Facebook Live Blog on Socialization

Following up on my webinar from last night, here are more thoughts on socialization, taken from a facebook live I did about a month or two ago. I hope someone finds it useful! Thanks to all of you who joined me; I had a great time!  

Socialization

I am often asked how we should socialize our dogs so that they will grow up as well adjusted as possible.  I think the answer is both simple and intuitive: The same way you socialize your small children. I know that many of you don’t have children but work with me...

Lyra – 6 months

Lyra is six months old now; a lot has happened in the four months that I’ve had her. I’m delighted to see that she appears to be through her “wierd puppy” stage.  She’s consistently social with people and confident in new situations...

Lyra – 5 months – Schutzhund preparation

Along with Lyra’s adult teeth came a brain.  A very nice combination. Her worries disappeared – almost overnight.  Everywhere I’ve taken her this week she’s been a rock. With people, she’s even more social than she was as a very small...

Lyra 4.75 months

Lyra is the wierdest puppy I’ve ever raised.  Certainly she is helping me understand what is meant by a “fear period,” because her ups and downs are much more pronounced than what I’ve seen in my other dogs. In a two week span, she’s gone...

Lyra – 15.5 weeks – working “out and about”

Lyra has worked away from home about ten times now.  Finding the “toy on a stick” was excellent luck, because she loves that thing. For those who have five minutes to kill and an interest in puppy training, I’ll go through this video with you, step...

Lyra – Environmental Cues (Part 2)

Enough people commented on the first “Environmental Cues” blog post that I’d like to revisit it with a few thoughts. Each of us is an individual with specific goals for our dogs.  Our dogs, in turn, have different innate tendencies to consider when...

Lyra’s socialization – the role of Environmental Cues

Someone recently asked me if I allow Lyra to socialize with other dogs.  The answer is, “it depends”.  With my own dogs, she has full access.  Since my dogs do not play with her, there is no reason to restrict her access to them.  Juno does play with her on occasion,...

Lyra – Week 2, day 5

Today’s post was supposed to include a video of my brilliant puppy.  It didn’t turn out quite as planned. For starters, I forgot to do something with the kids.  So, predictably, they showed up within a few minutes.  Since this is not unusual and I usually...

Lyra Week 2 day 2

Either Lyra’s food drive just kicked in, or I’ll be purchasing Freeze Dried Turkey Hearts in bulk.  My friend gave me a few, and wow…..got some serious work out of her.  Check out her heeling with something delicious.  At the end I spent a bit of...

Lrya – Week 2 Day 1

Today I took Lyra for a training session away from home.  Surprisingly, she was a bit spooked by the environment, so we ended up spending about ten minutes just walking around and adapting to the soccer field.  I had an overwhelming desire to try feeding her; I had to...

Lyra – Week 1, Day 5

If you take a conservative approach to raising puppies, you may not wish to read this post.  You have been warned. Today Lyra was introduced to the top step of the swimming pool.  I placed her on the step and helped her out.  She can’t quite climb out on her own...

Lyra – Week 1 Day 2

Sleep deprivation is a terrible thing. It can make a hardened trainer do things they will later regret, like placing a puppy in their bed at 1am in the morning.  Then again, with the three blissful hours of sleep that followed, maybe it was a good idea after all. She...