but it’s well worth the effort to do your very best. After all, the rest of the time you spend with your dog will be impacted by what you do in that first month.

Do you have any other ideas or suggestions for socializing puppies? If so, leave a comment below.

Works Cited

AVSAB Position on Puppy Socialization
A Letter on Puppy Socialization from Dr. R.K. Anderson, DVM
Fight! by Jean Donaldson
Successful Dog Adoption by Sue Sternberg