Socialization
I'm familiar with socialization of puppies, or dogs in surroundings such as a humane society where there are other dogs readily available but not right in another dog's face. I'm a bit in a pickle with how to work on Katie's socialization. I've never rehabilitated in terms of socialization with dogs. She is great with people as long as she doesn't feel caught off guard (then she just submissive pees, but I do know how to work on that). I'm not sure how to start her gently with socialization with other dogs. Something like a day camp (we did that with Kobe from the start and she is great) would be way too overwhelming. My cousin brought their boy lab over the other weekend and both she and Kobe stuck their noses up and ignored him or got crabby (Katie was nervous, and didn't get any better even with us right with her), poor boy. I don't have a ton of friends with dogs to do individual socialization and I'm not sure how to put her more at ease around a new dog as it is. I'm just not sure how to gently initiate this. Do we just take her around where there are other dogs but not initiate any interaction, just let her be around them until she is more at ease and then work our way up? She does bark for a moment at other dogs and is interested, but once she gets up to them becomes less curious and more threatened. Then what's "up" from there? Next step, one dog? In a neutral place? With or without Kobe? They both boarded over the weekend and the staff tried both of them with other dogs - Kobe has loads of fun as always playing with the others, but when Katie joins Kobe becomes sticky-girl and 'protects' Katie because she can tell that Katie is nervous. Per our request they removed Katie pretty quickly and just spent one-on-one human time with her instead. I feel like Kobe's behavior, while nice, is reinforcing Katie's behavior and can make Kobe act out of character as well. I am just not sure how to help her without totally scarring her for life. She is of course still learning to trust us but is still fearful and behaves accordingly around new dogs. Any suggestions/stories/personal experience are greatly appreciated! |
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| I assume she is barking at the other dogs to warn them off, since she is basically uneasy around them. My question always is - does she need to learn how to have other dogs in her face - or how to be around other dogs and not interacting with them?
Think about what your daily routine is, what your expectation are for her and what you need to do to make those things work. One of my dogs has really no interest in other dogs - they scare her when they are uncontrolled around her and sticking themselves into her space. But I can take her to the pet store, to the vets, to agility class, to rally and agility trials and she is fine (well unless a rare dog manages to lunge at her - in which case she will bark). We board her where she has private play time - or with our boys. When we train her, we work on skills that allow her to feel more comfortable around other dogs- not up and personal, but near them. I hope to get to the point where a dog can charge her and she won't bark, but for now - I think if they are rude enough to come into her space, I can live with her reaction. For her, since we have our own pack, socialization is more about being comfortable in all sorts of settings around all sorts of people, and how to be more comfortable if other dogs are around. |
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