"Puppies First Weeks" 

Socialization, “A Puppies First Weeks”

Author: David Goodison

Date: Jan -25-2010

Socialization, what does it mean in terms of training a dog and preparing a puppy? To begin with, socialization of

puppies is the single most important activity a trainer can invest in with his or her puppy. If proper socialization does

not occur at the puppy stage, it is likely that the puppy will fail to realize its full potential. Most people understand that puppies must be nurtured and cared for physically with food and warmth, however, generally speaking people do not pay as much attention to socialization. Please understand that socialization is of the utmost importance to a puppies’ development, I would personally prefer to purchase a well socialized puppy from an average litter than a poorly socialized puppy from a top bred litter. 

This calls to mind a bad experience while purchasing a puppy. I drove to a breeder’s house where he had two well bred black lab puppies for sale. I was not sure if I would purchase a puppy because I already knew that the puppies

were almost sixteen weeks old and I usually prefer to purchase puppies at seven weeks and take care of the early issues myself, however, I needed a puppy and the breeder seemed to know what he was talking about when we discussed the puppies on the phone. When I first saw the puppies I was excited as they were jumping and running in lively fashion in their runs, which were inside a barn; this delight was soon quenched when the puppies were released from their runs and let run loose outside. Immediately upon going outside the puppies suddenly quieted down and dropped to the ground cowering and became extremely shy, this is evidence that they were kennel blind and that they were not socialized properly as the breeder just left them in the barn all of the time. Puppies left alone with no contact are often difficult or impossible to train, and very often if you do train a poorly socialized puppy you will have your work cut out. After some words with the breeder I left his grounds and did not purchase a puppy from him, and never will.  

Socialization of a puppy begins with the litter and continues for the dogs’ life. From birth to seven weeks of age puppies spend most of their time in the litter, but good breeders will make sure the puppies have lots of human contact. When we breed a litter of puppies we make sure to have our children play with the puppies, and when the puppies are ready we give them lots of time outside playing and running with our children. Vaccinations and whelping are important parts of managing a littler of puppies, but for most of us who purchase a puppy; our job begins in earnest when we take the puppy from the litter which should happen at seven weeks of age. Many people discuss the merits of when to remove a puppy from the litter and generally seven weeks is a good choice. If the puppy is taken from the litter too soon it will have detrimental affects on the puppies’ development, while if the puppy is left with the litter too long it may also have detrimental affects on the puppies’ development.  

At seven weeks old when you take the puppy from the litter make sure to have a name chosen for your prospective hunting partner. Have a name chosen and do not change it! The puppies name should not rhyme or sound similar to any of the commands you will use for the dog. The major commands will be, back, here, sit, heel, fetch, hup, hi-on, kennel and no. You may have noticed the stay command is absent from this list, that is because “stay” has no value and you can read more about that in other articles on my web site. I tend to choose call names that are single syllable and roll off the tongue easily, recently I have begun to hear advice suggesting a call name with two syllables so the dog can be readied on the first part of his name, and “instructed” as it were on the final syllable. The choice is yours, for hunting dogs; I prefer single syllable call names.  

It is also imperative that you have comfortable quarters for your puppy and also immediately take him to your veterinarian. It is always a good idea to have your puppy checked early and set up a schedule to receive vaccinations and regular check ups.  

Put a collar on your new puppy, one that fits comfortably, within a few days of taking him home. The collar will irritate the puppy for a day or two, but he will soon get used to it. This is the first step in socializing your puppy and adjusting him to the way things are going to be.   

After the puppy is used to his surroundings and his new home, begin play retrieving and make this experience fun and enjoyable for both you and the puppy. Use a piece of white rope or a small white dummy for play retrieving, and if possible, play retrieve in a hallway or some other confined area where the puppy must run to you as he returns with the dummy. We do not want to permit the puppy to run the other way and get in the habit of running away from you, if he does, do not run after him. What I usually do is throw a dummy to the dead end of a hallway while I sit on the ground at the open end of the hallway with the puppies “dog house” behind me. The puppy will instinctively want to retrieve his “quarry” (dummy) and return to his “safe place” (house), you want to be between his quarry and house, and his return path will be restricted by the side walls of the hallway so he cannot run around you. As he returns to you, gently grab him, remove the dummy from his mouth, then pet him and give him lots of praise. Then get him excited about the dummy by waving it in front of him and getting him “wound up”, throw the dummy down the hall and begin again. A note of caution, do not do this too much, five or six times is enough per session. It may take a couple of days to get the puppy interested in the dummy, I often remember tempting puppies in this manner and wondering if they would ever retrieve anything, but they soon caught on and became avid retrievers.

You must then begin introducing the puppy to new experiences and get him used to everything that he may encounter during the rest of his life; this is socialization. Between the ages of seven to sixteen weeks the puppy should be exposed to as many new experiences as possible. A word of caution, do not push the puppy too fast and do not try to expose him to every experience in one day, do not overwhelm him. You should get the puppy socialized to crowds of people. Walk him down a street, preferably with some light traffic and pedestrians, then graduate him to a full blown shopping area. Let passers by pet and play with your puppy. Build this activity up to taking him to a football game where crowds shuffle by and there is lots of noise. Take him to sandy beaches, grassy fields, muddy fields, areas where trains pass by, busy intersections, beaches, pebble beaches, bogs and especially take him where you will be hunting. Take your puppy on trips in your car or truck, get him used to the experiences that he will encounter as an older dog. This is the process of socializing a puppy. It is easy to see how well balanced and well adjusted a dog will be if he experiences these things in a controlled manner early in his life.   

Pay special attention here to key aspects of dog training. Dogs see the world in black and white, everything in between is a shade of gray for your puppy. When training puppies and young dogs I always use white dummies to assist the dog, we want to achieve high levels of success with the puppy and help him find the dummy every time he runs out to retrieve. As the young puppy progresses with retrieving at home or in the yard, graduate up to football fields, these are ideal; they allow a white dummy to be easily seen, and their featureless aspect makes retrieving easy. When you begin retrieving in the outside world with your young dog, do not run after him when he does not return with the dummy. Tie a check chord to his collar and gently get him back to you if he is inclined to not return with the dummy, or do as I prefer, run away from him and he will soon give chase. Always stay low to the ground and show excitement when the puppy is returning to you. Puppies will be more likely to return to you if you are at their level. If you remain standing they will slow their return or not return at all. As your young puppy is returning with the dummy blow three quick blasts on your whistle and then call “here” as you run away from him, this will introduce him to the “here” whistle command; he will not know he is learning, but he is associating the three whistle blasts with returning to you.

We also need to introduce the puppy to walking on lead. Do this with patience and give the puppy time to adjust. When you brought the puppy home you should have put a collar on him, now that he has become used to the collar it will be easy to hook a lead to it and gently walk him. If he resists, which he most likely will, encourage him and perhaps gently tug on the collar and coax him in your direction. He will soon get used to what you want and in no time at all he will be proudly trotting along beside you.  

Another critical socialization process will be to introduce the puppy to gun shot. Dogs are not born gun shy, they are made gun shy. Introduce the sound of a shot to the puppy when he is feeding, use a blank .22 pistol at a distance from the puppy. When you do graduate to a shotgun, have a friend discharge the gun at least one hundred yards away while you play with and comfort the puppy. When this has been achieved move the gunner closer and begin throwing dummies for the dog, he will soon get excited at the sound of the gun and look for retrieves.

The observant reader will have noticed that every introduction to new experiences is gradual. Introduce to a few pedestrians, and graduate to a football game. Introduce to short white dummy retrieves and graduate to orange or green dummies in long grass. This is the way all lessons should be taught. Introduce every new concept in as simple a form as possible. Do not expect a puppy to retrieve successfully for his first retrieve a green dummy in long grass at one hundred yards. Begin every new concept or lesson in a simple manner. Strive for success in the beginning and then add complexity and difficulty. Only after the dog understands the concept, then begin introducing complexities. Complexities can be added in the form of increased distance, angle water entries, re-entries, wind direction, terrain, obstacles, water and memory.  

The use of white dummies mentioned earlier cannot be underestimated. I understand that some readers may well disagree with me on this one, but when training young retrievers, the goal should be high levels of success, coupled with teaching the puppy to mark downed game by sight. This helps develop great marking ability in retrievers. If your retriever has to hunt every time he retrieves, he will rely on his nose too much. This can, and will, hurt a retriever when you have to develop his blind retrieve ability. It is merely a question of what you want to manage. If you have your puppy hunt a lot, you will have your work cut out teaching him to run straight lines while completing complex blind retrieves. If you use white dummies early in the puppies’ life, and have him mark the fall visually, you will have to develop some hunting ability later in life, a very easy task on average. I guess what I am saying is that it is easier to develop hunting abilities rather than blind retrieve abilities. Hunting comes natural to retrievers, it has been given to them from above; lining a blind retrieve is a trained standard developed for hunting and field trial enthusiasts and is not something that retrievers do naturally so focus on that first.

Having hunted and competed in tests on both sides of the Atlantic, I have seen the differences in training cultures. Europeans in general have developed their trials around driven shoots where steadiness is a key attribute; North Americans have developed their trials around the individual hunter. There is not one absolute correct way, just different preferences and challenges. I have developed my training standard from both sides of the Atlantic, and I highly value certain standards from both.  

To summarize socialization so far:

1: Remove puppy from litter at seven weeks

2: Play retrieves with puppy, no reprimand

3: Introduce puppy to new experiences

4: All new experiences should be introduced slowly

5: Success, success, success for new lessons (next article will explain this more completely)

6: Have fun and enjoy

My next article will deal with the sit and stay command. The sit command is the most important command in all of retriever training. This is the foundation which all other commands will be built upon. To achieve excellence in retriever training the trainer must demand, and attain, exacting obedience to the sit command. This means that when a single blast is blown on your whistle, no matter how far away your dog is, or how fast he is running or swimming, he must turn, look at you and sit. This is the platform from where you can direct him to the area of the fallen bird. This is not a difficult task to attain if trained for correctly.

For help with retriever training issues or to plan waterfowl hunting vacations in Canada, contact the author at, dave@canadianwingshooter.com, or to review video clips from our up and coming TV show, visit our web site at www.canadianwingshooter.com.