Social Enrichment, teaching your dog to cope to different environments

It's late, for me, but I wanted to continue my post on Social Enrichment. I was struggling for the words and I found the word- coping. How well does your dog cope to different environments, situations or people? The dog I wrote about a few days ago, was returned to the shelter for growling at the children and not playing nice. Not sure what not playing nice is, but this dog was trained. He knew sit, stay, down, shake and was leashed trained. However, is not safe to be around small boys. When you get a puppy, yes think about training, but get out and let that puppy experience all it can each and every week. Help to teach your canine to cope to a variety of environments, situations and people. Each of these experiences need to be positive, but if the puppy is scared or nervous, help them cope. If you have an adult dog, do the same thing. All you need is a few basic control commands, Come-Sits or Look will do. Visit each new spot a few times and then move on. We need to quit thinking that if we train a dog in a traditional obedience class, that does not make a safe dog. We need to do more!

A short blog tonight-
www.kcdogguy.com - Check out my new leashes at my website. Shelter tested by Wayside Waifs!
www.akitas.org & www.bluemoonakitarescue.com

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