# Pandemic socialization



## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

Hi all! I read Dr. Ian Dunbar's book about what to do before you get your puppy. He emphasizes that it's critical to introduce your puppy to 100 new people in the first 3 months. I get that 100 is a ballpark, but it's still a lot of people. Will the puppy be okay if he doesn't get to meet nearly that many people? Any tips on how to make it happen as safely as possible?

Thanks!


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## PeggyTheParti (Sep 5, 2019)

Here’s a great list of covid socialization ideas:









100 Ideas For Socializing Your Quarantine Puppy


It is not an easy time for any dog owner (well, anyone at all); but the ones who are facing the most challenges definitely are new puppy owners. It’s already quite the task to socialize a puppy in a regular world. You need to make sure that he gets to know and learns to be comfortable with so...




spiritdogtraining.com





For meeting people, a puppy class will help. You can also go hang out outside some big box stores. Arm yourself with yummy things and watch people come and go from a respectful distance. Allow the occasional hello if someone shows interest in your puppy and has good calm energy.

This was pre-covid, but we would start with a loose leash sniffy walk around the outside of Petco or Walmart (surprisingly big buildings!) and then sit outside Home Depot for a bit. You’ll see people of all shapes, sizes, and colours, many of whom will be carrying weird stuff or pushing loud carts. Bring a mat for your puppy to settle on and reward for calmly watching the world go by.


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

PeggyTheParti said:


> Here’s a great list of covid socialization ideas:
> 
> 
> 
> ...


Thank you so much, this is great advice!


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

I would definitely recommend puppy kindergarten. That should get you half a dozen new people at minimum. 
Your vet's office should get you a few more people. 
Visits to any business which allows pets are good. (Late night in Home Depot when the clerks were bored worked out very well for Galen. Everyone wanted to pet the cute fuzzy puppy.) I'd recommend keeping the puppy in a carrier or on a towel to contain leaks and prevent contact with germs. 
Trips to the drive thru for coffee, a sandwich order, etc. are also good. It's definitely helpful for the puppy to get used to the idea that people sometimes get right up next to the car. Parking your car next to the shopping cart corral at a supermarket will also get exposure to people walking past your car.
I took Ritter to my office when I needed to go in for something else. (No, he was not supposed to be there, but I figured it was more trouble than anyone wanted to go through to write me up.)


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

cowpony said:


> I would definitely recommend puppy kindergarten. That should get you half a dozen new people at minimum.
> Your vet's office should get you a few more people.
> Visits to any business which allows pets are good. (Late night in Home Depot when the clerks were bored worked out very well for Galen. Everyone wanted to pet the cute fuzzy puppy.) I'd recommend keeping the puppy in a carrier or on a towel to contain leaks and prevent contact with germs.
> Trips to the drive thru for coffee, a sandwich order, etc. are also good. It's definitely helpful for the puppy to get used to the idea that people sometimes get right up next to the car. Parking your car next to the shopping cart corral at a supermarket will also get exposure to people walking past your car.
> I took Ritter to my office when I needed to go in for something else. (No, he was not supposed to be there, but I figured it was more trouble than anyone wanted to go through to write me up.)


Thank you. This actually makes it seem doable!


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## Basil_the_Spoo (Sep 1, 2020)

what kind of area do you live in?

SPOO puppies are people magnets for wanted and unwanted attention... you just have to be out around people and not isolated in a cave. Leashes are 4-6 feet depending on how strict your social distancing or how safe you feel the need to be.

You got your neighbors, your neighbors neighbors, the Farmers Market every Sunday, staff at pet stores (3 stores within a 5 mile radius of me), you can sit at a bench by the beach, sit down at a curb-side restaurant, .. basically whever there's foot traffic.

You're going to be outside a lot and often during the potty training stage, so I think you'll find it will naturally happen. You do have to be intentional though and put in some forethought.


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## scooterscout99 (Dec 3, 2015)

Try to include people like the mail carrier (uniform!). My friend in her halloween witch hat was an eye opener. Plus her house is next to a busy road so there were traffic noises. No pressure on the puppy to greet, have people throw treats to the ground if the puppy doesn't want to approach the new person. Sitting on the front porch watching the garbage truck, and the world go by. Find a neutral dog for early safe introductions (mine were training partners' dogs, and the owner could also help me with the introduction). I've had a few side-by-side walks with other dogs on hard surfaces, which my Vet okayed since we have 2 out of 3 vaccines. Our first store visit was to Rural King (in the cart on a fleece crate pad). The most interesting part was the parking lot afterward, so I stayed there with the pup in the cart for about 5 minutes. I bring treats and ask people to give them to my dog.

Remember that inanimate objects are also important. My pup reluctantly approached a sit-down lawn mower. She was good after a few minutes, reinforced with treats. A half hour later the owner was driving the lawn mower on adjacent fields, adding noise to the experience. There was also gunfire in the background at this rural location. I took the pup out there for romping on grass where Parvo wasn't a risk, as it is in our neighborhood parks.

Attached photo is from neutral dog greetings yesterday. One of the Akitas' handlers is a dog behaviorist so I felt completely safe. These turned out to be super mellow dogs, and way calmer than my puppy. I do have a friend with 2 (in my opinion) untrained border collies who was put off when I declined an offer for my puppy to meet her dogs. Oh, well. Much easier to prevent a problem than to try and fix it after it occurs.


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## I_love_dogs (May 30, 2021)

I bought a dog stroller so I could take the puppy while while walking the older dog. I only used it until he got his finally shots, but he could see people and dogs. Our parks don't allow dogs, so the puppy and I would sit in the car and watch my son and the other kids on the playground. 
He doesn't have an issue with new people or dogs. He does have issues with people he knows dressed funny. For example, my son put on a jacket for the first time and Loki started barking and backing away until my son talked to him.


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## MyMiles (Apr 21, 2012)

Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt and I'm not done raising my first puppy yet... But here's what I've arrived at after doing lots of pre-puppy research, trying to do everything perfectly with the new pup, then realizing that I was making myself crazy...

I embraced the idea that getting a variety of positive experiences early on would help build confidence when presented with novel experiences later. Rather than follow a checklist or number goals, I thought through what his life with me would look like and tried to prioritize things that were most likely to be problematic. Basically focusing on quality over quantity of any particular exposures to people, animals, places, etc...

Meeting (and ignoring) people is fairly important to me, but so is not being terrified of the train or cars that we will encounter on our walks, being able to ride in the car comfortably, and be somewhat familiar with the unique sights, sounds and smells of a woodland trail as well as our dense suburb. His biggest challenges in the early days were strange dogs barking at him from their yards, cars thudding over train tracks, and the sudden appearance of lawn waste bags at the end of people's driveways. 

When Elmer was at the tail end of his socialization window, he found the approach of most people (loud, often looming, strangers) intimidating, so I held back on a lot of introductions because it was unlikely to be a positive experience for him. We just tried to get in some people watching and careful introductions to a family and a few neighbors and he seems to be doing alright. It would be great if every puppy could meet 100 people in 100 days, but I think plenty of puppies don't meet that goal and turn out fine, especially if their other socialization experiences were well thoughtfully well rounded. 

I found a lot of value in the Pandemic Puppy Raising Support group on facebook. It's managed by professional dog trainers (all positive reinforcement) and they have a substantial library of puppy raising resources. There are a lot of ideas there on how to safely and effectively socialize and train puppies, and all of the advice is geared towards the realities of a global pandemic. Facebook Groups


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

You might also find that your socialization priorities vary depending on what the breeder has already done. My Galen was whelped at a guardian household and then moved to his owner's household at weaning. The breeder had several children, plus there was a puppy open house when the litter was six weeks old. I suspect Galen had encountered 40 people and 30 other dogs and puppies by the time I took him home. He was totally fearless around mammals. However, he was very apprehensive around cars. I spent several warm March afternoons sitting at the edge of a nearby highway, cuddling him on my lap under my coat, simply letting him watch traffic go by while eating treats.
Ritter was the opposite. His breeder lived alone in a house on a busy road. He came to me nervous around people but completely unfazed by traffic. I made a point to introduce him to every neighbor I could and skipped the traffic watching.


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

Basil_the_Spoo said:


> what kind of area do you live in?
> 
> SPOO puppies are people magnets for wanted and unwanted attention... you just have to be out around people and not isolated in a cave. Leashes are 4-6 feet depending on how strict your social distancing or how safe you feel the need to be.
> 
> ...


I live in a small town in a rural area. I'll start with taking the pup around the neighbourhood, probably in a wagon to prevent any contact with other dogs/poop until he's fully vaccinated.


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

scooterscout99 said:


> Try to include people like the mail carrier (uniform!). My friend in her halloween witch hat was an eye opener. Plus her house is next to a busy road so there were traffic noises. No pressure on the puppy to greet, have people throw treats to the ground if the puppy doesn't want to approach the new person. Sitting on the front porch watching the garbage truck, and the world go by. Find a neutral dog for early safe introductions (mine were training partners' dogs, and the owner could also help me with the introduction). I've had a few side-by-side walks with other dogs on hard surfaces, which my Vet okayed since we have 2 out of 3 vaccines. Our first store visit was to Rural King (in the cart on a fleece crate pad). The most interesting part was the parking lot afterward, so I stayed there with the pup in the cart for about 5 minutes. I bring treats and ask people to give them to my dog.
> 
> Remember that inanimate objects are also important. My pup reluctantly approached a sit-down lawn mower. She was good after a few minutes, reinforced with treats. A half hour later the owner was driving the lawn mower on adjacent fields, adding noise to the experience. There was also gunfire in the background at this rural location. I took the pup out there for romping on grass where Parvo wasn't a risk, as it is in our neighborhood parks.
> 
> ...


Great advice about inanimate objects. We will have to show him our lawn mower although it's already been put away for the season. 

My parents have an old Golden Retriever cross and a young Norwegian Elkhound. The old one, Belle, has good manners so will be good for him to meet. I'm sure he will have fun with the other puppy when he gets a bit bigger.


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

I_love_dogs said:


> I bought a dog stroller so I could take the puppy while while walking the older dog. I only used it until he got his finally shots, but he could see people and dogs. Our parks don't allow dogs, so the puppy and I would sit in the car and watch my son and the other kids on the playground.
> He doesn't have an issue with new people or dogs. He does have issues with people he knows dressed funny. For example, my son put on a jacket for the first time and Loki started barking and backing away until my son talked to him.


A dog stroller is a great idea. I will definitely try that. Also, exposure to winter coats and hats. Thank you!


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

MyMiles said:


> Take what I'm about to say with a grain of salt and I'm not done raising my first puppy yet... But here's what I've arrived at after doing lots of pre-puppy research, trying to do everything perfectly with the new pup, then realizing that I was making myself crazy...
> 
> I embraced the idea that getting a variety of positive experiences early on would help build confidence when presented with novel experiences later. Rather than follow a checklist or number goals, I thought through what his life with me would look like and tried to prioritize things that were most likely to be problematic. Basically focusing on quality over quantity of any particular exposures to people, animals, places, etc...
> 
> ...


Thank you, this is really helpful! I will check out that Facebook group.


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## spicandspan (Apr 21, 2018)

cowpony said:


> You might also find that your socialization priorities vary depending on what the breeder has already done. My Galen was whelped at a guardian household and then moved to his owner's household at weaning. The breeder had several children, plus there was a puppy open house when the litter was six weeks old. I suspect Galen had encountered 40 people and 30 other dogs and puppies by the time I took him home. He was totally fearless around mammals. However, he was very apprehensive around cars. I spent several warm March afternoons sitting at the edge of a nearby highway, cuddling him on my lap under my coat, simply letting him watch traffic go by while eating treats.
> Ritter was the opposite. His breeder lived alone in a house on a busy road. He came to me nervous around people but completely unfazed by traffic. I made a point to introduce him to every neighbor I could and skipped the traffic watching.


I don't think the breeder has kids in the home, but she does raise the litters in the home so he will have experienced home life. She lives out of town.


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## cowpony (Dec 30, 2009)

I was lucky enough to be able to recruit my neighbor's three kids to play with my puppies. I first taught the puppy to sit in front of me in order to get a treat. Four on the floor; jumping puppies don't get treats! I then spread the kids out in a triangle with each kid about 20 feet apart. They would take turns calling him and giving him a treat. It worked out great in many ways. The puppies got practice coming when their names were called. The puppies got practice interacting with kids politely, without running and chasing. The kids, who weren't used to interacting with big dogs, also got a lesson on how to deal with rude puppies. I taught them to close their hands into fists (to protect their fingers), cross their arms over their chest (to remove any temptingly dangling limbs) and turn their back when the puppies were being rude. These sessions made a great improvement in both kid manners and puppy manners. The kids now have a tool to use to stop naughty bitey puppy antics, and it has given them a lot of confidence now that Ritter weighs as much as any of them do.


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