Puppy Socialization Checklist

If you want to have a healthy relationship with your dog, you have to train him at an early stage of life. It is easy to teach the puppies as compared to adult dogs. You can find a lot of checklists online that can help you teach your dog to be ready in all situations.

We have categorized the things into six parts.

Senses

You have to let the puppies understand its senses. One of the first things to experience is bathing. It is better to allow the puppies to accept the bath so he can learn other things as well. Some of them do not like being touched. It is because they have not adequately experienced the sense of touch.

When it comes to teaching your puppies, you can start gradually. The best way is to start massaging at the places where the puppy likes. Gradually, you can increase the exposure by touching the ears, the nose, and the tail. He must become comfortable with you before you can allow others to socialize with him.

People

They can get confused in the presence of new people. Most of them want to protect the owners from any threat. It is the reason they have problems socializing with other people. You can divide the process of socialization with people into four steps.

Introduction

It is the first step. You have to let them understand that the person is not a threat. You can happily meet and greet the person. It is better to keep an eye on the behavior of the dog while you are talking with people you want to introduce. He should become calm before you can start the socializing process.

Let The Puppy Investigate

Every pet has its way to investigate the situation. Some pets will keep looking at the people. Some of them will sniff the person before socializing. You should let them investigate. It may not take more than a minute before he becomes normal.

Let others touch them with you

You can start patting the puppy on the head or the belly. You can ask the other person to do the same. The dog must pass the sensing phase before you start socializing with others. You should keep praising the puppy while you are patting.

Give a Big Treat

If you feel that he has performed well and ready to socialize with other people also, you should give the puppy a big treat. That treat can be a toy that puppy-like or some eatable things.

Places

You can introduce new people to the puppy even when you are at your home. Things can get complicated when different persons start approaching them at a new place. It is important to add a list of places to your puppy socialization checklist.

We should start by selecting calm places. It can include the parks and non-rushy areas. When the puppies have overcome the fear of calm places, you can introduce busy areas like bus stations and busy streets. It is a gradual process. It is not good to hurry in the process.

If the puppies create a fuss in a new place, you need to give him time to adjust to the situation.

Voices and Sounds

You might have seen some puppies that lose control or become afraid when they hear a loud noise. It is fine for them to have a problem with these noises but losing control is unacceptable. You have to familiarise your puppies with different voices and sounds.

They have to understand what a voice or a sound means, to socialize with the surrounding. It is better to let them hear a sound from a far location. The puppies can gradually come near the sound. Some people have a high pitched voice that can agitate them.

Certain places have specific sounds like car horns on a busy road. The dog should adjust according to the situation to stay calm.

Other Animals

When we are going through our puppy socialization checklist, we tend to ignore the animals on the list. If you have not socialized your puppies with the animals like cats, birds, and dogs. It is observed that they remain calm in front of people but they lose control in front of animals.

You should make a list of all the animals in your neighborhood. You have to socialize your dog with all the animals. You have to be careful because dogs can become aggressive and hurt animals. Introducing these experiences slowly is the key to success.

You have to remain in control all the time. You can control the puppy socializing with animals rather than adult dogs. It is better to do it at the initial stage of the puppies life.

When Alone

At the time you are doing all the socializing, you may ignore training your dog to behave well when alone. If you leave your puppy at home alone, he may chew the furniture and damage your house. It is equally important to train your puppy to remain calm when you are not present.

The dog needs to behave in front of other people and animals in your absence. You can ask your friend to help you with this situation. If he learns to behave in front of your friends when you are not present, you can consider it an achievement.

Where to Get the Socializing Checklist

A lot of socializing checklists are available online. You can search on Google and directly go to the Google images to download the checklist.

You will not get a high-resolution image. If you use Google image to download the list, printing the checklist will be difficult.

You can go to the dog training websites and search for the PDF format. Most of the PDF files are printable.

You can keep the printed paper with you all the time when you are training with your dog.

If you get any chance to check a box on the checklist, you should follow the routine of socialization to do it.