I'm a (puppy) party pooper

In theory, the idea of a puppy party must sound appealing to the family with their new little bundle of fur that's joined the family, and dog people are always banging on about how important socialisation is, so surely getting a whole bunch of puppies together like that can only be a good thing, right? All puppies love to play with other puppies, children etc, right?

Cute puppies may be (and he was SO cute!) but easy they most definitely are not!

A few days ago, I came across a post on Facebook on the subject of puppy parties and it's a really good take on the issues with the concept. Have a read - I've included it here with the kind permission of the author.

Yes, socialisation is incredibly important. In the first few weeks and months of your life with a new puppy, you are setting the scene for the rest of that puppy's life. If that sounds scary I am sorry, but the reality is that this stage needs careful attention, particularly for the novice dog owner who might not have a full grasp of how their puppy’s mind will develop and grow.

I fully believe that the people taking their puppies to the kind of badly organised mess described in Nosey Barker’s post think that they are doing the right thing for their puppy. Unfortunately, often the people that run these things don’t know much more than the owners do, or they are cynically taking people’s money and not caring what the result of their money making exercise is. I have to say that I hope it is the former – ignorance is not ideal, but there are always opportunities for these people to learn and become better trainers. The cynical money grabbers not so much, as their attitude is much akin to the puppy farm breeder that simply counts the profit.

Whether uneducated or simply uncaring, the results for the puppies thrown into these situations is likely to be the same. A puppy that has learned he interacts with others by throwing himself at them or one with a hugely increased risk of fear of other dogs, strange people, and realising that their subtle signals and requests for help from their humans have not worked, so they need to escalate, make their statements bigger and more obvious. This is when the results of poorly organised puppy parties become evident, and two particular kinds of issues come to light, one of which can hugely affect the other as these dogs grow up. Some dogs can muddle through and become easy-going tolerant citizens despite this kind of start, although I really would not recommend trying it to see. What can often happen though is that we see dogs tending towards one of two different types.

‘He’s friendly!’

It is something I have covered on this blog on a number of occasions. The dreaded ‘My dog is friendly’ call. Usually shouted from miles away from the dog in question, who is showing all the signs of not actually being friendly at all, but having more of an intention to bully other dogs, leap all over them and push them around because that’s how they ‘play’ and it is so wonderful to see them rolling around with other dogs, having such fun! The problem is, when you look at the fun with an educated eye, it is not necessarily fun at all. The bouncy, friendly dog is socially incompetent and jumps all over the other dogs, who are frequently giving off every signal that they can manage that they’d rather be left alone, thanks very much. Dogs that have not learned the canine social niceties and how to communicate properly will not understand these signals and so will not heed them. That leaves our dog that does not want to interact with a problem. How do they let this other dog know that they really want to be left alone, right now, thank you very much?

‘Your dog shouldn’t be out in public! It’s aggressive!’

Oh, the times I have heard that one, as an out of control thug with no recall tries to trampoline on another dog’s head. Yes, my dog – on a lead and quiet until being treated like a particularly choice rough and tumble toy – is really the problem. This does not happen with my current dog any more (we walk at uncivilized times as he displays reactive behaviours) so it is now something I hear has happened to others, but it did happen more than once to my wonderfully tolerant and patient old boy (the trampolining, not the yelling. That was reserved to be used by the woman that told me my on lead but uncastrated dog was the reason there were so many dogs in shelters, as her off lead, ignoring recall, rampantly in season Labrador bitch was trying to reverse up his muzzle), but it has happened with Finn before we made that timing switch. Trying to explain the fear in ‘fear aggression’ does not seem to get through, however. The fact is that these aggressive displays come about because the more subtle signs asking for space are ignored or missed entirely. Dogs do what works – if asking nicely does not work, a dog will move up through the levels until they find something that does. The stereotypical reactive behaviours of barking and lunging work pretty much every time, so as far as the dog is concerned they are effective and what he needs to do to get out of a situation he regards as dangerous safely. (I have made my thoughts on out of control off lead dogs before HERE)

These may be two extreme examples of dog behaviour – the thuggish bully and the fear aggressive ‘hellhound’ look – but these are examples of what can happens when socialisation is not carried out in a careful, thoughtful and, above all, empathetic fashion. Our period for socialising young dogs is short, and there can be a huge temptation to push through as many encounters with new stimuli as possible. This is where things can backfire badly, as we need to ensure these encounters are positive.

Simply speaking, encounters with new things are likely to end up with one of two results – habituation or sensitisation. One we want, the other we do not.

Habituation is the puppy learning to accept the new thing as harmless and a normal part of their world. Ideally, when a puppy meets something new, we’d like them to be interested in it, investigate it a bit but then realise it’s not really worth being bothered by. We don’t want them all fired up and keen so they’ll go charging up the next time they see this particular thing, we want them to accept it and happily be around it or go off to look at something else. The next time they encounter this thing, it will be a bit less interesting, until it is just a part of the environment and not something the puppy wastes much time pondering. This is what we are aiming for most of the time.

Sensitisation is the opposite. Becoming sensitised means that the puppy learns this is something to be worried about or scared of, and that can get worse every time they meet this particular stimulus. If bad enough, the first time they encounter something and are scared by it can result in what is known as ‘single event learning’ and the puppy could be scared of that thing for the rest of their lives.

So how do we socialise puppies without traumatising them?

Little steps, and always keeping an eye on the puppy’s body language for any signs of fear or wanting to escape. Remember that you do not have to march the puppy up to everything and have them ‘meet’ it – sometimes watching is fine so long as the puppy is happy and showing no signs of fear towards the new thing, you can then try to go closer, as long as pup seems happy about it. Educate yourself on canine body language so you can see if your puppy is asking for help, or for you to remove them from a situation as fast as possible. If in doubt, find a professional trainer. Not someone that runs one of these poorly organised puppy parties, but someone that comes with recommendations. Someone that will help you to teach your puppy about the world using positive methods, so that they can grow up and see the world as a positive place. Someone that will let puppies have some playtime together but manage the situation properly so that none of the puppies gets too excited or too scared of what is going on, and can make sure that puppy body language is correctly interpreted and heeded.

Ask questions of these trainers before they get anywhere near your puppy – one of the most telling for them to answer is the question ‘What will happen to my puppy if they get it wrong?’ If the answer does not involve changing the question so that the puppy is set up to succeed, walk away and try another trainer. A good, positive force and fear free trainer will be happy to answer your questions before getting to work. If they will not answer, there is a reason why. Look for another trainer.

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News in the Blue Merle Minion world – the minion now has a website dedicated to writing, including offering freelance writing services, found at JayGurden.com. You can sign up to a news list there, and receive emails when there's a new blog or anything of interest occurring with books etc.

There are a couple of new completed courses on the ‘CP courses’ page, the Canine Anxiety and Fear certificates. I have now completed all three of the Canine Principles courses that centre particularly on fear, anxiety, and reactive behaviours and very much recommend completing all three if this is an area of interest for you. There is some crossover on how the brain processes fear and stress, and the neurobiology of the stress response, but the three courses together mesh to make a wonderful resource on understanding and working with these dogs that need our support and understanding.

‘Fight or Fright?’ is now out in audiobook form, available on Amazon and Audible (both UK links - if overseas, search your local store for it). I am told it is available on iTunes as well but as a non-Apple bod, I am not sure where to find it on there!