In this blog article we discuss the topic of dog and puppy socialisation and how we managed the issue of socialisation in a puppy that showed very early dog to dog aggression. We also outline why quality goes over quantity and a "more is better" approach can cause more harm than good.
This video shows our foster puppy Wattle on 3 occasions interacting with strange dogs, with dogs she never met before.
These are 3 dogs over the last 10 days, and this probably are around 20% of strange dogs she met in those 10 days. Calculating that all up, she may have met around 15 unknown dogs in the last 10 days.
These are 3 dogs over the last 10 days, and this probably are around 20% of strange dogs she met in those 10 days. Calculating that all up, she may have met around 15 unknown dogs in the last 10 days.
Now imagine, your dog goes to a dog park. He probably meets 5-10 new dogs every day. That’s a lot and not many dogs do well with it. Imagine your kids meeting 5-10 new kids every day. Socially I would say that is challenging. But somehow with dogs many puppy raisers have the idea of the more the better. I am not saying there shouldn’t be a reasonable amount and diversity of dogs, but we should certainly be selective and careful on who we let our puppy teach social manner, etiquette and skills.
Socialisation for us is quality over quantity.
I learned today that apparently Wattle had the worst dog aggression her rescuer from Fetching Dogs had ever seen in a puppy (and she has seen many puppies). She would just look at another dog and explode. That was at the age of around 12-16 weeks, maybe even earlier. We don’t know, she is a bush baby.
She came in our care at around 14-16 weeks and knowing her background, we implemented a social “quality over quantity” strategy. That said, we never saw her react aggressive in any way, other than a growl towards our dog on the first night. wattle is now close to 6.5 or 7 months of age.
Here is what we did:
🐾 We helped her DECOMPRESS. She spend 3 weeks in a pound and before that fingering for survival in the bush. That is stressful, and the effect of stress on animals can be tremendous. The first 3 days at our place we didn’t even go out for a walk. It was the house and our backyard. Her bubble.
🐾 We LET PUPPIES BE PUPPIES, like kids should be kids and do kids things. And dogs should be dogs. Our world is complicated enough for us, how do you think it is for an animal? We raise puppies to be happy, confident, curious, outgoing, a little naughty maybe but full of zest for life. So if things come their way that might be a little more challenging, they cope with it and recover easily.
🐾 We build a lot of VALUE FOR US, her humans. We are the best option, always.
🐾 We build TRUST. We would MANAGE SOCIAL INTERACTIONS very closely, step in when needed, provide time outs and space. When Wattle was too much, we stepped in. When the other animal was too much, we stepped in. She learned to trust our judgement. We are fair and clear.
🐾 We used gentle PARENTAL GUIDANCE to educate her on many skills in life. Wattle thinks she is tough, but she isn’t really. Too much pressure would break her or cause even more aggression.
🐾 Wattle was very unsure about other dogs. Her tail would completely tuck in when she would smell corners spots where other dogs had peed. Would be overwhelmed easily by other dogs. From the first dog she met in our care we taught her that there are BETTER WAYS to handle dog to dog interactions. We taught her to disengage and engage with us. Leave it, Wattle.
🐾 We also taught her to IGNORE OTHER DOGS. (Well that’s a bit going out of the window at the moment with all the play … need to work on that)
🐾 We BUILD CONFIDENCE. We brought her only to dog to dog interactions, that were safe and friendly. We kept her away from places were we could not guarantee that, i.e. the vast majority of dog parks were and are still a no go.
🐾 We also fostered play with other dogs, NICE PLAY. Equal play. Play where it’s on par.
🐾 We also gave her THINGS TO DO and entertainment. We also assume that apart from being stressful, pound environments lack mental stimulation and entertainment, and I wouldn’t absolutely exclude the possibility that her aggressive behaviour held some entertainment value for her. She is a busy girl in the end.
The other day we went to a local dog park. Wattle was on leash, and a black staffy (his name was Bruce) came rushing up to her - like the out of nowhere type of situation. I dropped the leash to allow her to freely move, a short moment of freezing from Wattle. Unsure. Next thing is she does a playbow, I could have cried because I was so happy. What a great way to diffuse the situation. Bruce and Wattle played a bit, staffy started to pin her down and bite her throat. I grabbed him by the collar immediately and moved him off. Sorry this type of play doesn’t happen with Wattle and a stranger dog under my watch. Wattle reengages play with Bruce, only for very briefly and Bruce started to pin her again and do the throat grab. I grab Bruce, and pull him off.
At our night walk the other day, we came past a dog that when Wattle had a sniff snarled and lunged at him. Nothing huge but enough to probably trigger an aggressive reaction previously. Wattle just jumped back, that’s not what she expected. I told her to leave it which means to take attention away from one thing and pay attention to me. She did. Eventually she wanted to check out that dog again but we wouldn’t let her of course.
If we wouldn’t have provided the strict guidance to Wattle and let things just go its way, I’d say she would probably be a hell of a reactive puppy at 7 months of age. We can not guarantee that these aggression issues never come back, they could return when she hits adulthood. But maybe they won’t. Hopefully they won’t. We are quite confident that with the right guidance and support of her adopter, she will remain as happy go lucky about other dogs as she is.
Socialisation for us is quality over quantity.
I learned today that apparently Wattle had the worst dog aggression her rescuer from Fetching Dogs had ever seen in a puppy (and she has seen many puppies). She would just look at another dog and explode. That was at the age of around 12-16 weeks, maybe even earlier. We don’t know, she is a bush baby.
She came in our care at around 14-16 weeks and knowing her background, we implemented a social “quality over quantity” strategy. That said, we never saw her react aggressive in any way, other than a growl towards our dog on the first night. wattle is now close to 6.5 or 7 months of age.
Here is what we did:
🐾 We helped her DECOMPRESS. She spend 3 weeks in a pound and before that fingering for survival in the bush. That is stressful, and the effect of stress on animals can be tremendous. The first 3 days at our place we didn’t even go out for a walk. It was the house and our backyard. Her bubble.
🐾 We LET PUPPIES BE PUPPIES, like kids should be kids and do kids things. And dogs should be dogs. Our world is complicated enough for us, how do you think it is for an animal? We raise puppies to be happy, confident, curious, outgoing, a little naughty maybe but full of zest for life. So if things come their way that might be a little more challenging, they cope with it and recover easily.
🐾 We build a lot of VALUE FOR US, her humans. We are the best option, always.
🐾 We build TRUST. We would MANAGE SOCIAL INTERACTIONS very closely, step in when needed, provide time outs and space. When Wattle was too much, we stepped in. When the other animal was too much, we stepped in. She learned to trust our judgement. We are fair and clear.
🐾 We used gentle PARENTAL GUIDANCE to educate her on many skills in life. Wattle thinks she is tough, but she isn’t really. Too much pressure would break her or cause even more aggression.
🐾 Wattle was very unsure about other dogs. Her tail would completely tuck in when she would smell corners spots where other dogs had peed. Would be overwhelmed easily by other dogs. From the first dog she met in our care we taught her that there are BETTER WAYS to handle dog to dog interactions. We taught her to disengage and engage with us. Leave it, Wattle.
🐾 We also taught her to IGNORE OTHER DOGS. (Well that’s a bit going out of the window at the moment with all the play … need to work on that)
🐾 We BUILD CONFIDENCE. We brought her only to dog to dog interactions, that were safe and friendly. We kept her away from places were we could not guarantee that, i.e. the vast majority of dog parks were and are still a no go.
🐾 We also fostered play with other dogs, NICE PLAY. Equal play. Play where it’s on par.
🐾 We also gave her THINGS TO DO and entertainment. We also assume that apart from being stressful, pound environments lack mental stimulation and entertainment, and I wouldn’t absolutely exclude the possibility that her aggressive behaviour held some entertainment value for her. She is a busy girl in the end.
The other day we went to a local dog park. Wattle was on leash, and a black staffy (his name was Bruce) came rushing up to her - like the out of nowhere type of situation. I dropped the leash to allow her to freely move, a short moment of freezing from Wattle. Unsure. Next thing is she does a playbow, I could have cried because I was so happy. What a great way to diffuse the situation. Bruce and Wattle played a bit, staffy started to pin her down and bite her throat. I grabbed him by the collar immediately and moved him off. Sorry this type of play doesn’t happen with Wattle and a stranger dog under my watch. Wattle reengages play with Bruce, only for very briefly and Bruce started to pin her again and do the throat grab. I grab Bruce, and pull him off.
At our night walk the other day, we came past a dog that when Wattle had a sniff snarled and lunged at him. Nothing huge but enough to probably trigger an aggressive reaction previously. Wattle just jumped back, that’s not what she expected. I told her to leave it which means to take attention away from one thing and pay attention to me. She did. Eventually she wanted to check out that dog again but we wouldn’t let her of course.
If we wouldn’t have provided the strict guidance to Wattle and let things just go its way, I’d say she would probably be a hell of a reactive puppy at 7 months of age. We can not guarantee that these aggression issues never come back, they could return when she hits adulthood. But maybe they won’t. Hopefully they won’t. We are quite confident that with the right guidance and support of her adopter, she will remain as happy go lucky about other dogs as she is.