15 Critical Steps to Take When Socializing Your Dog with New People

Socialization is one of the top skills that you need to teach your new puppy. At the same time, socialization is one of the most misunderstood concepts in dog training. Socializing your dog with new people is not as simple as letting them mix with as many different dogs and people as possible. Dog socialization is actually about teaching the dog how to behave appropriately when they meet new humans or dogs. Whether you are just starting with socializing your new puppy or trying to rectify behavioral problems with an older dog, following these 14 critical steps will greatly increase your chances of success.

1. Learn What Socialization Means

You need to receive training before your dog does and there are two important concepts that you need to understand. The first is counter-conditioning – this is changing your dog’s association with a stimulus. They need to learn that meeting a new person is a good thing and not a scary thing. The second is desensitization – this is exposing your pet to the stimulus at a very low level and gradually increasing it. Once you understand these concepts, all of the following steps will make perfect sense. You will also realize that there are no simple tips, tricks, or shortcuts to training dogs. It requires knowledge, patience, and dedication.

2. Build Engagement Before Socializing Your Dog With New People

Engagement means that your dog is focusing on you rather than anything else in the environment. This is something that needs to be built up gradually over some time, but it is an essential first step for any training regimen. If your dog is focused on you, they are relying on you to make the decisions in any particular situation rather than making their own choices about how they are going to behave.

3. Play With Your Dog as Much as You Can

One of the best ways to build engagement with your dog is to interact with them regularly. Take time out during the day to play with them. Flirt poles and balls on a string are excellent toys for building engagement. Simply throwing a ball and shouting ‘fetch’ is not so effective because the dog is paying attention to the ball and not to you!

4. Hand-Feed Your Dog Outside Your Home

Not all dogs are food motivated but every dog wants to be fed! If you simply dump the food into a bowl and walk away, your dog does not associate you with the pleasure of getting a meal. However, if you take your dog’s portion of food, go out for a walk, and hand feed them as you are walking along, you become the center of their universe. Immediately, you are a lot more interesting than anything else that is going on in the environment including other people!

5. Start in a Quiet Area With Few People

Do not start to socialize with your dog in a busy environment. Your dog will simply be overwhelmed and not in the frame of mind to receive any sort of training. Instead, start somewhere quiet where you can keep away from most humans. Take your dog’s food or some very tasty treats with you. Walk up and down talking to your dog and get them to engage with you. Limit your training sessions to 15 or 20 minutes so that you can hold your dog’s attention for the entire time.  

6. Try Teaching the ‘Look’ Command

Some owners find that teaching the ‘look’ command is useful for building engagement. You do this by getting some tasty treats and every time your dog looks at you say ‘look’ and give them a treat. You can also mark the behavior with a click if your dog is clicker-trained. After you have done this repeatedly, you can start using ‘look’ as a command and, hopefully, your dog will look at you. This is a useful way of getting a nervous dog to focus on you rather than another person who is approaching.

7. Learn to Interpret Dog Body Language

You must learn to recognize when your dog is feeling uncomfortable. This body language will be a precursor to snapping, biting, lunging, or barking. If you can take action as soon as your dog starts to look stressed, you can hopefully prevent the negative behaviors from happening in the first place.

The first sign of discomfort is for the dog to be alert, to stare at the approaching person, and to stop sniffing the sidewalk. Dogs who are just about to react have high body tension, will be straining on the leash, and may give a low-level growl. This is a sign that you need to lead your dog away or that you will need to intervene.

8. Move to a Slightly Busier Area

Once you have built engagement in quiet areas, you are ready to move to a slightly busier environment. Sidewalks in quiet residential areas are ideal. If you see a person walking in the distance, try to get to within several feet of them. Whilst you are doing this, keep your dog engaged with the food, treats, or the ‘look’ command. You will probably reach a critical distance from another person when your dog starts to feel uncomfortable. When this happens move away. It is always best to end a training session with a positive experience.

9. Never Force Your Dog to Get Close to People

One of the biggest mistakes that people make is to try to force their dogs to meet people when they don’t want to. This just reinforces the dog’s behavior and makes them frightened. If your dog doesn’t like being near people, you should keep them away from people until they are ready to cope with the situation. It should go without saying that it is never acceptable to punish a dog for reacting in this way.

There is also absolutely no point in saying ‘it’s okay’ to your dog in these situations. They have no idea what you’re talking about and do not find it reassuring in the same way that a human would. Remember that your dog is not a human and only understands a limited range of verbal commands so just stick to them.

10. Use a Stooge Person for Socializing Your Dog With New People

A stooge person is simply somebody that you have brought along to take part in the training session. Ideally, this is somebody that the dog does not know and will therefore react to them in the same way that they would react to a stranger. The advantage of using a stooge person is that you can control exactly how close they come to your dog and you can get them to approach you repeatedly so that your dog gets a good training session.

You can also get the stooge person to throw some treats on the floor for your dog so that they learn to associate strangers with something nice to eat.

11. Watch Your Body Language

If you are looking tense and nervous when another person approaches you, your dog will pick up on that and will be tense and nervous as well. Try to look as relaxed and confident as you can and focus on gaining your dog’s attention.

Anyone who is experienced with dogs will know how important it is to approach dogs in the right way. Sadly, most members of the public don’t realize this. They often bend over and try to pat a dog on the head. This is a threatening posture for a dog and makes them feel threatened. Getting down on your knees so that you are at the same height as the dog and letting them approach you when they are ready is the correct approach.

12. Block People From Approaching Your Dog

Until you are completely certain that your dog can cope with strangers approaching, it is your responsibility to stop this from happening. You do this by keeping your dog on a short leash. If you see a stranger approaching, use one foot to step forward and position your body in between your dog and the stranger. This will signal to your dog that you are in charge of the situation and they do not have to react. As you are doing this, you can verbally inform the stranger that they should step back because your dog is feeling nervous. Never be afraid to advocate for your pet. Strangers do not have the right to stroke your dog!

13. Use Treats to Distract Their Attention

Some owners find it useful to drop treats on the floor when a stranger is approaching. This lowers your dog’s attention to ground level and stops them from obsessing about the approaching stranger. You could even teach them the ‘person’ command. You use this to indicate that a person is approaching and that treats are on the way! It teaches the dog that strangers are a positive thing. All dogs have different tastes when it comes to treats. It’s just a case of trying a few different brands until you find the one that your dog is obsessed with!

14. Be Very Careful With Children

Children and dogs can be great friends, but things can also go wrong when you mix canines and kids. Some puppies grow up to be nervous dogs because they have had some bad experiences with children. Some confident older dogs are freaked out by kids because they move in very unpredictable ways and make high-pitched squealing voices which some dogs find distressing. Parents should always teach children that they should never approach a dog that they do not know until they have been told that it is safe to do so.

15. Continually Reinforce the Behavior

Dog training never ends. No matter how confident and relaxed your dog is, situations can arise that make them nervous. Bad experiences can change your dog’s behavior for a long time. Always be prepared to go back to basics and start all over again if your dog shows signs of becoming nervous with new people again.

Summary of the 15 Critical Steps to Take When Socializing Your Dog With New People

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