Socialisation Classes for Puppies

Miss Behaviour Dog Training Services has a variety of socialisation classes for puppies. Our main focus is for those who are 8 to 20 weeks old, however ongoing training and socialisation classes are available.

Here is some more information about puppy socialisation in order to help you decide which classes are best for you.

What does socialisation mean?

Most people have a sense that they need to socialise their new puppy. However their understanding is sometimes limited to thinking about socialising their puppy to other puppies. While it may be true that some consensual puppy play action is a good experience to have, it is just a fraction of your puppy’s true socialisation needs.

So what is socialisation, really?

Socialisation is the developmental process whereby puppies and adolescent dogs familiarise themselves with their constantly changing surroundings. It is how they work out what is safe and good as opposed to what is dangerous and not-so-good.
Anything you want your puppy to cheerfully accept as an adult:

• People of all kinds
• Other animals
• Objects, things
• Different places
• Different situations and sounds
• Handling, grooming, veterinary procedures

You must introduce her to often and in a positive manner, preferably before 16 weeks of age. Then you have to make sure she stays comfortable with all these new things, from adolescents to adulthood.
Basically, teaching your puppy that everything in the human world is safe and good for them.

Wait! It’s not just exposure

As noted above, your puppy’s introduction to the world needs to be done in a positive manner. You want positive experiences so they’re loving it. Not neutral ones they’re tolerating. And certainly not negative ones that they’ll learn to hate. Therefore exposure alone isn’t socialisation. For example, that means putting your puppy in the Bunnings shopping trolley and saying they seen 50 people is just an exposure, and not necessarily a positive socialisation experience.

Why is early socialisation so important?

Consistently, one of the top reasons for relinquishment and euthanasia of pet dogs are behavioural problems.

Puppies who missed out on early positive training and socialisation experiences are more likely:

• To be fearful of objects, sounds, and unfamiliar situations
• Have sensitivities to touch, grooming and vet visits
• Be dog-dog aggressive

With this in mind, you can reduce the risk of behavioural problems by undertaking early, positive, training and socialisation experiences. In order to get the desired effect, it does need to be done properly. To that end, I recommend those experiences are guided by a canine behaviour expert and specialist puppy trainer.

Who needs socialisation?

All puppies need socialisation. And it’s important to have ongoing positive socialisation experiences, although you get more bang for your buck at a younger age.

There are 2 early stages

Puppies go through 2 ‘socialisation stages’

1. Primary socialisation – 3 to 5 weeks of age. This is associated with recognition of kin and developing canine specific communication skills. Obviously, this period happens when the puppies are with their mum and breeder.
2. Secondary socialisation – 6 to 12 weeks (~up to 16 weeks) of age. This overlaps time between the breeder and the puppies new guardian’s. Puppies are most willing to approach novelty and strangers, without fear during this time. For that reason, it’s best to have your puppy well socialised before 12 weeks of age (and certainly before 16 weeks). Your puppy is open to all of these brand new experiences, and can be taught that it’s all safe and good for them.
   This is your golden window of opportunity. Once that socialisation window closes, the fear responses kick in, subsequently making your positive socialisation endeavours more difficult, or impossible.

When can you start socialising your puppy?

As we learnt above, a big portion of a puppy’s socialisation period is actually spent at the breeders. And the breeder should be doing appropriate exercises and positive socialisation exposures with the puppies before they’re sold to you.

As most people get their puppy at about 8 weeks old, the race is on for the next 4 to 8 weeks to safely and effectively socialise your puppy.

Socialisation vs Vaccination

The socialisation window can close at 12 weeks old. But your puppy might not be fully vaccinated until up to 18 weeks old.

Do you have to wait for your puppy to be fully vaccinated before you socialise them at all? NO.

That is what puppy socialisation classes are for!

They are designed to be safe, clean spaces, for healthy puppies to go and socialise before they’ve had all of their vaccinations.

Lack of socialisation just as bad

A lack of early positive socialisation experiences can be just as detrimental to long-term behaviour than neutral or negative ones.

The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behaviour believes that it should be standard of care for puppies to receive such socialisation before they are fully vaccinated. Their position statement on puppy socialisation is clear:

“While puppies’ immune systems are still developing during these early months, the combination of maternal immunity, primary vaccination, and appropriate care makes the risk of infection relatively small compared to the chance of death from a behavior problem.
Veterinarians specializing in behavior recommend that owners take advantage of every safe opportunity to expose young puppies to the great variety of stimuli that they will experience in their lives. Enrolling in puppy classes prior to three months of age can be an excellent means of improving training, strengthening the human-animal bond, and socializing puppies in an environment where risk of illness can be minimized.”

Where can you find puppy socialisation classes?

Puppy socialisation classes might also be known as puppy preschool or puppy kindergarten. They are commonly run by dog trainers, or in pet shops and veterinary clinics, sometimes animal shelters or dog clubs.
These classes should have a good portion dedicated to safe, positive socialisation experiences. They’ll often comprise of training skills and other information as well.
Because I recommend undertaking classes with a professional dog trainer, you might like to search for a trainer near you and see if they have puppy socialisation classes. The Pet Professional Guild Australia has dog training professional members and this is a good place to start your search

How do you safely socialise a puppy?

As previously noted, a puppy socialisation class is a situation in which you can socialise your puppy. Not all classes are created equal unfortunately, so some diligence might help sort the wheat from the chaff.

What to look for in a puppy socialisation class

Location:
Is this a place that any dog can walk into? If so, how do they ensure you are separated from other dogs approaching?
Is it a place that sick dogs can be in? If so – how do they clean the premises to ensure your puppy is not at risk?
Size:
What is the size of the room? Is their ample space for socialisation and training activities? Will you be forced to be too close to other people and other dogs?
How many people puppies are allowed? Are they overbooked so it’s too crammed? Are there too many puppies per instructor to give proper attention to?
Personnel:
Who is the instructor and what experience and qualifications do they have? Basic puppy preschools can be run at pet shops and vet clinics. These are add on services. The core business of a pet shop is to sell you pet supplies. The core business of a veterinary practice is pet health. Generally the basic preschools in these locations are run by pet shop employees or vet employees such as vet nurses. Think of it as their side hustle. There’s no requirement for them to have undertaken any certification or extensive training in canine behaviour and training. Is it a regular pet shop or vet clinic employee fulfilling the role of ‘trainer’ – or have they hired an outside professional dog training expert?
Content:
What will you learn? There should be a blend between socialisation, training, and problem prevention. Some puppy schools can be too heavy on the ‘obedience’ side. You have your dog’s whole life to train them, but the socialisation window will be closing by 16 weeks of age. Therefore a bigger portion of the course should be for providing safe, positive socialisation experiences.

Socialising your puppy outside of class

Your puppy school should be providing a variety of safe socialisation experiences for you and your puppy. As well as arming you with the knowledge and skills about how to do it outside of class. As this is the most urgent, time sensitive period to do so. Therefore make sure that your puppy school will give you lots of ideas of what to socialise your puppy to. And most importantly, how to do it. You’ll need a solid foundation of ‘how dog’s learn’ to do this.

What can happen if it goes wrong

As mentioned earlier, a lack of experience can be just as detrimental as a bad experience. But both will leave the same effect on your puppy. Those issues with sensitivity, fear and aggression.
Having a puppy that is scared of people, other dogs or the world in general is difficult. It severely limits what you can do with your dog, and how you live your normal life e.g. Imagine you used to like having lots of people over to your house for frequent entertaining. If you have a dog who is scared of people, this is no longer possible.
You’ll need to spend more time and money with a professional force free trainer, and possibly a Behaviour Vet, to help undo the damage.
Prevention really is better than a cure. Unfortunately, Miss Behaviour sees a lot of juvenile and adolescent puppies that have behavioural problems from going to sub-par preschools. These problems could easily have been avoided, saving the pet owner time and money, had they gone to a preschool run by a real expert.

Our puppy socialisation classes

Puppies who receive proper early training and socialisation from an experienced accredited professional are less likely to develop issues like sensitivity, fear and aggression. Protect yourself from costly, long-term problems.
It needs to be positive to be effective.

Miss Behaviour Dog Training Service’s core business is… dog training and behaviour. Sarah is a specialist puppy trainer with years of study, knowledge, experience, with professional credentials.

All of our puppy school classes have a strong socialisation component to them, suitable for each puppy stage.

If your puppy is in their primary socialisation phase, we have two preschool classes for 8 to 14 week old puppies. Each providing the same quality socialisation experiences. You can join in our a casual drop in pass, or go through a full course in the Turbocharged training program.

Whether your puppy missed out puppy preschool, or you need more training and socialisation for them, our Kindergarten classes cater for this. The Kindy classes are for puppies 15 to 20 weeks old. Puppies in this age range will likely have fearful responses, as the socialisation window has closed. So these puppy socialisation classes provide remedial socialisation opportunities. And focus on techniques that help overcome fear.
if your puppy is 15 to 17 weeks old, try the Puppy Kindy OG class first. If your puppy is 18 to 21 weeks old, try the Blended Puppy Kindy class first.