Dog Socialization

Socializing a dog is one of the best things that you can do for your dog. When you socialize your dog with other dogs he is forced to learn to interact with other dogs. This goes a long way toward becoming balanced. Socializing your dog means that you provide frequent opportunities for your dog to interact with other dogs, getting to know them and playing with them. In doing this it is very important to pick dogs that are already balanced to be playmates with your dog. If you introduce your dog into a group of unbalanced dogs it will do more harm to your dog than good.
Your dog is able to pick up on the energy, or attitude, of the dogs to whom it is introduced, and start to exhibit that same energy. This means that if you introduce your dog to a pack of dominant and aggressive dogs that push everyone else around your dog will probably either be pushed around and become extremely timid or your dog will adopt the same energies and attitudes of the pack and become dominant and aggressive as well.
Socialization is important but so is finding the right dogs for your dog to socialize.
The second part of socialization is with humans. For a dog to be comfortable among strangers that dog needs to be socialized and shown that strangers pose no threat and at the owner's decision they can be approached or simply ignored.
Along the topic of socialization, Chelsey was introduced to another dog today. While I was bringing her back to the Humane Society another volunteer was taking out Chance. I had already established a trusting bond with Chelsey so when I corrected her for inappropriate behavior such as mounting and biting she complied and stopped her bad behavior. Chance on the other hand did not do so well. He repeatedly tried to assert dominance in ways unacceptable.
There are a number of things that will be put into order to help move Chance beyond this behavior and help him associate with other dogs. This will come in a later post.