So, the other day I'm driving on a busy 4 lane road a couple miles from home, and a beautiful black shepherd runs out into the street. The car in front of me slows down to avoid hitting the guy, and I immediately pull over. This is a busy road, this guy could easily get killed dodging cars as he runs out into, and then back off the road, over and over.
We have had thunderstorms for several days in a row, the night before was particularly windy and powerful. Perhaps his fence blew down, perhaps he ran away during the storm. It's been raining most of the morning, and the dog is soaking wet. He has a collar, maybe I can find his owner. My thought is to see if I can get him into my car, but first I just need him to come to me.
I have been working with animals for over two-decades, I know all the tricks for getting a strange dog to come to me. This boy, takes one long look at me as I turn sideways to him on the sidewalk, and talk gently to him. He freezes for a moment, so I take a slow step toward him, and he bolts out into the road. Cars slam on breaks, and I walk out into the road with him, he dashes back off the road in front of my car. Cars are honking behind mine now, I ignore them. I make one more attempt to call the dog to me, and hope I can take him to a safe place, the shelter is just two blocks away. He makes a run for it, up the hill (away from the road, thankfully) and disappears into neighborhood fences.
This time the dog is lucky, at least for the moment. He didn't get hit by a car, he didn't run down the road, but if he had stayed in the street a minute longer, who knows what the outcome would have been.
Of course, if he hadn't been afraid of me, I could've helped him. I could've looked at his tags, I might have been able to locate his owner, or at least taken him to the shelter so they could find his owner. None of this was possible because he was afraid. He was not properly socialized, and ran instead of being happy to see me, and glad of help from a friendly human.
THE IMPORTANCE OF SOCIALIZATION:
Humans, dogs, cats, and many other types of pet animals are naturally social creatures. In other words we live, play and socialize in groups. Nonetheless, it is still important for the young of both humans and other animals to learn how to be social and follow acceptable social customs.
An animal that grows up in isolation, or even in the company of only a few others will not learn how to cope with unfamiliar groups or situations and may in fact become excessively fearful and/or aggressive when introduced to someone or something new.
Proper socialization is not what most people think. Socialization is more than just taking your pet places with you, or having a second animal to play with at home. Socialization is the act of familiarizing one creature with another creature, species, place, smell, sight, object, sound, touch, or situation so as to reduce the likelihood of fearful and/or aggressive behaviors.
Many people are unaware of the importance of socialization. Most of us would like to know that we could take our companion animals to the vet and not have them bite the doctor, crawl under the table, or start a fight with the other animals. We would also like to have them not be so afraid that they have to be muzzled, sedated or held down (especially by several humans). Proper socialization (creating multiple positive encounters with all things unfamiliar) is imperative and may save the life and mental well being of your pet.
Proper socialization includes having an animal that is not afraid to meet unfamiliar animals, is ok during thunderstorms, and the 4th of July, they have no issues with vacuum cleaners, or strange objects, sounds, smells, etc. Proper socialization means your pet is ok with being handled by unfamiliar people, is not afraid of your veterinarian, a groomer, a pet sitter, or a person who is trying to rescue your escape artist, runaway, disaster victim, etc.
THE ROLE OF PERSONALITY:
Just like with humans, there are many different personality types among animals. Some animals are natural extroverts and some are natural introverts. This will affect how quickly your pet will respond to socialization and how often you will have to refresh their social behavior. Some animals have been previously abused, or have been reprimanded for being aggressive toward other animals or people. These things can slow down your progress or even make it impossible for you to proceed without help.
Some of you may be saying, “I don’t want my dog/cat/bird/etc. to like every other person it sees. I want it to be loyal to me. I want it to be a good protector/guardian.”
How many people can you be friendly with before you are no longer protective of and loyal to your loved ones?
Socialization does NOT make an animal less protective or loyal. It does make an animal less fearful and therefore better able to make choices that can save its life.
MORE THAN EXPERIENCE:
Socializing your animal so that they like and look forward to meeting humans is only the beginning. It is also important that your animal learn how to get along with members of his own species. This includes learning how to be respectful to babies and adults and play well with others, especially when there are size differences.
It is important for you to understand that having multiple animals in your household doesn’t socialize your dog/cat/etc. with others of its kind. It does socialize your pet with your other pets.
Socializing your dog with other animals requires multiple positive experiences with many other animals. The more sizes, differences in shape, color, age, breed, and species you can find to create positive associations with Buddy the better off he will be.
A PLAN OF ACTION:
Socialization requires that you actively work to socialize your pets. If your animal is very fearful or shows any signs of aggression during socialization, you will have to move forward slowly. You can only go at the pace of the animal. Regardless of age, or experience, proper socialization may be achieve. It is possible to create a happy, healthy, social companion animal. There are several goals you will wish to accomplish in your pet’s social training.
* Make sure that you socialize your animal with men and women, adults and children. It is imperative that your pet learns that people of both sexes, and all ages are GOOD!
* Give your pet lots of opportunities to learn to be social with all the species you can - include animals of all ages, shapes, sizes, species and breeds.
* Socialize your pet with strange objects like: hats, uniforms, boots, clown make-up, wigs, balloons, etc. and with strange noises like: gun shots, sirens, thunder, baby cries, fireworks, etc.
Socialization requires multiple POSITIVE experiences (taking someone who is terrified to the haunted house everyday will not make them brave). Be sure that your animal is enjoying the training you are doing with him. If they aren't enjoying it, you'll create traumas instead of positive social experiences.
If you need help, and specifics, feel free to contact me. AND remember, the best time to start socializing your pet is NOW!
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