Socialization is vitally important for any dog, but it's especially important when you're raising a dog that's going to be as large or larger than you are. Bernese Mountain Dogs--and other dogs as well--can quickly become either shy or aggressive if they're not socialized properly as puppies and young adults. And an overly shy or aggressive dog can quickly become dangerous.
(1)--Wait until the pup is about four months old and has all his shots before taking him into public.
(2)--Expose the puppy to appropriate (not too scary) things from the time you bring her home, but try to keep her from high-dog areas so she won't pick up diseases from other dogs.
With our CCI puppies, we followed school #1. With Obie, we've been very much on the #2 side. They both have their pros and cons, and perhaps it depends also on how many unvaccinated dogs you have running around your area.
One important thing in socialization, especially when the pup is young, is to be careful not to overwhelm him with loud, smelly, very active, or otherwise potentially frightening experiences. You're the best one to determine what constitutes "potentially frightening" for your own dog. Some puppies are frightened by almost nothing; others are frightened by almost everything. The only thing Penelope ran from was draft horses thundering her way (literally); Brianna couldn't walk across wet grass without having a nervous breakdown. Obie is somewhere in the middle--he will be nervous of something the first time, but the second time he is better and by the third time he meets it, he usually ignores it.
Next week we'll list some of our favorite places to go with our puppies. Where do you like to take your pups for socialization?
1 comments:
I lean towards #2 with my personal and service dog puppies, as I have a product of a dog who waited until four months until socializing started and we're regretting it greatly.
But when they are little we take lots of car rides, friends houses, meeting as many people as possible :)
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