Puppy Socialization is essential for a well-balanced puppy. But many times, there is so much happening when your puppy is young that their socialization misses out on some crucial elements. One of these elements is watching things go by. How is that helpful for your puppy? Let’s take a look!
What Puppy’s Really Need
Many people still think that socialization is all about meeting people and dogs. This kind of socialization is important, but it is not as important as many people think. What is more important is teaching puppies to feel comfortable interacting with a world run by humans. Feeling comfortable interacting in the human world means not only having good manners when greeting people and dogs but also being able to engage and disengage when we need them to. In other words, puppies must learn to simply watch the world go by. This ability helps puppies approach their world more calmly and not feel the need to excitedly approach every new person. If your puppy doesn’t feel the need to meet everyone and everything, things like loose leash walking will be much easier to train. If you want a well-balanced puppy, teaching it to simply watch as people, dogs, cars, cats, and all sorts of things simply pass it by is essential!
How To Incorporate Watching into Training
The key to teaching puppies to watch as things pass them by is to provide them with opportunity, reinforcement, and practice. Many puppies practice getting excited about seeing people and dogs more than they practice watching them. As a result, puppies frequently learn that when they see people and dogs, it is time to get excited and bouncy. To remedy this, start by teaching your puppy that seeing people and dogs means “Look at me.” If trained properly, your puppy will learn that when it sees a person, dog, or something they want to interact with, they need to “ask permission” by making eye contact before engaging. This behavior will allow you to give them cues much easier because they will know to look to you for instruction rather than focus on everything else.
Once your puppy knows to look to you either upon seeing the person, dog, or other exciting stimulus or upon hearing your cue, begin to reinforce it for sitting calmly as the person, dog, or other stimulus passes by. Your puppy can look at the person or dog but reinforce it for returning its attention to you. It is extremely helpful to keep your distance when you first start. Start practicing this at over twenty feet from the stimulus. Over time, as your puppy gets better, you can get closer. Also, sometimes it is easier for puppies to remain self-controlled if they sit while watching things go by, so it can be helpful to have trained your puppy to sit on cue so you can use that cue if need be. That said, feel free to let your puppy stand if that is what it would prefer and if it feels more comfortable that way.
Last but not least, keep it short and sweet—no need to wait until your puppy gets excited. Sitting and watching for less than a minute is entirely acceptable and sometimes helps puppies learn the behavior faster as they do not have the opportunity to break the “watch” and start doing things like jumping and pulling on the lead.
Practice Makes It More Reliable
You should practice this exercise regularly during puppyhood and throughout your dog’s first year. I also recommend revisiting it for regular practice each following year. The more you revisit this training and practice these skills successfully, the easier it will become for your puppy to watch calmly and the more reliable your puppy will become. Your goal is to be able to rely on your puppy to remain calm as people, dogs, children, bikes, and all sorts of other things pass them by. This goal doesn’t mean they can’t ever say hello, but it does mean that your puppy will have a solid foundation for simply enjoying life.
Make sure you also practice greeting people so your puppy knows how to go through that process in an acceptable way. Make sure that your puppy has lots of fun opportunities to see and interact with people. But remember the importance of teaching them to watch rather than interact.
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