The ultimate guide to socialising your puppy

You’ve brought your new puppy home and you know you need to ‘socialise’ them so they grow up to be the happy, confident adult dog of your dreams. But now you’re feeling super confused about what socialisation actually is and how you’re actually supposed to socialise your puppy.

Socialisation is how puppies learn about the world they will be living in and how they’re supposed to behave. Puppies need to learn what is safe and what isn’t. During their ‘socialisation period’ they’re more likely to assume new species, objects and situations are safe. This period ends at around 16 weeks and after this dogs are more likely to approach these things with caution. But that doesn’t mean that your puppy can’t learn about the world after they’re 16 weeks - it’ll just be a little harder for them and you.

Your puppy world is massive - and socialisation is how they learn it’s not scary

Socialisation isn’t just about meeting dogs and people

A common misconception is that to ‘socialise’ a puppy they just need to meet loads of different dogs and people. And that’s part of it, your puppy does need to learn that there are lots of different breeds of dog so they’re not scared in the future when they meet dogs on walks. And they need to learn that people look different, wear different clothes, ride bikes and use wheelchairs.

But the world contains so much more than just people and other dogs. There are buses, cows, rubbish bins, piles of leaves and so much more. And your puppy needs to learn all these things exist, they aren’t scary and how they’re supposed to react to them. A well socialised puppy will have experienced lots of different sights, sounds, smells and surfaces. So think about what new and interesting things you can introduce your puppy to that they can see, hear, smell or walk on.

How your puppy feels about socialisation matters

Good socialisation isn’t just about experiencing lots of different things. Those experiences need to be positive. It’s easy to overwhelm young puppies with too many new things at once. And then those experiences can quickly turn negative and your puppy can become fearful of whatever you want them to feel good about. But positive experiences don’t always mean your puppy has a lot of fun and thinks something’s amazing. When they’re older you’re going to want them to ignore a lot of stuff - so often neutrality is the aim of socialisation. We want puppies to learn ‘that thing exists but it’s not scary and it’s not interesting so I don’t care’.

The best way to not overwhelm your puppy is to keep socialisation sessions short (15-20 minutes max) and let your puppy watch from a distance. Find places you can sit and observe the world without getting involved. Once your puppy’s fully vaccinated and can walk on the ground, give them time to investigate. If they want to stop to sniff, watch or listen then let them. They need to understand the world to learn it’s not scary and they can’t do that if you rush them. If your puppy does get worried by anything then help them feel safer by moving away from it. That will help your puppy learn you’ll keep them safe and learn how they can avoid scary things in future.

Give your puppy enough time to process everything they’re seeing, hearing and smelling

Your puppy needs to learn about your world

Every puppy is growing up in a different place and every family has different aims for their puppy’s life. So every puppy needs to have different experiences to be socialised. City dogs are likely to spend their lives walking along busy streets, riding buses and going into cafes. Country dogs often lead very different lives surrounded by livestock, horse riders and may rarely see cars, dogs or people.

When you’re socialising your puppy you need to think about what your life involves and what your puppy is likely to experience during their life. There’s no point teaching your puppy that going on a bus isn’t scary if you never plan to take them on one. If you live in an urban area and never leave it then your puppy may not need to know what a sheep is.

You also need to make an effort to travel outside your local area if your puppy needs to experience things that aren’t where you live. If you live rurally and want to take your dog into towns when they’re older you’ll need to socialise them in busier places. If you live in a city but love country holidays then you’ll need to take your puppy to rural places so they learn how to behave around livestock.

Socialising your puppy before they’re vaccinated

Socialising your puppy is confusing, but it’s made more difficult because you’re limited in what you can do with your puppy before they’re fully vaccinated. You can’t let them walk on the ground or meet lots of dogs because they might get ill. But that doesn’t mean you can’t socialise them - you just have to do it differently before they’ve had all their vaccines.

Carrying your puppy is a great way to socialise them without the risk of them getting ill

You can carry your puppy around in your arms (or in a buggy if you’d struggle to carry them) and take them to watch, listen to and smell the world. Your puppy can meet dogs as long as you know they’re fully vaccinated. So if you know anyone with a dog-social vaccinated adult dog you can arrange a playdate at your home or theirs. This is likely to be better socialisation than if your puppy meets other puppies because they’ll learn good social skills from a well behaved adult dog. You can also have people come to your home to visit your puppy or take your puppy to theirs (as long as they’ve not had any unvaccinated dogs there recently).

You can socialise your dog to different sounds (like cars, fireworks and livestock) from your home. You can find a recording for pretty much anything you want on YouTube (or search ‘puppy socialisation sounds’ to hear recordings of loads of different sounds). Start by playing the sounds very quietly while your puppy is eating or you’re playing or training together. Slowly increase the volume making sure your puppy isn’t ever looking worried.

Puppy parties aren’t good socialisation

One common ‘solution’ to the difficulty of socialising puppies before they’re fully vaccinated is the ‘puppy party’. These are off lead play sessions in a sanitised room with puppies who have all had one vaccine. And while they’re a great way to reduce the risk of puppies getting potentially fatal infectious diseases, they’re a terrible way to socialise puppies.

Puppy parties are the complete opposite of careful socialisation designed to teach puppies the world isn’t scary. Being in a room with lots of unfamiliar puppies is pretty overwhelming for many puppies. There’s often no ability for an anxious puppy to run away without being chased by another puppy (or more likely several puppies). These puppies are learning that other dogs are terrifying and won’t listen when they try to communicate they’re feeling worried. This can lead to puppies learning that aggression is the only way they can get the scary dogs away from them.

Confident puppies might be having a good time but that doesn’t mean they’re becoming well socialised. Socialisation isn’t just about puppies having fun - it’s about learning how they should behave. We don’t want puppies to grow up thinking they get to play with every single dog. Because those puppies become dogs who struggle to walk nicely on lead and recall if they see another dog. They also learn to ignore when other dogs are trying to communicate that they're anxious and want space. Which means they become the park bullies who scare all the other dogs and accidentally start fights without realising.

A well socialised puppy will be focused on their humans - not desperate to play with other dogs

Puppy socialisation sessions and puppy classes can include puppy play but it needs to be heavily managed. Your puppy should be spending much more time learning to focus on you around other puppies than they spend playing and learning other puppies are great fun. Puppy play sessions should be kept short so puppies don’t get overexcited or start to feel overwhelmed. If puppies are allowed to play then they should be carefully matched based on their personalities and play styles - boisterous puppies should never be allowed to play with anxious puppies. And you should be learning about all the puppies’ body language, what appropriate play looks like and how to recall your puppy to you when they’re playing with another dog.

Written by Juniper Indigo, dog trainer in Tiverton and Exeter