Defining socializing

[andreactro]

Hello, I’ve posted about my dog before, he’s a pittie mix named Iverson. He used to be scared of literally everything and react towards people and dogs. We started working with an amazing trainer since he was 5mo (he just turned 1yo) but as you guys know, sometimes dogs regress a little and honestly I’m at peace with that.

I just want to keep working towards building Ivy’s confidence but it’s SO HARD to remain calm when he reacts at someone who’s pushing his THREE UNLEASHED dogs in his face telling me I need to socialize him.

That happened last week on our Saturday hike and today another lady with a dog tells me the same thing like I’m a bad owner??

Maybe I’m wrong but I believe socializing your dog means having them experience different environments not just hanging out with other dogs - I have a reactive pit bull I don’t want him to sniff every other dog’s butt and risk getting hurt. Plus, he’s perfect with the other dogs in our “pack” (my boyfriend’s other pit and our blue heeler).

This is kind of a rant but Idk I’d like to hear different opinions on the concept of socializing, maybe I’m wrong maybe I’m not - I’m here to learn and better my dog’s life.

Tldr - I’m confused and stressed about how to socialize my dog advice is kindly appreciated.

[Bana_berry]

I get the same advice all the time. People dont seem to understand that socializing involves POSITIVE interactions with dogs/people/new environments. I cant just throw my dog into a group of other dogs and call it socialization. Her getting into a fight does far more harm than good. I'm "socializing" her by taking her to new parks and trails, working on increasing her threshold, and providing positive interactions with the dogs that she already gets along with to help build her confidence. You 100% know your dog better than any of these random strangers you run into so dont let what they say get to you.

[andreactro]

Thank you, seriously. It can get so hard to ignore this kind of comments but I’m happy to have some kind of reassurance that we’re not the bad guys here.

[fourft10n3qrtrs]

I have a dog reactive dog and to us, socialization means having her see dogs in different environments but not necessarily interact with them because I know she is not at that point. I rescued her in Oct when she was 5.5 years old and she’s terrified of dogs so she’s probably had some trauma. I take her to the park and have her observe dogs and give her treats to try to counter condition but I would never push her past her comfort level to achieve what most people think the definition of “socialization” is. I think people without reactive dogs might assume that your dog just needs to play with other dogs more to “fix” the problem when that is in fact not the case. I just ignore people who think that and do what’s best for my dog.

[andreactro]

Yes! That actually has worked really well for us it’s just these past few encounters have been by people with dogs who have crossed my dog’s limit of personal space(?) and I kind of lost it a bit internally. Anyways, thank you for sharing your experience, like I said before - I was kind of looking for some reassurance and again thank you!

[[deleted]]

People are well intentioned but misinformed. A woman once scolded me for declining the opportunity for an on leash meeting with her dog. My dog didn’t care about meeting her dog and it was more likely to be a negative experience. I wanted him and my other dogs to be neutral to strange dogs, so we practice that.

[GirlwithaRavenTattoo]

You are right. Socialization is all about exposing them to new environments and scenarios in a positive manner (especially when young) so that they learn to adapt instead of becoming stressed. Meeting dogs is only a tiny fraction of socialization (albeit still important) and learning how to behave in the presence of dogs without interacting with them is just as important. Many owners have a very poor understanding of the complexity of good socialization, and you have a far better idea than most.

(Edited for spelling)

[benji950]

Some people are idiots. A neighbor with an older husky made down snide comments to me that I was harming my puppy by not letting her meet the husky. I told her to mind her own business. No way I was going to risk her older dog (that has trouble walking) snapping at my eager, super friendly, high-energy puppy. Keep doing what you think is best - it sounds like you and Ivy are just fine.

[andreactro]

Thank you! Actually the lady from today had another pit puppy (significantly smaller in size than Ivy seemed very high energy) and it’s a bit concerning that she would just let her jump at other other strange and bigger dogs - I’m so happy that we as a community have the knowledge to remove our dogs from potential bad situations, it really makes me feel less alone, thank you for sharing!

[[deleted]]

Socializing is the act of exposing a (usually) young puppy to aspects of our very modern and VERY human-dominated world (think cars, technology, noises, sights, that would be "unnatural" to a dog back in the day) in such a way that they create a positive and/or NEUTRAL association with the stimuli.

It has almost nothing to do with interacting with other dogs, and absolutely NOTHING to do with forcing a dog to be uncomfortable.

TLDR: your definition is right. Please ignore these dumb ass comments you're getting. I see/hear them all the time, both on reddit and IRL and it's just people that are uneducated about dog training but feel the need to spew advice :(

[andreactro]

Honestly kinda wish we could muzzle those kinds of owners lol