Over the last few months, I posted quite a bit about healthy socialization. Here are some things to remember: Dog socialization is the act of socializing dogs, and social behavior is a spectrum.
Picture this: On one end of the social spectrum is pro-social activity or behavior, in the middle is social behavior or activity, and on the other is antisocial behavior or activity. My goal is to help my clients promote social behavior in their dogs. My client’s dogs should accept things, people, small animals, and other dogs in their environment without getting too excited or defensive.
Most of my clients contact me with reactive dogs. Their dogs get too excited or anxious about things in their environment. Sometimes, it is people entering their houses; sometimes, it is anxiety about loud buses or trucks; sometimes, it is the dog’s behavior when they come into contact with other dogs. My approach to these problems is to help my clients reduce their dogs’ latent stress and consistently demonstrate their control over the timing of events and the space around the dog. When they reduce their dog’s stress and use their control over timing and spacing, they will develop the ability to influence their dog’s energy output. Their dogs still get excited or nervous, but instead of expressing their feelings with a high energy level, they learn to express their feelings with less energy, making it easier for them and their owners to navigate through their community.
Power of the Pack Walk
The Power of the Pack Walk is its ability to help dogs form habits for good energy management. How so? Well, dogs learn from experience by forming associated behaviors with those experiences that become habitual. Dogs, like people, can become excited, neutral, or defensive when they meet others. If a puppy feels nervous when they see other dogs and uses a lot of their energy (barks a lot) to avoid interacting, and the other dog leaves (the owner of the other dog walks away), that is their experience. If most of the time when they see dogs, they act the way they did the last time, they will start to associate using energy to avoid interactions with dogs. It will not take long for the puppy to form a habit of barking a lot to get dogs to move away. A dog with this habit will bark at dogs without thinking. They do it because it works and because they have not experienced/associated any other way that gets dogs to move away.
Pack walks can help to change the puppy’s habit if we first teach the pup how to calm themself and allow them to experience being near dogs without expressing that amount of energy (barking) and seeing the dog leave. If a pup is allowed to or able to practice, they will, in time, form a new habit of being calm when they see dogs. This is easy for me to do because of my training and experience; the average person does not have the same experience. If they did, their pup would not have this problem behavior.
The pack walk is the Argos Dog Training’s way of creating new experiences that help dogs and dog owners form new associations and develop new habits. Before the pack walks, we practice routines that calm dogs down and teach them to be aware of their energy level regardless of their surroundings. Then, we meet to practice those skills around others in busier locations so my client can benefit from my experience and quickly improve their abilities. As their abilities improve, it becomes easier for them to maintain calmness with their dog, and the client is in a position to change their dog’s habitual behavior.
Join Argos For Pack Walks!
I am happy to announce that, weather permitting, Argos Dog Training holds open pack walks on the last Saturday of every month. There is no charge for these walks.
An open pack walks allow our community to join us without prior training to get to know our trainers and other clients, assess their dogs, and start giving them new experiences. To attend, you must complete our contact form and pack walk application.
Thank you for reading, and Enjoy Your Dog!!!