Puppy Socialization
What is Socialization?
For most of the general public, puppy socialization and their coinciding development stages are widely misunderstood. For most people who are diving into puppyhood, it’s believed that just generally getting your puppy out into the world will help them to become a well-balanced dog as they age. This is true to an extent, but there is so much more that goes into it. Any exposure is not the same as positive exposure.
To put it simply, for the first three months of your puppy’s life, they are learning and experiencing everything that will help shape them into the kind of dog they will become. Everything they do and don’t experience - good or bad - is a huge part of their socialization as they learn from their environment and what is deemed as safe or should be avoided.
Let’s dive deeper though, so that you can feel prepared during puppyhood and understand what your puppy is going through and when they’re going through it. There are several different periods of development that you should be aware of and understand, as well as different fear periods that overlap the development stages.
Being your local puppy experts is something we take great pride in, and we provide a Socialization Checklist to all of our puppy parents! This checklist will break things down and help you visualize all the different sights, sounds, materials and beings your puppy will need to experience during their Primary and Secondary Socialization stages, as having the right experiences during these stages will be critical for well-balanced mental growth and development as your puppy ages.
Ready to get started on training your precious puppy? Check out our Dog Training Pricing and Packages page to see which options will be best for you and your pup, then Get in Touch and let us know how we can help! We’ll be there for you every step of the way as you start this exciting journey.
We’ll dive into more about Development Stages and Fear Periods below.
Development Stages:
- Neonatal Stage (0 to 2 weeks) - When a puppy is newly born, they are completely blind and can’t hear very well. They will usually stay close to mom or the other puppies during this time for warmth, but also to make sure to have food nearby.
- Transitional Stage (2 to 3 weeks) - During this period, puppy can now see things from a few inches away and will become more sensitive to sound. Motor skills are starting to develop so they move around a lot more and begin to explore their environment.
- Primary Socialization Stage (3 to 5 weeks) - There are some huge changes during this time as puppy starts to learn their world. They start to play, learn to bark and growl, and even start wagging their tails. Because they are learning their environment, during this time is when they should be exposed to normal household noises like vacuum cleaners, washing machines, or pots and pans clinking together. Being exposed to these in a positive way means they will learn that they’re not scary. During this period, it’s also crucial for them to interact with many different people and be handled extensively in a positive way.
- Secondary Socialization Stage (5 to 12 weeks) - As the name suggests, this secondary socialization period is when puppy will learn their new world through habituation so that’s they understand that different sounds, people, and surfaces are part of everyday life and don’t need to be scary. Their teething period will also start during this time and they begin to learn bite inhibition from their littermates during play if they bite them too hard. At 8 weeks, the puppies are weaned and begin eating only puppy food. This is also when they learn where they should go potty. This can sometimes be taught by mom if there is immediate access to a safe outdoor area, but a proper puppy potty area should be established by their breeder or caretaker. Puppy will also start their first fear period here (further detailed below) and will suddenly seem afraid of things they were previously okay with. It’s important to maintain the balance between positive exposure and not overwhelming them to keep them under their stress threshold.
- Juvenile Stage (12 weeks to 6 months) - Puppies will start fully teething during this period, they will lose their baby teeth and have adult teeth by 5 months of age. Because of this huge change, we highly recommend investing in a good amount of puppy-safe chews and brain games for them to have a blast with, this way their attention (and teeth) will be directed at you less often. They’ll need to be potty trained in their new home during this time and start going outside for age-appropriate walks once fully vaccinated. The technical socialization window is listed as up to 12 weeks but in reality, they continue learning about their immediate environment and surrounding world way throughout their Juvenile Stage. Once fully vaccinated, joining a positive reinforcement puppy class, or positive solo training that can mimic a puppy class, is a good idea for some other-puppy socialization and to start learning the basics.
- Flight Instinct Period (4 to 9 months typically, but can be up to 14 months) - During this period, confidence builds and your pup will be less likely to be glued to your side. In the wild, this would be when your puppy would be ready to leave their den and littermates and venture into the world on their own. This time is when we usually see things like recall have problems as they are less likely to need us or stick by our side. Training recall when they’re younger and before this stage will allow them to have plenty of practice before this stage hits and ease the issues extensively.
- Adolescent Stage (6 to 24 months) - Puppies enter into this stage at around 6 months old and it’s often called the terrible teens - for larger breeds, this period can last up to 2 years. Just like teenage humans, your puppy will experience a wide range of emotions and it will often feel like they are testing boundaries during this challenging time. To continue their previous training success, it’s important to keep training like you have been and offer good rewards in return - remember, they are not fully trained! They still have a lot going on and a lot to learn. Puppy will also become sexually mature during this time and there are usually discussions about when the right time is to spay or neuter with your vet. From a behavior and development standpoint, we like to wait until they are fully mature, but also understand that rescue puppies are typically spayed or neutered when they are younger.
- Adulthood (age varies on breed and size) - This is the time when spaying or neutering are ideally done as they’ve reached full maturity. Also during this final developmental stage, this is when you truly see all of their past experiences come to light as those experiences have helped shape them into the dog they are. It’s important to remember that dogs are always learning and love to do so, so keeping them engaged with training is important. There are many forms of training outside of Basic Obedience that are geared toward continued learning - Advanced Obedience, Agility/Competition Training, Trick Training, Herding, Scentwork, or Behavior Modification just to name a few.
Fear Periods:
A puppy’s behavior during a fear period will vary with each individual, but usually what we see is them not wanting to interact with new things or be skeptical or even scared of things they already know. They can also be seen as “clingy“ during these periods of fear.
Fear periods for puppies should maintain constant positive exposure, not just exposure. It’s important to make sure they’re having a good time and not being rushed or forced into situations they’re uncomfortable with as that potentially negative experience will have a greater impact when they reach full maturity.
These periods of fear can vary a bit depending on the breed of the puppy and size they’ll be when full grown, but the most common ages are listed below.
- Hazard Avoidance/Initial Fear Stage (7 to 11 weeks)
- Adolescent Fear Stage (12 weeks to 6 months)
- Flight Instinct Period (4 to 9 months, can be up to 14 months)
- Adult Fear Period (12 to 18 months)