Confidence.

More is more in the first 4 months.

Roxy enjoys a quick pat from myself and close family members and even seeks out a hug on occasion. But if a non-family member or stranger tries to pat her, she will flatten her ears and recoil, if not run away altogether. Unfortunately for Roxy, she is very good looking (not biased!) and many people seem to want to pat her. Our daily walks are, therefore, an exercise in awkward moments.

Roxy isn’t aware of her powers of rejection. Her behaviour is simply an outcome of her conditioning. Roaming wild in the forest during her first 4-6 months of life, Roxy spent her childhood (doghood?) in the company of her species rather than people. Eleven years on, she remains human-wary. Roxy’s background boldly shows the importance of environmental conditioning in the early days. Dogs develop at a much faster pace than humans do. By around 4-6 months of age, the wiring in their brain is set and they will have stubbornly made up their minds on how they feel about things. 

Given our dogs will live and share our homes with us, it is in everyone’s interest that they develop a confident and positive attitude towards humans. Not only that, they need to learn to like being handled by us. We humans are a very grabby species. We grab our dogs to put them on the leash, in the car, in the bath, on the veterinarian’s table etc. Many biting incidents happen at the moment when a dog is touched or grabbed so it’s critical that your puppy becomes desensitised to human handling quickly.

Below are 3 games to play with your puppy to condition them to people as well as the human touch. 

Meet and Greet

• Take your puppy on outings with you in the first six weeks after you bring them home - to the park, to a cafe, to the bank, to the shops, visiting friends and family.

• As much as possible, whenever you remember, ask the people around you to help play some meet-and-greet.

• Give the person a few treats and ask them to: 1) say your puppy’s name, 2) take it gently by the collar, 3) praise and treat, then 4) release the collar. Repeat a few times.

• Make sure you seek out a variety of different volunteers including men, women and kids of all looks and ages.

Cuddles Game

• Settle your puppy in your lap. Have a bowl of treats handy next to you.

• Touch your puppy gently, body part by body part, praising and treating along the way, starting from the head and ending at the tail. For example, say “Axel, let’s have a look in your left ear… now your right ear…Good boy!” And treat.

• Make sure you touch them gently everywhere. Stoke around their eyes, peer into their ears, have a look at their teeth, stroke their neck, back, tummy, gently squeeze all four paws and rub their tail. Treat and sooth in reassuring tones.

• Keep these handling sessions about 5 minutes short and do this a few times a week. All family members should get involved!

Gotcha Game

• Play with your puppy on the floor.

• Occasionally reach out and gently touch them on the collar saying “Gotcha!”. Praise, treat, then release them to “Go Play!”.

• Mix up the left side and right side.

• Start with a light touch and work up to holding the collar for a few seconds before releasing.

• Remember to release your puppy to “Go Play!” each time after praising and treating. This step is essential and signals to your puppy that restraint is temporary.

Other Dogs

Besides conditioning your puppy to enjoy the presence and touch of humans, we need to teach them to act confidently around other dogs, and importantly, learn dog language. This means you need to offer your puppy chances to play and interact freely with their kin of different looks and types.

If you know any friends or neighbours with easy-going (and vaccinated) dogs, invite them over and let the dogs play freely. During the initial weeks, having a familiar dog come over to your house for a play date is safer than taking your puppy to the dog park where stranger dogs may play too rough. This may inadvertently condition your puppy to be wary of other dogs instead of confident.

It’s also worth enrolling your puppy in obedience classes where they will get a chance to socialise with other puppies of different looks and types. Choose a school that incorporates off-leash play time during training sessions.

Over To You!

• Take your puppy on outings with you.

• Play the Meet and Greet, Cuddles and Gotcha games as often as possible, whenever you remember, for the first 6 weeks after you bring your puppy home.

• Organise some play dates at your home with familiar dogs.

• Enrol your puppy in obedience training classes. Select a school that allows for off-leash socialisation time during sessions.

Back / Back to Start