The importance of Socialisation for your pup and Puppy school

Puppyhood is the most important and critical time in your dog's development. Socialisation and puppy training from the very beginning is so crucial – specifically within the first three months. You don’t want your pup to become frightened later in his life due to not being socialised properly as this can cause an anxious shy dog, or an anxious aggressive dog.

You want to make sure your pup gets to experience everything. Our breeders actually gave us a checklist as a guide for things we should try and socialise Cooper with – great idea! The list included things like; different sounds- bikes, garbage trucks, trams, vacuum cleaner, lawn mowers, storms, different feels – grass, concrete, pebbles, different people – children, elderly, babies, and the list goes on.

The main concern people have regarding early socialisation is that the pup is not fully vaccinated until about 12 weeks, making it hard to socialise with all of these things. I personally think that yes you do need to be extra careful as pups are prone to disease and viruses – however, as socialisation is so important we took Cooper to visit friends and family’s dogs that we knew were fully vaccinated. We also walked him very early in the morning when no one was around and we took him to puppy school.

Jase and I have a lot of knowledge on puppy training but we were always going to take Coop to puppy school – it’s the cutest thing! It is also such a great way to socialise your pup with other puppies and you and your pup can learn so much!! I 100% recommend taking your pup to puppy classes. We found our puppy school through our local vet and they were great. Tilly was the trainer – check out there website. http://www.secretdogsbusiness.com/make-a-booking/

Finally – please remember that if you want a well-balanced adult dog it is key that you socialise your pup with everything at a young age.

Plus, Cooper passed puppy classes with flying colours and made some great friends!