07 Apr Puppy socialisation should be fun, but not all about play!

While our puppy socialisation and training class is fun, it is not all about play. Our puppy socialisation class is structured and controlled with good engagement training coupled with short periods of play in a calm environment. This helps prevent future problems and helps build a proper relationship with your pup. We use reward based methods!

Allowing your puppy to run free for an entire class would result in the session becoming out of control, where some puppies will become fearful and others become highly energized and out of control. Puppies that are over-socialised can often become more bonded to other dogs than to people. It is best that the owner is with the puppy during socialisation, as it gives the puppy a sense of security.

This is one of the reasons why dog parks or other environments with lots of free play available, are not suitable for a puppy. Often these settings are noisy with overexcited dogs exhibiting unwanted behaviours towards your puppy. Rough play with older dogs or other puppies can set your puppy back and be the cause of behavioural issues as they mature.

Think of a puppy socialisation and training class for a puppy as pre-school for children. The activities should be fun, but the class should be structured, the environment calm and the children supervised!

Dave has spent time with three top American socialisation specialists Chad Mackin, Jason Visconi and Heather Beck and has being running puppy socialisation classes in Limerick since 2007.

These puppies look pretty happy to me!