Jack's First Big Adventure

On Saturday, (Jack's 8 week birthday) we decided to officially begin little Jack's socialization program.

We have a checklist of around 50 things that, if your dog could experience them all before the deadline, would create ideal socialization.

Let me know if you want me to post that list.

We tried planning out what we would do, before we left home, but we couldn't decide, so we just got in the car with all three dogs and headed out to the town 6 miles away, where there are lots of things going on.

The whole thing was a BLAST and a hundred times more fun than I ever imagined it would be.

I think I mentioned that Jack is supposed to experience 100 children UNDER the age of 6, before his deadline. If you think about how you could achieve that, it seems difficult. But we had some success on Saturday, I think. I didn't ask the age of the children we found, but they weren't much older than 5.

First, we went to the health food store to look for some high quality dog food the trainer told us about. I carrried Jack under my zip-up sweatshirt, with his head poking out, so he could stay warm and somewhat subtle, so we wouldn't get kicked out. He got to see a store, aisles, stuff, and various people nearby. At the checkout, he got to hear surprisingly loud noise of the crinkling of paper bags. He was calm but attentive. Then the cashier saw him and went, "Awwwww!" and I told her he was in training to be a therapy dog and had to have a lot of experiences, and that she should feel free to pet him, so she did. He was calm throughout.

Stepping outside, I saw a bowling alley next door and thought it would provide a lot of noise, unusual sights, and a lot of people on a Saturday, and maybe children if we were lucky. So we went inside. There was SO much noise, that I thought we should stand at the door a while till he got used to it.

By the way, there is a thing called "bounceback" in socialization training. Your dog will probably feel like being cautious when he encounters new things, loud noises, etc. In that state, you cannot pet or praise or acknowledge him. But once he "bounces back" and exhibits calm acceptance--that's "bounceback"--you should praise him. This teaches courage.

So after Jack had his bounceback, we went in slowly and calmly. It was filled with people! And noises! And smells! Perfect.

Right away, a young girl, apparently of India origin, came up and went, "Awwww!" so I told her what he was there for and asked her if she wanted to hold him. She was in her early teens. You can't let a young child hold him, but she was old enough. She took him and he kissed her like crazy. She held him a while and asked questions about him. Then he came back.

His first victory! Not only a stranger, but youngish, and ethnic. Meeting various ethnicities is on his checklist.

Next, we walked around hoping people would come over and interact. The noise was tremendous but he was fine with it. then I saw a lot of pink balloons at the end lane and saw that it was a big birthday party for a bunch of small children. Perfect!

I wandered down and sure enough, they spotted Jack, and came over. The mom came too and supervised their interaction with him, as she was a dog person. They were too young to hold him, but she made them sit down and then they could hold him. We were there a half hour, and during that time, he was in the hands of at least 20 children, almost certainly 5 years old. Not 20 different children, but about 10 different children, but several times. They were very gentle with him. He wasn't thrilled, didn't try to kiss them, but he was calm. He looked at me a little, but not all the time. I watched for signs of stress in him, and he seemed okay.

One of the children, a tiny Asian boy, had the idea of all of us making a circle with Jack in the middle to let Jack go to whomever he wished. Great idea! Jack liked being in the circle and went up to different kids. Definitely not trying to get away from them or get on my lap.

Bonus: the mother used to work at a nursing home that allows dogs to visit without their being therapy dogs. She gave me the name of the place, and the contact person. Now I know how he can go into a nursing home and experience all those sights and smells. Though for insurance reasons, I wouldn't let him contact patients.

Next we went to a coffee shop. At this point he fell sound asleep. Then we went into a pet shop (I'm still carrying him to avoid ground exposure or contact with other dogs, etc.). He got to see very active talkative parrots, one huge, and an amazon gray who was VERY interested in him. Then he got to see all the children looking at the parrots and then at Jack. He got a lot more petting from adults and children. Then he saw the ferrets in their cage. One really liked Jack and came over and they looked at each other thru the glass. He also saw cages full of small birds and was interested.

Next, we went to the mall, figuring if I carried him, it was safe from dog viruses. We discovered something big there. When you carry a small puppy, a HUGE number of females will come up to you and start talking to you and ask to pet the puppy. Not one single male came over, but at least 20 females of all ages came up to us, on their own initiative. They all petted him and he was nice to them all. Some teenaged girls held him so that they could take photos of each other holding him.

All in all, he must have met 50 people that day. We also made sure he was the inside of stores, heard sounds, and moved into lots of environments.

Then we came home, and he was very sleepy, but we felt he had had a great first adventure.