Everyone who has had an Infindigo puppy (or attended my puppy class) will recognise the socialisation refrain. As far as I'm concerned it is the single most important thing you can do for your dog. (I used to say that it is the 2nd most important thing they need after food - but let's face it, as long as there are cats, sheep and horses in the world to leave poo lying around, dogs will never starve to death. Yuck.)
Everything your puppy experiences as a youngster will have an impact on the rest of his life, and so it is our responsibility to make sure they are exposed to as many safe and safely scary things as possible before they are 12 weeks old and beyond. The point is to teach them that although the world may well be a big scary place, it's not a big bad place. Socialisation teaches puppies to be confident, happy and brave, at ease in new situations and adaptable in the future.
The puppy pack that goes home with each of my puppies includes a sheet on socialisation - there's plenty of work to be done by the new owners. But the socialisation started right here when the puppies were born, and since they have moved downstairs the experiences have ramped up.
It started with daily handling by myself and Jay, being put in a cardboard box each day, when they were old enough, standing on the carpet, on a towel, on newspaper, on cardboard. They moved downstairs and suddenly there were lots of people to meet and be handled by, many new noises and many new experiences. For one thing, they get a daily visit into the garden pen, weather permitting. They get to play with - and on or in - wide range of things like cardboard boxes, plastic bottles, noisy things, slippery things, movable things.
They also get an increasingly thunderous daily dose of both the Crash Bang Wallop CD and its cousin, Clix. These desensitisation CDs have similar but different sounds for a broad range of experience for the puppies. The former has a particularly amusing (and irritating) section on laughing, crying and screaming - babies and adults. Clix seems to have a lot more banging & gunfire, but dogs in Devon get to hear plenty of that anyway since it seems people around here never get tired of killing things.
In addition to all the people and sounds, by the time these puppies are 7 weeks old they will have had 2 trips down the High Street being carried by me & Jay. This exposes them to a wide range of traffic in the form of cars, lorries, buses and motorbikes. On the way they get to visit the friendly folks in the post office, bakery and pet shop. It's a walk that takes 25-30 minutes, round-trip, without a puppy. With a puppy it takes an hour or more.
Also by that time, each puppy will have had a few minutes alone in the indoor pen and the outdoor pen, starting at one minute and building up to 5 minutes. Each one will have had a walk (being carried) down the park just as the primary school lets out for the day, getting to sniff and touch things along the way - branches & leaves, tree bark, hanging ivy, etc. And each one will have spent some time in the car both just sitting quietly and with the engine running but not moving.
When they are 7 weeks old they will travel in a group to the vet to have their eye test. Some puppies suffer with travel sickness, some don't. With this bunch, I'm guessing only one or two will be sick. We'll see.
For today, a selection of puppies acquainting themselves with the toys.
Kicker pauses from the job of killing the tug rope to pose for the camera
Budgie getting to grips with the bone. It's fascinating the way these tiny new puppies hold & chew bones exactly like their adult counterparts.
Kicker again - this time with the pheasant - while his littermates have a snooze. I particularly like the bottom with feet in the air behind him.
It's a mystery why Vee thinks the hard rubber hoop makes a good pillow.
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