..a positive solution for you and your dog.

Socialize Your Puppy

Gone are the days when there was someone home all day with the family dog. When neighborhoods were filled with kids and other dogs playing in the streets all afternoon. Yesteryear's puppies seemed to have opportunities to socialize themselves without much conscious thought from their new owner.

Our lives seem much different today with privacy fences separating our houses and streets too busy to allow our children or pets to play near them.

Our schedules take away from our homes more frequently and our pets are asked to spend longer and longer periods of time alone, which is very unnatural for them.

As caring owners, it is up to us to take a more proactive role in providing an enriching home enviroment for our pups. We need to give them stimulating interactive toys to play with when left alone. They need positive play with other friendly dogs and enough exercise to emotionally and physically wear them out at least once each day.

This means penciling in time in our busy schedule to give our puppy new experiences. The new puppy to visit with strangers, children (even if they have their own), other dogs their own age and well-adjusted adult dogs. Put them on a leash, show them an open umbrella, livestock, wheelchairs, etc. All of this must be done in a caring, positive way so that the puppy will have a good experience while at the same time expanding his or her knowledge of the world around it. We must get them used to being handled, groomed, and gently restrained, if necessary. All of these are things that today's puppy misses by spending hours in unnatural isolation.

Here at Get Real Dog Training we take advantage of a puppy's critical periods of development by providing a safe environment for puppies to positively experience new things. We maximize the amount of stimuli your puppy can safely and productively be exposed to in our 6 week training course. Our instructors show you how to take advantage of your time so that the things you do with your puppy during your daily routine serve to make your puppy a happy, well-rounded member of your family.

While it is not impossible to change the behaviors of an older dog, it is fun and much easier to take advantage of the young puppy's natural inclination to try new things.

Here are some good books for owners of a new dog. Click on the book to go to amazon.com where you can read the reviews and purchase if it is right for you.

For additional resources, please see our Valuable Resources page.