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Early Training: Socialization from Four to Six Months by Jennifer Floyd
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| (Originally published in Choban Chatter, Vol.
10, Issue 2) |
| While growing up, your pup should be spending most of his
or her time in the sort of situations that it will be expected to be familiar
with as an adult. If a companion dog, that means spending a lot of time meeting
all sorts of people, young & old; the initial socialization can be made up
of friends and acquaintences at home, but once your pup has all of its initial
immunizations, socialization should include lots of rides in the car, training
sessions near stores, in parks, and other busy places. If a flock guardian, your
pup needs to know how to interact with the stock, and be introduced to whatever
species it will be expected to protect. As there is already quite a bit of
literature about socializing the human-bonded dog (How to Raise a Puppy You
Can Live With 3rd. Ed., by Rutherford and Neil, is an excellent book), I
will hereafter concentrate on the development of a flock guardian. |
| Ideally, your pup will be introduced to the stock by
following you around when you are doing basic chores. This way, if the pup tries
to play with or mouth the stock (as they would with a fellow puppy), you are
right there to correct them with a "No!", or by rolling them over on
the ground and holding there a moment, telling them "Leave it!" Voice
corrections are usually very effective with younger pups, and I only roll them
if they are ignoring the voice. Be careful that young pups are not seriously
frightened of, or injured by the stock - a ram could do serious damage, and some
ewes will back a pup into a corner to butt them. |
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| Belligerent ewe approaches pup. Pup shows submission. |
| I supervise early interactions
closely, until the flock is accustomed to the new dog, and the pup knows to stay
out of the way. When not directly supervised, the pup should have its own
training and sleeping pen, where he or she has shelter, and can be close to the
stock and observe and bond with them. This can be a simple as a few livestock
panels wired to some T posts, or a portable chainlink kennel also works well.
This pen should be right where the flock eats, or otherwise spends a lot of
their time - if your flock ranges over a wide area, you may want to temporarily
pen a few individuals next to the pup for it to bond with. Younger animals or
wethers are usually a good choice. |
| The sorts of behavior that you want to see with
your pup are: lying quietly near the flock, walking slowly around the flock,
lowering head and tail if they move through the flock, and showing submissive
behavior to the sheep (see accompanying photos of 5 month old pup with yearling
Shetland ewe). The pup may circle the flock with head and tail up when
responding to a threat, but not in response to the sheep. |
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| Pup wiggles forward on stomach, trying to be ingratiating. |
| By the time the pup is around six months old, if they have been
exhibiting responsible behaviors, you may be able to start leaving them with the
flock for longer periods; if you have active young lambs, though, you will
probably want to continue supervising, as the pup may be able to avoid
initiating play behaviors, but if invited to do so by bouncy little animals, the
temptation may be too much. Wait until later (maybe next lambing season), if you
have a very young pup and lambs at the same time, to let them be together. |
| The main focus of the training and bonding process, is to
avoid letting the pup fall into error. Fix any mistakes right away, and you won’t
have retraining problems later. |
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| Pup cuddles up to ewe and ewe accepts her. |
| Next Issue: Adolescence |
