Page 312 - The Complete Dog Breed Book Choose the Perfect Dog for You, New Edition (DK)

312 C ARE AND TR AINING

SOCIALIZATION

Whatever your young puppy experiences will affect the way he
responds to the world as an adult dog. At an early age, introduce
him to everything he is likely to encounter, from different people
and other dogs, to cars and vacuum cleaners. This process, called
socialization, is the single most important task you can undertake
to ensure that your puppy grows into a friendly family pet. Everyone’s friend

Understanding your dog night vision is far superior to ours. Dogs have a much
Socialization must begin with an understanding of how dogs more acute sense of hearing than humans. This means
interact with their surroundings. A puppy views the world a noise that is seemingly inconsequential to us may sound
very differently from humans. Whereas we rely on our eyes loud and scary to a dog.
to get information about the world, dogs place much more Puppies go through a series of developmental stages as
reliance on their sense of smell. A new puppy learns about they mature. These stages are windows of opportunity for
things more quickly by smelling and chewing them than by socialization, and positive experiences during such times
looking at them. In fact, dogs cannot see the same amount will help to shape your puppy into a happy and balanced
of detail as humans or distinguish red from green, but their adult dog. In his first weeks, your puppy is still inquisitive,

PAT ON THE HEAD
A well-intentioned pat on the
head can be frightening for your
puppy. Crouch down and stroke
his chest instead.

DOG'S-EYE VIEW
People appear huge to a young
dog with little experience of BEHIND THE GATE
the human world. Try not to Your dog will need help to figure out how things work in a human
overwhelm your puppy world. His thought processes are different from ours, and to begin
by looming above him. with he may not understand things like gates.

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