Puppy Socialization And Building Puppy Confidence

Every day, puppies are introduced to new (and sometimes scary!) sights, sounds, and people. With guidance from expert Mike Stewart, learn how you can successfully socialize your puppy so they can confidently face life’s challenges head-on.

Building Puppy Confidence The Wildrose Way : Video Transcript

Mike Stewart: I cannot stress enough, the importance of well socializing your puppy at a young age. Socialization's about people, places and things but, moreover, as a sub category is building the awareness and the confidence of the dog that they can master any challenge that they see in the community and around your home. Whether it's a vacuum cleaner, whether it's the dishwasher, or merely going through a door or going up and down steps.

One of the things to be very careful about when you're challenging your pup in these types of opportunities is high impact activity, jumping out of a high vehicle, mountain biking with the pup, jumping off an ATV can be very damaging. The first 16 weeks of your dog's life is so, so important to get it right for its mental development. Let's see some of the things that we could do to better socialize a pup in our community.

For instance, negotiating a stairway, descending a stairway, elevated platforms, negotiating obstacles such as lamps and tunnels, or perhaps introducing your pup to water for the first time. Parks and recreational areas offer excellent places to discover challenges in the urban landscape, such as crossing logs, walking walls, or negotiating seesaws. Opportunities are everywhere to challenge your pup mentally and physically.