The APDT Chronicle of the Dog Summer 2020 | Page 26

CATCH Canine Trainers Academy
PUPPY SOCIALIZATION
Don’t Be in the Dark and Forget to Train Your Puppy on How Things Look at Night
By David Mureillo
CATCH Canine Trainers Academy
You could add these phrases to many items on
the checklist – and you better. Here are just a
few examples that reveal the difference between
daytime and nighttime socialization.
• Lido was okay seeing deer come tramping out
of the woods and into our yard throughout the
day. But he became very alert and concerned
when he only heard deer rustling in the woods in
the dark.
• Lido was fine with typical “sidewalk stimuli”
like garbage cans and passing cars. But he backed
up and gave a worried “woof” bark when he first
saw passing car headlights intermittently shining
on garbage cans in the dark.
• Lido wagged with friendly anticipation when
seeing strange people walk toward him on the
sidewalk during the day. But at night on the
same street, he was worried about “that big
thing moving towards him.” It was just another
harmless person in a hooded coat – but that must
have looked quite different to him in the dark.
There is nothing like the pure joy of knowing you are going to bring a
new puppy into your life. And then there are the technical details. Back
in October, I began raising and training an eight-week-old Labrador
Retriever named Lido. This handsome little fellow was not only getting integrated
into my family, but he would soon be a regular staff member at my wife’s therapy
practice as an invaluable therapy dog for her clients. Before I brought our pup
home, I printed out puppy socialization checklists from three different leading
organizations. I consolidated them into one list to make sure I was covering
everything possible. After two days of working with my pup, I realized there was a
critical element missing from all the lists: At night. In the dark.
The list can go on. Nighttime diminishes vision
and accentuates other senses. With darkness comes
all types of different lighting, reflections, flickers
and flashes. Sundown turns the same setting into
something new. Therefore, nighttime needs to be
added to every socialization checklist. A pup should
get an opportunity to have positive experiences
with all the same things he sees during the day –
but at night, too.
The Other “Miss” on Your Checklist
The other thing many people don’t realize about
a puppy socialization checklist is that the work of
socialization is not over after the critical period ends
around 12 weeks of age. It’s important to continue
socializing the dog through adolescence, particularly
to any situation where he may still show caution.
One reason for this is that an adolescent dog will
go through fear periods, sometimes reacting with
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