As fall approaches and the temperatures drop it can be much less appealing to head outside and train. If your dog is already trained and socialized properly then you are in the management stage of training and this won’t matter so much.
Puppies are the ones that can suffer the most at this stage if you keep them indoors. They go through a socialization period from roughly 5 weeks of age to 12 weeks of age. Whatever they see within that time and have a good experience with they will tend to like later on. Whatever they have a bad experience or no experience with they will tend to not like later on.
So just by not having seen certain things can cause fear issues in dogs. This is why it is more common for dogs born in the fall or winter to be afraid of thunderstorms. They went through their socialization period not having heard them. This is also an example of why some people will tell me they think their dog is racist, they only bark at black people. This is merely for the fact that the dog often did not see any black people during their socialization period. Same goes for barking at people with walkers or canes, etc.
In the Spring and Summer it is easy to get outside and expose your pup to these things.
So come fall and winter it is still extremely important to socialize. Don’t wait till Spring, you will have missed your chance to take advantage of this critical stage. YouTube is a great way to find all different kinds of sounds. Make sure you still get out to socialize.
If you would like to learn other tips and tricks to make this easier and ensure your dog is very well socialized and trained, come see us. But whatever you do, make sure you socialize your pup. Missing out on this stage can cause huge fear based problems.
You can contact us for training at Tyson@DogSquad.ca
Happy training!