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| Mr. President and Cesar socializing with the staff of Highland Park Animal Hospital |
Just the other day, I popped into a small pet store to pick up some bully sticks for the puppies, when I ran smack into what was billed as a “puppy class,” intended for the purpose of socializing young dogs. There were eight or ten people there, and each of them had a puppy. There were a Siberian husky, a Chihuahua, a Lhasa apso, a golden retriever, a Jack Russell, and a few other puppies of breeds that I don’t recall. The owners were gathered around in a circle, and the puppies were just going wild in the middle. There was no guidance whatsoever. The puppies were all different ages, different levels of energy, and all over the map in terms of social skills. To put it simply, it was chaos. I watched the Chihuahua—isn’t it always the Chihuahua?—taking over the class, dominating and then attacking the Siberian husky puppy. It wasn’t play anymore, it was escalating into an actual fight. The teacher cried out in a teasing, high-pitched voice, “No, no no! We don’t do that in class!” Then, after the owner of the Chihuahua had pulled her puppy away, the teacher said, “Now let’s all give our dogs a cookie.” I wanted to cry out, “What for? What are you rewarding them for?”
Fortunately, I reminded myself that I was at the store as a customer, not as the Dog Whisperer. I bit my tongue, paid for my bully sticks, and retreated back to the safety of my car, where I took a deep breath and thought long and hard about the meaning of the term puppy class. To me, a puppy class should be about reinforcing manners, fostering calm-submissive energy, and teaching proper social behavior. My dream puppy class would mirror the kind of education a puppy would get in a natural pack, where there’d be a wise old senior dog like Daddy, an adult dog—maybe a mother dog with great caretaking skills—and a higher-energy, adolescent dog like Junior. The adult dogs would all be balanced and experienced, show the puppies limits, and offer them good role models to emulate. There would be a few puppies, of course, and at least one experienced human to supervise. That’s the kind of puppy class I would like to offer at the new Dog Psychology Center, a class in which puppies can practice social behavior with their peers but be overseen by older, wiser dogs—as well as responsible human pack leaders.
Dogs are among the most social of all animals. That’s one of the things they have most in common with humans, and it’s one of the reasons our two species have become so bonded over the past tens of thousands of years. You may have trained your puppy to sit, stay, come, heel, get the paper, carry your slippers, or turn out the light before barking “Good night,” but if he doesn’t get along well socially with humans or other dogs, you haven’t got a balanced puppy. And if your puppy isn’t balanced, he won’t grow up to be a dog that gets to experience all the joys and adventures of life.
INTRODUCING PUPPIES TO PEOPLE
Socializing your puppy to people should begin from the first moment you arrive at your home. All the members of your family, including all children, need to understand how to greet the puppy, and how to share calm-assertive energy. You need to explain to even your smallest children that your new puppy is not a toy but a living being, and that in order to acclimate him to his new home, they will need to refrain from showering him with all the affection and excitement they surely must be feeling, at least at the very beginning. Everyone in your home, from the youngest child to the oldest grandparent, needs to be educated in and committed to the rule of no touch, no talk, no eye contact. When the puppy arrives, children should not be crowding around it to pet and play with it. Instead, they should quietly allow the puppy to smell them, then let the primary caretaker put the puppy in its safe place or crate.
“The new pup needs to associate entering your home with calmness, not excitement. He may be stressed and not feeling well due to the change in environment and from the car ride,” advises Diana Foster. “He doesn’t need to be petted at this point. He needs to be left alone to adjust at his own pace. You will have this dog for many years, and there will be plenty of time to pet him and be with him once he has adjusted to his environment, has bonded to you, and respects you as leader. All these things take time and there is no need to rush it.” But even after thirty years of success in training and breeding prize German shepherds with calm, even temperaments, Diana still finds that new puppy owners take offense at this counsel.
I have kids crying when I’m saying this. “Oh, she’s so mean. We can’t play with the puppy.” One guy was in my face, saying, “You guys are out of your minds! If you think that I’m going to tell a nine-year-old girl not to touch this dog, you guys are nuts! I thought I was getting a well-bred dog. I didn’t think I had to do all this work.” People don’t think about what is the best thing for the dog. That’s why the shelters are packed. People create a dog that’s out of control, then they don’t want it anymore.
It’s not easy for a child to hold back from playing with a new puppy, which is why parents need to be educated in order to supervise. Puppies coming into a new home are often in their reticent stage, as well as naturally unsure about the new situation. Children coming on too strong to a timid or insecure puppy can intimidate him, and such affronts, if repeated, can create a dog that is either too shy or fearful or, worse, fearfully aggressive. This can lead to a bite, and the tendency is to blame the puppy for being aggressive. On the other hand, an outgoing, active puppy may tempt children to play too vigorously, raising the puppy’s level of excitement to an intensity that may be hard to temper as he grows bigger and bigger. “The biggest problem we have is kids on the floor, with roughnecking, tug-of-war, play-biting, and scratching, and the dog gets too rough,” says Diana. “It’s all about prevention. And the kids, it’s so hard nowadays because parents tend to spoil these kids. They let them do whatever they want. Then the dog gets big and out of control and starts hurting the kids. Now the family doesn’t want him anymore, because he’s not cute and fun; he’s doing damage.”
TIPS FOR CHILDREN AND PUPPIES
• Don’t introduce an excited child to a puppy. Teach your kids early about the concept of calm-assertive energy.
• Teach children how to greet a dog properly, by using the no touch, no talk, no eye contact rule until the dog signals that it wants to have more interaction.
• When the puppy first arrives, make sure the children limit their engagement with it for the first few days, and that they always interact in a calm, quiet manner.
• Educate your kids about leadership, and show them how to block a puppy’s excitement if he begins to play too rough. It may seem cute in a tiny puppy, but it could become dangerous as the dog grows up.
• Don’t ever let a child tease a puppy.
• Discourage rough games such as wrestling, tug-of-war, keep-away, and play biting, and encourage your children to master the walk and to engage in challenging activities such as fetch, swimming, and agility games.
• Teach children that all games with a puppy need to have a beginning and an end.
INTRODUCING A PUPPY TO A BABY
The best strategy for preparing a puppy to meet a baby is by getting the puppy used to the baby’s scent, using a towel or T-shirt. Then take the puppy for a walk beside or behind you while you push the baby’s stroller up front. As always, the walk is the best way to create any kind of bond with a dog. But often, circumstances bring puppies and babies together face-to-face. Learning how to introduce your puppy to a baby is an important step toward socializing him to be polite and respectful of all children.
To demonstrate how to introduce a puppy to an infant or very young child, I asked Dog Whisperer field producer Todd Henderson to lend me his wife, Lindsey, a vet tech and experienced dog owner, and their new son, Hunter, just three months old. The wonderful thing about both a puppy and a baby is that each starts with the advantage of not having any issues. Our job is to help them to grow together with that same mentality.
To begin the exercise, Lindsey sat on the floor of my family room with Hunter in her lap. The baby had just eaten and was in a beautifully calm-submissive state. To this peaceful tableau I added five-month-old Mr. President, who came in with a totally different energy—a classic, pushy, bulldog way of being. At first, Mr. President got excited by the baby and ran right up to him, putting his feet on Lindsey’s leg and starting to lick Hunter’s face. Some parents might think, “Oh how cute,” but Lindsey knew better—that kind of approach is too much, for both puppy and baby. With a firm touch, Lindsey made Mr. President step back, creating an invisible boundary around Hunter’s space. Once he stepped back, however, Mr. President became very uncertain about Hunter. He growled, then started to bark excitedly. In translation, Mr. President was expressing his uncertainty, fear, or mistrust of the baby—the baby was a new scent for him, something he didn’t understand. His bark was also an expression of alert—since we don’t have babies in my house on a regular basis, Mr. President was alerting his pack that “something new is in the house!” We needed to help Mr. President lose that uncertainty, because that could become aggression toward this baby or toward babies and children in general.
I often get letters and e-mails describing real-life situations similar to our little experiment with Lindsey and Hunter. People write, “My puppy started growling at my baby; what do I do?” Often when this happens, people become afraid and react very emotionally. They start having negative feelings about the dog and creating bad energy. At this point, owners need to stay absolutely neutral and try to understand where the dog is coming from.
What I did in our exercise was to address the barking and growling immediately, with the calm-assertive sound “Tssst,” which tells Mr. President that I don’t agree with his state of mind. He turned away from Hunter, but he relaxed. This was progress, from fight (aggressively confronting the baby and growling), to flight (running away from the baby), to avoidance (being near the baby but ignoring him). Finally, I got the reaction I was seeking—submission—when Mr. President plopped down and stretched out right in front of the baby. Still, I maintained an invisible boundary between him and Hunter. This is so important to teach puppies. All dogs must understand the “bubble of respect” that surrounds all human babies.
Next I gave Lindsey some chicken to hold in her hand. Mr. President never met a piece of chicken he didn’t like. Eating the chicken just outside the baby’s “bubble” but next to him created a different state of mind in Mr. President, as well as a pleasant association with the baby.
But Mr. President’s state of mind isn’t the only thing we need to pay attention to here. Hunter had maintained a mellow, laid-back energy since the beginning of the exercise. He lives among three dogs, so this wasn’t a completely new experience for him. And Lindsey, whose energy Hunter is going to mimic, remained totally calm and relaxed. As long as we don’t change the baby’s state of mind, we can always influence the puppy. If we panic or become anxious, then the baby will pick up on our energy and get scared, too. Never introduce any dog to a baby who is upset or to a mother who is nervous or worried. Always bring the dog to the child only when the dog is calm and submissive, not tired, cranky, or overexcited. Dogs are easier to influence than humans, and once again, remember that a four-month-old puppy is maturing much, much faster than a three-month-old baby.
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| Angel respectfully sniffs Baby Hunter |
As a final addition to the exercise, I took out Mr. President and brought in Angel, who was the same age as his bulldog “brother” and had the same lack of experience around babies. Angel’s reaction was ideal. When confronted with the novelty of Hunter, Angel first looked to me, to get his bearings. Then he became curious about the baby and leaned forward toward Lindsey and Hunter to smell them. When he got a little too close, Lindsey gently blocked him, and Angel got the message immediately, opening up more distance with his body, just stretching his neck out a little more. His sniffing was delicate, respectful, polite. After getting his fill of the new scent, Angel stepped back and gave mother and baby their space. I rewarded his alert but relaxed state with copious petting and affection. He picked up right away on Hunter’s gentle energy and mirrored it back, in a very nurturing, respectful way.
MEETING NEW PEOPLE
From the time he was three months of age, I was taking Junior out with me, Daddy, and the crew on Dog Whisperer cases. Since I wanted Junior to follow in Daddy’s footsteps, it was important to me that he become comfortable with as many new types of dogs—as well as people—as possible. During his most formative months, Junior met various dogs with aggressive, fearful, obsessive, and overexcited energies, and learned to stay calm in spite of them. He also met a few people whose issues were as challenging as those of their dogs. But he always had me to supervise both his behavior and the reactions of the various humans that wandered in and out of his life.
If a human got too excited over Junior’s cuteness and started invading his space, I’d remind them of the no touch, no talk, no eye contact rule I enforce whenever one of my dogs meets a new person. If the new person had an all too common “Oh my God, is that a pit bull?” reaction, I’d counsel them on how to relax and share a better energy. Then I’d let Junior do the sniffing himself, and signal to me that he was comfortable with the person, before I’d allow their relationship to progress. Our puppies are counting on us to keep them safe and to listen to them when they tell us that they need a new human to back off a little during a first encounter. Of course, Junior always had Daddy’s behavior to emulate. And Daddy is so confident, he’s comfortable with just about anyone.
DANGEROUSLY ADORABLE
“One thing about Angel—his cuteness is definitely a liability,” Melissa Peltier said to me, reporting back from her overnight visit with my blue-blooded miniature schnauzer. She and her husband, John Gray, had taken Angel with them to dinner at a busy outdoor café—his first extended experience in such a hectic public setting. The little guy did fantastically, drinking water from a dish under the table and sitting back—alert but still relaxed—to watch all the interesting goings-on around him. The problem was, Angel is such a good-looking dog, every other passerby seemed insistent upon petting him. Melissa explained,
We couldn’t eat our dinner in peace, because people were just going gaga over him. “Oh my God, that is the cutest puppy!” “Can I pet him?” With the adults, they would talk to me first. And he would get a chance to observe them and their energy and smell them while we were conversing. If I said it was okay to approach him, if they did it gently, he was fine, and even a little curious about them. But one guy came by with two kids, about eight and ten years old, and while the dad was talking to me, the kids just charged in and reached toward Angel to pet him. And I could see him getting overwhelmed. There was a complete change in his whole body language—he tensed up and started to shrink into himself. So I said, “He’s still a little shy; he’s just a puppy. I think that’s enough for him.” I was beating myself up afterward because I thought I should’ve known that ahead of time and warned the kids not to approach him like that. Because they invaded his space. And I could just see how, if an owner let that happen to a sensitive puppy like Angel too many times and didn’t pay attention to his communication, that dog might grow up to become fearful or even a fear biter. That is definitely a danger when a puppy is as cute as Angel.
READ YOUR PUPPY’S ENERGY
Melissa and her husband learned firsthand another lesson about how adults as well as children need to learn to read a puppy’s energy and body language before they attempt a more personal relationship with him. Melissa’s husband, John, is a kind, gentle man, but he’s also a fairly well-built guy who exudes the natural leadership energy that comes from being a successful writer-director of movies and television. Angel seemed comfortable with John right away; in fact, he responded to John as a calm-assertive leader much more quickly than he did to Melissa. But once they got back to their apartment for the evening, John wanted to roughhouse with Angel the way he had played with his late, much-beloved terrier mix, Bob. John got down on the floor in the canine play-bow posture, inviting Angel to mix it up with him. Angel stiffened and backed away a little. While John’s body language was playful, Angel was reading his very dominant, male energy and didn’t know whether or not to interpret the invitation as purely recreational or as a challenge.
I explained to Melissa that John’s behavior, though good-natured, made him claim a lot of space. His invitation became like a tsunami instead of just a little wave. Angel has been taught by the adult dogs around him—especially his adolescent “big brother,” Junior—that he is always to be respectful of his superiors. He is to keep his head low and go under, not over, until he knows he has been accepted. Not being familiar with John, Angel’s first response was the correct one based on what he had learned in his pack—to be polite and respectful with older, more dominant dogs. John seemed a little let down that Angel didn’t take him up on his offer right away, and Angel picked up on that disappointment, becoming even more tentative because of it—remember, puppies only want to please pack leaders! Melissa instructed her husband to lie on his back and let Angel come to him. John complied, but when Angel got closer and started to relax, John reached over and grabbed him, eager to begin the game. Once again, Angel backed away.
“John was trying to do too much too soon with Angel,” I explained to Melissa, after she related her tale of the visit. “He should have waited and let Angel come and gently lie on top of him and become familiar with him in that way. If John had waited in that position, instead of going into the playful position—which is almost like pouncing—he would have allowed Angel to explore him, head to foot.” What Angel was trying to say to John was, “I mean you no harm,” “I respect your space.” If Angel had sensed that John got his message and was also respecting Angel’s space back, he would have felt free to engage in play with him.
The irony, of course, was that Angel was all too eager to play with Melissa, jumping on her leg and trying to “play-dominate” her; so much so that she had to keep turning around and disagreeing with him by asking him to sit back and relax. I see this dynamic all the time in families where the male is very male and the female is very female. The puppy just gravitates to the female, which the female may interpret as “he likes me more” when, really, he is seeing her more as a peer than a pack leader. Then the puppy grows up to push the limits around the female but always behaves obediently around the male. This occurs with kids, too. In families like the Barneses, the genders are reversed. Blizzard takes advantage of eleven-year-old Christian’s softer energy, while he gives space and respect to fourteen-year-old Sabrina’s more assertive demeanor. If Melissa and John were to spend more time with Angel, the solution would be for the two of them to try to meet in the middle. John would hold back a little, and Melissa would be a little more assertive. That way, Angel would see them both as pack leaders; he would be a little less threatened by John’s unintentionally dominating presence and wouldn’t feel he could take advantage of Melissa.
“Angel doesn’t care how many books about dogs you’ve helped me write,” I reminded Melissa. “He only cares about the energy you share with him in that very moment.”
SOCIALIZING WITH OTHER DOGS
The puppies in this book—Angel, Mr. President, Blizzard, and Junior—have all had great advantages in life. They’ve not only been cared for by a human who understands dogs, they’ve been raised by and around other balanced dogs, in an environment that’s as close to a dog’s natural style of life as possible. Angel was the shyest of his littermates, but in spending time in the pack, he automatically gained confidence every single day. In fact, he grew to be so confident that sometimes he’d act too cocky around more dominant pack members. Then Junior and whatever adult dog happened to be around at the time would discipline him quickly, reminding him not to get too big for his britches. In the case of Mr. President, if he hadn’t been raised among dogs, he might have turned out to be an overconfident, blustery bulldog—perhaps a magnet for conflicts or even fights.
Visitors to my house often comment on how intelligent all the puppies seem and how quickly they seem to learn things. I tell them it’s because the pack and I have raised them in such a way that their natural method of social learning has been nurtured, not damaged. Too many times, when puppies grow up without the contact of other dogs, they lose their inborn common sense; they become rusty at speaking their natural language. Imagine moving to a foreign country where you never really learn the language—and then returning to your homeland having forgotten most of your native tongue. You would certainly be very uncomfortable in social situations on either shore. When we raise puppies without other dogs around, it’s vital that we take extra steps to socialize them early so they will always be able to read the signals and understand the important etiquette of their own species.
SOCIALIZATION AND IMMUNITY
Once again, owners’ worries about a puppy’s immunity can thwart the dog’s social education. Some paranoid owners actually choose to keep their puppy away from other dogs until he is six months old! By isolating a puppy during those crucial eight to sixteen weeks, when his immunity is still developing but his brain is rapidly growing, we run the risk of creating a puppy that will be antisocial with his own kind. This is certainly not the time to bring your puppy to a dog park, but there are several ways you can support the socialization process while still keeping your puppy safe.
• Invite a friend’s healthy, vaccinated, balanced older dog to interact with your puppy at your house. If you are still concerned about immunity, make sure the dog hasn’t just come from the dog park and that it has clean feet and a clean face when it plays with your puppy.
• If the puppy or the adult dog seems reticent at first, pick up your puppy by his scruff and present him to the dog, rear first, the way I introduced Blizzard to the pack at the Dog Psychology Center (see MEET THE PUPPIES - Junior, Blizzard, Angel, and Mr. President). Let the adult dog sniff the puppy until he becomes relaxed and comfortable around him.
• Set a play date with a healthy puppy of the same age, with the same level of immunity. If this goes well, add another puppy and an adult dog or two to the mix. This way, you create your own “minipack” or dog park, in your home or yard. The adult dogs will serve as “monitors” and role models for the puppy’s social behavior, although you must still retain your own calm-assertive energy and supervise the visit.
• Sign your puppy up for a real puppy class, such as the one offered by Diana Foster at the Thinschmidt kennels. Such classes are not free-for-alls, but rather are supervised and taught by experienced professionals, and all animals are prescreened for health problems.
Of course, the owner’s energy and response at the time of the socialization encounter will have a huge impact on how the puppy reacts to the other dogs. Socialization presented Dog Whisperer cameraman Chris Komives with his first real stumbling block in raising Eliza.
The first dogs she met were two golden retriever puppies that my neighbor brought home around the same time as Eliza. They were all at the same place in their inoculations, so we introduced them to each other. Eliza was hesitant at first, so I encouraged her to meet them. In my desire to help her overcome her anxiety, I encouraged her to play too excitedly with these puppies. As Eliza got older, she started to dominate them and became territorial about their yard—more so than our house! So I had let her go too far in the other direction. I had to claim the yard and supervise their play. With the help of my neighbor, I’d make them stop playing and be calm together before resuming play. They play together successfully to this day.
After Eliza’s last set of shots, I invited Chris to bring Eliza with him to the center on a shoot day, so I could supervise her introduction to the pack. I handled the introduction. At first Eliza was very anxious and fled to a corner. Chris wanted to step in, but I ordered him to ignore his puppy; I didn’t want him enabling her insecurity. Eventually a member of the pack sauntered over, sniffed her, and invited her in. By the end of the day, Eliza was running with the pack and playing with Junior.
“Encouraged by how well she did with the pack,” Chris told me later, “I took her to the dog park the very next day. Unfortunately, the dogs there were not balanced, and sensing her weakness, they rushed her. She ran away, scared, to the first human she could find. After that, she overcompensated by becoming much more forward in approaching dogs.” The next time Eliza came to the center, I could see that she had become much too excited around other dogs. Chris, in his desire to encourage Eliza’s sociability and to help her get over her shyness, had let other dogs represent too much excitement to her. I showed Chris how to wait for her to be calm first before I allowed her to enter the yard. By taking the time to balance her energy before she greeted the pack, Eliza was able to be her naturally exuberant self, and she played contentedly with the pack for the rest of the day.
INTRODUCING PUPPY TO THE DOG PARK
Just because your puppy has great social skills within his own pack of humans or dogs doesn’t necessarily mean he knows how to interact with strange dogs. It’s important that puppies learn how their social skills will translate to dogs outside their home pack. As soon as their vaccination protocol was finished, I brought Angel and Mr. President to Central Park in Santa Clarita, to supervise each of them in their first official dog park experience. I decided to begin with Angel this time. There was still dew on the grass, but the spring sun already blazed down on us as we approached the fenced off-leash area. There were only a handful of dogs and their owners in the park—perfect for a nonthreatening introduction.
I unlatched the gate to the area of the park designated for smaller dogs, happy that Central Park blocks off separate spaces for smaller and larger breeds. If you bring a puppy into an area where there are too many large dogs playing, he may feel intimidated right away. We don’t want our puppies to get a negative first impression of anything during this crucial stage of their lives. I could feel Angel’s tiny heart beating faster as I gently set him down inside the outer gate and unfastened his leash. He was feeling safe with me but starting to be a little unsure around the smell of strange dogs. It’s important to recognize these physical symptoms in our puppies—they give us our first clues as to what to watch out for in their behavior.
It’s also vital that the moment you let your puppy inside the dog park, you check your own energy. If you are tense or distracted or, like Chris Komives, overly worried about managing your puppy’s experience, the puppy will sense it and react accordingly. Remain calm and neutral, communicating to your puppy that whatever happens, you will come up with the right solution. I sat down on a bench at the side of the park and happily observed my miniature schnauzer experience this new adventure.
Two beagles came running up to greet Angel as he entered the park. I was impressed at how polite and quiet the beagles were; they were the perfect ambassadors. Angel was curious but still hesitant around the two older dogs, sniffing them but not asking them to engage in play. The fact that he was so respectful in this new situation reaffirmed to me how much Angel understands manners and social limits. He was saying, “I’m not 100 percent sure about this, but I am curious about it.” Perfect! However, he did wander over to the side of the park, lift his leg, and mark—a very mature gesture for a four-month-old.
A tiny white dog that looked like a toy poodle mix wandered over toward Angel and the two sniffed each other cautiously. “I’m not sure about you,” the white dog was saying. Angel’s response was “I’m not sure about you, either!” After the first round of introductions, Angel made an invitation to play, but the offer seemed a little too dominant for the white dog, which backed away. Would I have to intervene? It turned out that the little white dog could take care of himself. He ran away, communicating to Angel, “I don’t want to play with you because you’re a little too harsh for me.” But Angel did well in that he didn’t try to force the issue. He took no for an answer. That’s great canine etiquette. Instead, he came back to me for reassurance. I gave him a treat for returning, letting him feel “It’s okay, whenever someone doesn’t want to play with me, I can always come back to my owner and get reinforcements.”
We didn’t spend more than fifteen minutes inside the dog park for this first visit. That’s plenty of exposure for a four-month-old puppy. But we left on a happy note—my little Angel proved he has the perfect manners for many more successful dog park visits.
Next it was Mr. President’s turn. As soon as we got inside the outer gate, the blustery little guy ran smack up against the fence to meet the beagle greeters, using his eyes, not his nose, and starting to get a little overexcited by puffing up his chest in that typical bulldog way. This is an example of how a bulldog’s biology and body language can accidentally send a challenging message to other dogs, even if he doesn’t intend to be threatening. This isn’t a good way to enter a new social situation, so I knew I’d have to be a little more vigilant with him than I was with Angel. I waited until Mr. P. had relaxed a little, then let him inside the park.
Mr. President took off running, hurrying after the same little white dog that had just rejected Angel. His ears were back, signaling a submissive energy, but again the approach was very forceful, very bulldog. The little white dog turned around and gave a warning snap—he really didn’t want to play with him. I was proud of Mr. President because, just like Angel, he got the message right away and respected it. Unfazed, he then trotted off to investigate the beagles. He greeted them in a very polite manner, and they engaged with him informally. They seemed to feel more comfortable inviting Mr. President to play, probably because he was less mature at this point, not lifting his leg yet, and giving the beagles the feeling that they could control the play more. I heard them howl for the first time, but it was a playful howl. I liked the fact that Mr. President was experiencing this, because we don’t have beagles at home. He was being educated in the fact that a hound’s howl doesn’t mean anything threatening; it is just how they express themselves. This is why it’s important to introduce your puppy to all kinds of breeds of dogs. It’s like introducing your child to many different nationalities of children—they become more tolerant and understand that just because individuals express themselves differently, it doesn’t make them a threat.
Mr. President returned to me after playing with the beagles, and after I engaged his nose again, I gave him a treat. I was reinforcing both his willingness to experience this new adventure and his response in staying connected with me. As we left the park, I reflected that the day couldn’t have gone better. As different as Angel and Mr. President are as breeds, they both came to a new social situation sharing the same playful yet active-submissive energy.
TIPS FOR INTRODUCING PUPPY TO THE DOG PARK
• Make sure your puppy is in a calm-submissive state before arriving. I suggest that you tire him out with a structured walk and, if necessary, a vigorous play session first.
• Keep your energy calm-assertive from the time you leave the house. Don’t talk to your dog in a high, squeaky voice on the ride over. Before you enter the park, go on another short walk, so that he’s not springing out of the car full of energy.
• Check out the park before you go in. If you sense there are too many large dogs or the atmosphere feels too unstable, save the experience for another time.
• If necessary, keep your puppy on a leash and walk him over to the dogs in the park that seem most stable and balanced.
• Supervise from a distance, but be ready to step in and block or redirect if you sense your puppy isn’t reading other dogs’ signals, or that they aren’t reading his.
• Don’t “rescue” your puppy from challenging situations by grabbing him and carrying him away. Instead, use your body and energy to prevent escalation of a challenging situation.
• Check your own energy at all times. If you are tired, nervous, or impatient, your puppy will mirror those emotions.
• Be a “partner” to your puppy’s experience, not a rescuer or an enabler of bad behavior!
My dream is of a world where there are fewer dogs accidentally biting children, fewer dog altercations, and no more fatal dog attacks. By socializing your puppy to dogs and people when she is young and making sure her manners are in order with both species, you are not only shaping a better life for the both of you, you are also contributing to the pro-dog society that I am committed to helping build.
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