Why Socializing Your Dog With Other Dogs Is Important


Often as dog owners, we do everything in our power to make sure our furry family member is healthy and happy. We feed them top-notch food, we exercise them physically and mentally, but in our busy lives, we often forget one important element: Letting our dog play with other dogs. In my blog posts I have often talked about the issues owners have with treating their dog like a human. Dogs are not humans, they are dogs! And the more we humanize our dogs, the more neurotic our dog becomes. Dogs crave other dog interactions and when these needs are not met, we often get a depressed, stressed out canine companion. In turn, this leads to health problems, because stress and depression break down the immune system.

As a human, imagine going your whole life living with an alien species that does not speak your language. I suspect you would eventually forget your native language or even how to be a human. You would eventually take on the behaviors of your alien family all the while fighting against your human instincts.You would be at odds. A dog, by instinct, is born knowing how to be a dog. In a natural pack, these dog behaviors in the puppy are reinforced by the mother and then by other dogs. But, we have a problem: this natural process is interrupted by humans. A human will often adopt a puppy into their human pack and thus disrupt this natural learning process! We now have a puppy that needs to learn how to be a dog AND how to properly behave around humans. As humans, we often do a good job (or a kinda good job) at training our dog how to behave around the human pack. BUT, we often neglect the dog aspect and we get a depressed, frustrated canine. Allowing your dog to interact with other dogs in a pack setting can alleviate a lot of behavioral problems you may be experiencing with your dog. In fact, dog packs can often do it faster. Take for instance, biting too hard or becoming completely frantic during play. A dog interacting with other dogs, will quickly learn that if they bite too hard or become out of control, they will lose their dog friends. Being cast out of a dog pack is the ultimate punishment for a dog. Let's face it, dogs need dogs in order to be a dog, because we humans can't do it. We aren't dogs.

Veterinary behaviorist R.K. Anderson DVM, Diplomate ACVB and ACVPM, Professor and Director Emeritus, Animal Behavior Clinic and Center to Study Human/Animal Relationships and Environments, University of Minnesota, offered to her colleagues in an open letter: "the risk of a dog dying because of infection with distemper or parvo disease is far less than the much higher risk of a dog dying (euthanasia) because of a behavior problem." This letter was written regarding puppy socialization classes and you can read the full letter if you click HERE. 

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