강아지 사회화: 강아지를 위한 놀이 시간과 허용 #127

because I don't understand how to play with them. So, socializing your puppy is really good. But does that mean that every puppy should play with every puppy they meet? Absolutely not. Because as our dog's best advocate, we always have to look out for situations that can build our dog's confidence. And guess what? Unfortunately, just like with kids, some puppies are bullies. And so, we have to be really careful of the puppies that we let our dogs socialize, our puppies socialize with. I personally would rather a puppy socialize with really puppy savvy adults than other puppies that are bullies because it could go in a wrong direction. Now, let's assume you have found somebody that, hey, this puppy seems like a, you know, really good puppy. I've seen him play with other puppies. That's great. But it still shouldn't be a free-for-all. Number one rule of letting puppies play, it's got to be safe. So, there's two ways that it can be safe. First of all, the environment. I'm going to make sure that if I have, and it's an indoor environment and the floors are slippery, I'm going to put down some mats. My favorite are the dirty dog doormats. I got to tell you, I have them all over my house when I have a puppy. And then again, I have them all over my house when I have a geriatric dog. It allows dogs at each end stage, the beginning stage of life, that they have the ability to get strong purchase up on their feet. So, there isn't any splaying of the legs. There isn't any like Fred Flintstone turns and then they slide into a coffee table and then a lamp comes crashing down. So, number one, I want the environment to be safe as possible. Now, my house here has got a slate floor. And so, for the most part, it is pretty good for the dogs to get a good purchase on. It's not like a polished or a tile floor, but I still like to put mats down just to err on the side of caution. So, safe is the environment. Now, if they're outside on grass, that could be a great environment. However, what's around that yard? Are there things? Because when puppies are chasing other puppies, they can be looking back in the wrong direction and they could end up running into something. And I have heard horror stories of puppies being very, very seriously injured in that kind of situation. So, if you're lighting a puppy, play out in the yard, make sure that anything that is out there is protected. So, if you have like, say a pole in the ground, then you maybe put some padding around that or chairs around that so the puppy can't go smashing into that. Okay. Environment is safe. Number two, the puppy is safe. And so,

we want to work with dogs that will give signals that explain to the other party, I'm about to do something in play. And they are nonverbal signals, obviously, because the dog can't go, I'm about to do something in play. Duh. They're nonverbal signals. I could do a whole podcast on what that looks like. But the safest thing to do is, you know, ask their owner, have they played with other puppies? Have they played well with other puppies? Okay. That's a good sign. Let them have a little play session. And so, what I'm going to do is once I know that it is safe, I'm going to have a short play session that might be two or three minutes, and then I'm going to try to intervene. So, number one, it needs to be safe. Number two, I like to be involved with it. A problem can happen if you just go, Oh, you got a puppy. I got a puppy. Let's go watch the game and let these puppies rip around for three hours. Well, we're watching the game because how could this go wrong? Number one, the puppies could get overtired. And when they get overtired, they, just like kids, they could get cranky. And then somebody says something about somebody's army boots. And then all of a sudden it might turn a little bit serious. That doesn't have to happen. You can intervene and say, you guys have played enough. How about we chillax? And then we could have a little play session afterwards. So, I personally like to make sure I'm part of the beginning of every play session and I will call my puppy back now. If your puppy isn't going to call back, like Xanthas puppy obviously was like, woohoo, this is so much fun. I'm not coming back. There's things you can do. For example, you could have two dogs playing and you get laying down on the floor and make goofy noises. They're going to go, well, what's going on there? And when the two puppies come in, each owner can take the puppy and maybe go to a different room, play a couple easy puppy games, and then come on back with the puppies on leash. And here's where the next step comes into because safe involves the word consensual. So, we've had a puppy play session. And what I would do is I would look at the puppy who was the biggest aggressor, meaning that they were the one that was maybe on top more. They were the one that was a little bit more rough. And I would withhold that puppy and I would take the other puppy off leash. And I would, before I just take the leash off, I would have them sit or do a simple behavior. And then I would say the words, go play. Now, if your puppy doesn't have any simple behaviors, take the leash off, hold them and say the word,

go play. I'm trying to build conditioned, classically conditioned, really positive experiences with the phrase, go play. It goes through me. If I say go play, something amazing is about to happen. Now, if your puppy was the one that was a little bit of the more submissive, the one that is a little bit not the aggressor in the puppy play, and you say, go play, and they turn and kind of go behind your back, then they're saying, you know what, I've had enough for tonight. How about we just take a chill pill? Now the likelihood is your puppy's going to go, okay, you say go play, I'm going to go see my friend. Right? And then as soon as the other puppy owner sees that that puppy's going to play, then you can quickly release your puppy with the same go play. All right. So, puppies play sessions need to be safe. Number one, they need to be coming through you. And if rolling on the floor isn't enough, you might even just take treats and, you know, depending on the age of the puppy, put some treats on the floor, say search, and the puppies are going to come in and search. And then you can give them a cookie, pick them up, move them somewhere else, clip their leash on, move them somewhere else. So, get them out of the environment so you can break that session up and then bring them back together. I would never have a puppy play session go on for like two hours. For me, I like to interrupt, have them go play, interrupt, have them go play. The other big reason I like to do this interrupting is if you just let your puppy play with every puppy they see until they're tired, guess what? When they see dogs on the street, they're going to get very, oh, it's my buddy, we got to go play. They're going to lose their focus for actually going for a walk with you. And it's all about, I love dogs. I love all dogs. I want to see dogs. Now, socialization means we want our dogs to be a hundred percent okay with dogs. They don't have to be every dog's best friend. And quite honestly, I got to tell you that my dogs tolerate other dogs, but they never see another dog on the street and go, yeah, I would like to know you better. It's just not who they are. They get so much fun playing with me that there's no need for playing with other dogs. They play with each other, but they don't see strangers on the street and say, dude, I'd love to meet you. All right. So, we've got keep it safe. Keep it safe before you start. Make the fun go through you intervening so that you break it up. Make sure that the puppies all are consenting to go back to work

and make sure when you're breaking those puppies up that you're taking a water break. You know, make sure there's water down. Do you guys want a drink here? Here's a drink. That's something that you can keep the water bowls up every couple of minutes, put them back. And it's another great reinforcement that comes through you. Now, the final thing is the more people I talk to about puppies, the more I have grown to understand one of the biggest mistakes people make with their puppies, aside from choosing the wrong way to train them and maybe choosing the wrong food to feed them, is they don't give puppies enough time to sleep. Puppies need a lot of sleep. And I'm not just talking about two-month-old or three-month-old puppies, year-old puppies, 15-month-old puppies. They still need a lot of sleep. They're curious. They want to do what you want to do. So, you have to be the higher learner and say, Hey, guess what? This is going to be your little nap time. You're going to have several nap times throughout the day. We can catch up later. And it's also really good for that puppy to have time away from you having a nap. So, when your puppies are playing all out with another puppy, it's super important that you go, Hey, let's just intervene. We'll put them both up in a crate and separately. They can have a little nap. Then we can come out. And if you're visiting with your friend who has a puppy, you're there for a few hours, then have a focused play session. And then the first one, as I said, it might be you come apart, you evaluate, do you want to go back and play? And the lesser aggressor says, the lesser aggressor. How much fun is that? The lesser aggressor says, yeah, I do want to play. So, they might have another puppy session, intervene again after, I don't know, you can tell when there's a lull in the action, when they're all out crazed, is highly unlikely you're going to have success intervening. Eventually you are going to get to a place where when your puppy is maybe three, four, five, six months old, you just have to say their name, especially if you've taken recallers and they're going to say, Hey, yeah, I want what you want. And then you can use the opportunity to play as another reward. So, keep in mind though, that I might do, I don't know, no more than 15 minutes total with me intervening. And then I just give everyone a little chill. Let's all go to our separate corners. And then guess what? Adults get to visit, maybe have a bevy, get to have a little chit chat. And then maybe another hour goes by,

let the puppies come out again. It's an event, not a way of life at that point. So, the puppies learn how to socialize. They learn the language, the unspoken language of other dogs. You're growing great social skills, but it doesn't become a way of life. We don't want puppies to think their reason for living in life is to seek out all the other dogs in this world and be with them. Because that makes it much, much more difficult walking down the street. Quite honestly, I mean, most puppies grow up and they learn that it's, you know, my family comes first and yeah. Hey, Fred, good to see you, but don't feel like playing hindsight today. All right. Keeping that in mind, puppies play can be safe. And I want to remind you again, not all puppies have the same play style. Not all puppies are meant to play with your puppy. So, you be your puppy's best advocate and step in and say, you know, I think we're good. I think we're going to go and play with little Freddy down the road because little Freddy is, you know, seems a little bit more calm and has the same kind of play style as my dog. Now that's not to say that big dogs can't play with little dogs because big dogs that really understand that unspoken language, they'll learn to curb their way of playing. So, instead of body slamming this little puppy, they'll probably get down on the floor and let little puppy face bite with them and play that way, maybe paw at each other a little bit. And then if the big dog gets excited, they might run around and then come back. I remember Momentum when she had her litter of puppies, there was these four puppies playing downstairs and Momentum had this burnout when she just went whipping around or all around the puppies, intentionally not touching a one. And then she just laid down and started playing with her puppies again. So, adult dogs or older dogs or bigger puppies, they know how to curb their style for a smaller dog. So, it isn't necessarily the size of puppy that dictates whether they would be good to play with your dog. It really is their style of play and how they learn to control themselves and curb their enthusiasm based on the partner that they have playing with them today. That's it for today. If you'd like to know more about that unspoken body language and how dogs give these signals that say, hey, let's play, just come over to YouTube, leave me a comment and we can talk again. I love talking about how puppies play because guess what? It's wove into all the games that we have as part of our training. I'll see you next time here on Shaped by Duck.