Socializing puppies to children is an important part of the socialization process and therefore it’s important to ensure it is done right. For instance, taking your puppy to a junior soccer game and letting a large group of children pet him all at once may feel overwhelming. There are right and wrong ways to socializing puppies to children and therefore it’s important to do it right. You are your pup’s advocate and it’s your ultimate responsibility to ensure that only positive interactions occur.
The Unpredictability of Children
It’s quite easy to socialize puppies to adults because adults (other than a few exceptions to the rule) engage in more predictable behaviors than children. When it comes to socializing puppies to children instead, you may encounter some problems along the way especially with the younger ones.
First of all, children, especially the younger ones, such as toddlers and preschoolers are perceived differently from dogs compared to adults. Even school-aged children and teens are perceived differently than the very young. Young children tend to move erratically, they talk in high-pitched voices and are often wobbly on their feet (expect the risk of the child falling on your puppy).
On top of that, consider that small children often want to do things to dogs that older children may not do. They may want to hug the puppy tightly and kiss him.
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They may approach the puppy from behind startling him. They may try to ride the puppy or roll on the grass with him. They may scream in excited voices and wave their hands around the pup’s face. They may run back and forth screaming at the top of their lungs.
These situations may be overwhelming to your puppy. You puppy may seem to cope with the child, but inside he may be overstimulated or scared. Allow enough encounters as such and he may grow to dread spending time with the “little monsters.”
The Unpredictability of Puppies
At the same time, you need to consider that your puppy may also be unpredictable. Your puppy may engage in behaviors that may be scary to the child. Small children may initially like your puppy, but then in a moment’s notice may act scared.
Perhaps, during the encounter, your puppy may end up rehearsing problem behaviors that you don’t want to put roots. These problem behaviors may be pulling on the leash to go greet the child, jumping on the child, barking at the child or even nipping the child.
Toddlers and preschoolers in particular lack impulse control just as your puppy. This combination can wreck trouble especially in the long run when your pup learns that small children equal excitability. With these smaller, hyper small children, it’s best to teach a puppy to ignore the child and engage with you rather than enroll in rough and tumble play.
This kind of play will only encourage rehearsal of boisterous behavior and will cause the pup to think this is the only way to interact with children. Not to mention, the pup can accidentally scratch, nip or cause the child to fall.
Allow Only Positive Encounters
As much as you may like to watch a child interact with your puppy hugging and kissing him, you need to intervene and provide your puppy with the support he needs. Puppy socialization is not about letting your puppy greet and meet all sorts of children, and hoping for the best. It’s about monitoring and allowing only positive happenings to occur.
It’s a good idea to always bring along some high-value treats so to help your puppy get out of a sticky situation with the least impact on his emotional wellbeing. Don’t just hope he’ll just be OK and get over an experience that is overstimulating or perhaps a bit frightening.
You can use the treats to create positive associations or to redirect and reward your puppy for promptly responding to a verbal cue or sound ( a smacking noise, whistle, pop of the mouth) that informs him to come to you for a tasty treat. Use this strategy in case you need him to disengage from an interaction that you feel may turn to be overstimulating or scary.
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After he successfully disengages, make a mental note to prevent him from encountering such a situation in the future and commit to how you can improve things next time. Make it a point of ending an encounter before your puppy has the opportunity to feel overwhelmed or over stimulated. Always end interactions on a positive note by excusing yourself while your pup appears calm and relaxed.
Socializing Puppies with Children
In a perfect world, socializing puppies with children requires a structured plan where you can predict how the child and your puppy will act, but this is not always possible. There are some things you can do though at least to try your best to make the encounters productive.
Starting slow and easy and then gradually working up to increasing challenges helps the pup succeed. For example, if being around small children gets your puppy too excited, maybe start taking him to a playground and let him observe children playing from at a comfortable distance. Reward calm behaviors. Gradually decrease distance as your pup appears more comfortable or better under control.
Then, you can move to exposing him to calm children (older children that you can give directions and are collaborative are a great start!). Simply invite some children over and have the children look at your puppy while you feed him tasty treats. Then, if the puppy approaches them, you can ask them to feed some tasty treats by dropping them to the ground (so to not encourage jumping) or you can feed them to your puppy for sitting nicely.
You can also train your puppy at home on how to target hands, and then ask the children to ask your pup to perform the behavior in exchange for a treat. If your puppy is reluctant to approach, don’t force the interaction.
If children want to pet your puppy, feed him treats while he’s being pet. This creates positive associations with the children and keeps your puppy focused on eating rather than jumping and getting too excited.