When I learned of the ridiculous number of dogs that are sent to shelters every year and then euthanised because the shelters don’t have the space to keep them, I knew I just had to do something to make some kind of difference to the reason why. Approximately 40,000 dogs are surrendered to shelters every year. Of that number, 30,000 are surrendered due to issues with the owner, such as poor health, housing, lack of time or a lack of interest. Whilst I accept there isn’t a great deal I can do about the owners, there is something I can do when it comes to problems presented by the dog. Of the remaining 10,000 dogs surrendered, over 9000 enter shelters due to behavioural problems. If only more owners had the knowledge of how to address these issues, many, many dogs wouldn’t have been surrendered to shelters and then needlessly killed. To find a solution to the problem, we must first identify the cause. Why are so many dogs abandoned by their owners? No one buys a dog to just give it up, so the reasons must be pretty serious. Do they feel like there’s nowhere to turn? Do they feel like they have already tried everything they can think of before resorting to such drastic measures? One of the main reasons dogs enter shelters is due to serious incidents, such as dog bites or attacks. So, in order to fix the problem, let’s work backwards. The biggest reason dogs bite is through fear, but what are they frightened of? Depending on how it’s presented, anything and everything can frighten a dog if they’ve never seen it before. So how do we make them more confident and less likely to react? The simple and most effective answer to that is SOCIALISATION!!!
A dog’s critical socialisation period is 3 – 12 weeks of age. Most puppies don’t leave their mum and littermates until they are 8 weeks old. During this period, they learn valuable social skills from their mother and littermates. They learn impulse control as their mother starts rejecting them feeding from her as their teeth start to hurt her teats and they move onto dog food. They learn to go to the toilet away from the area they sleep. They learn how to play nicely and control the strength of their jaws, through a yelp from their littermate if they get too rough. A knowledgeable breeder can also do a lot to give the puppy every chance of success. They may start with Early Neurological Stimulation as early as 3 days old until the 16th day. Regular handling by people will get the puppy used to being touched and held, and once the eyes and ears are open at around 2 weeks of age, the breeder can start introducing various other forms of stimuli.
It’s very common for dogs to be scared of the sound of fireworks. This is largely because the sound of fireworks is only usually heard around early November for a few nights and unless a puppy is born in August, September or October, it won’t hear the bangs and screeches until it’s critical socialisation window is closed, but what if a puppy was exposed to the sounds of fireworks from an early age where a recording of the sounds are played on a speaker? As long as the sounds are introduced gradually and not too loud at first, it makes perfect sense that the puppy would grow into an adult dog without that particular fear, right? This goes for everything that can scare an adult dog. If a wide range of stimuli is introduced to a puppy before it is 12 weeks old, we can help the puppy grow into a confident and outgoing adult dog. A puppy is only 75% immunised from killer diseases such as Parvovirus and Distemper at 12 weeks old, but the likelihood of an adult dog being abandoned to a shelter due to a lack of socialisation when it was a puppy is far more likely, so we must continue the socialisation the day we get it home. We need to take the puppy out to see the world carrying it in our arms and make sure anyone meeting the puppy has clean hands to minimise the risk of infection. We need to introduce it to people of all appearances and ages, especially children! Creating a positive association with people will mean the puppy will grow to enjoy the company of people as an adult dog and therefore minimising the risk of dog bites.
A puppy’s first 8 weeks with its littermates will tide it over until it can continue its socialisation with other dogs on walks and at the dog park once fully vaccinated. There is a huge amount of work to be done during the 4 weeks between bringing the puppy home and taking it out for its first walk. Just in the home alone, there are lots of stimuli we need to introduce to the puppy. A free interactive checklist is available to download to make it easier to cover a wide range of stimuli from sights, sounds, textures and smells. Many dogs don’t like going to the vets. This makes perfect sense when you think about what a dog experiences there. Physical restraint and gets pricked with a needle. I’m sure most vets would happily spend a few minutes saying hello to a puppy and giving it a couple of treats in order to create a positive association with being at the vets.
It’s when we think about things from the dog’s perspective that we can truly understand what makes them tick and how we can influence and shape their behaviour. If dog owners that encountered a problem with their dog reached out and sought help or even just purchased one of the many books on dog training, they would be better equipped to deal with problem behaviour, and therefore reduce the risk of their dog going to a shelter.
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