So, now that Layla's home we've been jumping right in with training and socialization. So far she's doing very well with housetraining and is adapting very well to her crate. She also learned "sit" and the command to go in her crate. We didn't originally start housetraining using the bell method and so she goes to the door and sits there, but sometimes it's hard to tell if she's trying to let us know she needs to go out, so we've missed her cues a couple times, resulting in a couple accidents. We put some bells next to the door and ring them when we say, "Go potty," so I'm hoping she will pick up on that soon.

Anyway, the next big task ahead is socialization. She only has her first round of shots and will not get the second until early November, yet I would still like to socialize her with as many people and dogs as possible before the 12-week-old mark. I have enrolled her in a four-week-long puppy socialization and training class at the MSPCA (an animal shelter/hospital/education and advocacy facility where I used to volunteer quite regularly) that starts next Saturday, so I'm hoping that will introduce her to a lot of new dogs and people and get us on the right track in a safe, enclosed environment.

Any other great tips or techniques you have for socializing a nine-week-old husky before they have all their shots? What did you do with your young puppy?

If you have any friends that have dogs/puppies that are currently vaccinated and up to date, you can always set up play dates with them at each other's house.

I took Sheba everywhere with me. However, in highly populated areas, I held her. I took her to coffee shops, I took her to parks, I took her to outdoor malls, I took her to pet stores. In the pet store, do NOT put your puppy on the ground. I made that mistake with my old Lhasa Apso and almost killed her. I took those sanitizer wipes and wiped down the little area I was going to put her in. I held her at the park, but I put her on the ground at the coffee shops. While you don't want to take your pup to a dog park at let her go, she still needs to be exposed to "germs" to build up her immune system. I do not think it is fair to a puppy, nor productive, to keep them in a little bubble until 4 months old (usual age for rabies shot). SOO much of the important socialization gap has closed by that point.

All in all, take your pup anywhere and everywhere you can. Take frequent car rides. Go through an automatic car wash, go to a drive through bank.. anywhere.

Take her to any decent sized city and walk/carry her around. It's impossible not to socialize her that way. When Dizzy was a baby, I couldn't walk 10 feet without people stopping me and ooing and ahing and loving all over him while telling me how to raise him lol.

With Parker I just had play with my friends' dogs who had all their shots, while it's ideal to socialize your puppy early it's also never too late to socialize them, but it just takes more effort and patience. So don't worry about it being too late

Layla can hang out with us every day if she wants  ( I totally forgot to message you my # I will do that now)

I agree with tons of carrying outdoors. While going to friends houses is beneficial, it didn't really help Yuki since she /only/ bonded with the people she came into contact with, and wasn't exposed to multiple people at a time. I agree 100% with Kelsey and Jen, go to outdoor shopping malls and everywhere you can think of just to ask people to say hi to her.

Thanks for all the great advice. I tried going out with her today and hope I didn't scar her for life with too much at once. We live on a relatively busy road (not super busy but some pretty large semis go by regularly, especially in the afternoon, and make lots of noise) just down the street from a train station. I wanted to take Layla there to sit outside the depot and meet people waiting for the train. I started off carrying her but then put her down on the sidewalk to see if she'd walk. She was terrified by all the cars and noise and just laid there. I carried her to the train station parking lot and she seemed OK, was investigating things, but soon as we got back to the sidewalk she froze and just laid down again and wouldn't move. I tried coaxing her with a soft voice and treats but she wouldn't eat. The good news is we did get to meet one neighbor who was mowing his lawn. She seemed fine when he came over to pet her.

The issue is now she won't even go to the front door if it's open because of the road noise. In the back yard when I try to take her to the front she won't go, and any sound from a passing truck makes her run back to the back door in fear. Again, she will not take treats and my soft voice doesn't seem to help. It's incredibly frustrating, as she used to be totally fine with going to the front yard and now she won't go at all. I don't want to force it but she will have to get used to this and I'm afraid she never will. I think next time I will take her to a quieter area and slowly build up to where she can go out the front door and be OK with the road noise. Is this a good idea, or has the damage already been done?

Something like that happened to my too, Parker was afraid of other dogs barking and he refused to walk, I carried him sometimes and I coaxed him with treats I just did a little bit everyday, and when he got all his shots I took him to the dog park and he finally stopped being scared of other dogs and I could walk him again. In your case I would slow build her up to it or you can just drive her somewhere in your car and open the windows and talk to her and give her treats, after a while she should be desensitized to the noise. It'll take like a few weeks but she'll be fine, she's still young so she gets scared easily.

Good to know I probably haven't scarred her for life! I'll work on taking her to less-trafficked areas and take it more slow until she's less scared. I'm also hoping the puppy classes I signed her up for will help build her confidence with dogs and people too. She's actually pretty good with people, wags her tail when they approach, licks them when they pet her, etc. With dogs she's usually interested but sometimes cautious, depending on the dog. I hope once she gets used to all the sights and sounds in her environment she'll be more at ease.

Good idea on getting her used to traffic. It's important

Just be mindful not to reinforce her fear or anxiety and only give her attention when she's accepting the situation and behaving like you want her to. She'll be self-confident in no time.

Keep up the good work.

Something to add, is that you will notice her going through various periods of development. One week, nothing bothers her, then next, she sees a mailbox (that she's seen a thousand times) and gives your the 'omg, wtf!' reaction, and this goes back and forth. Diz is in a phase now where skateboarders and loud trucks freak him out. It's nothing new to him, or nothing he hasn't seen before, but he's a bit spooky when one goes past. As Jeff suggested, I don't really register the reaction and just act like its no biggie. A couple of months ago, he was freaked out by the storage cellars below restaurants. They have doors on the sidewalk that open and for whatever reason those freaked him out for a couple weeks, now he doesn't even notice them.

capellalayla wrote:

Thanks for all the great advice. I tried going out with her today and hope I didn't scar her for life with too much at once. We live on a relatively busy road (not super busy but some pretty large semis go by regularly, especially in the afternoon, and make lots of noise) just down the street from a train station. I wanted to take Layla there to sit outside the depot and meet people waiting for the train. I started off carrying her but then put her down on the sidewalk to see if she'd walk. She was terrified by all the cars and noise and just laid there. I carried her to the train station parking lot and she seemed OK, was investigating things, but soon as we got back to the sidewalk she froze and just laid down again and wouldn't move. I tried coaxing her with a soft voice and treats but she wouldn't eat. The good news is we did get to meet one neighbor who was mowing his lawn. She seemed fine when he came over to pet her.

The issue is now she won't even go to the front door if it's open because of the road noise. In the back yard when I try to take her to the front she won't go, and any sound from a passing truck makes her run back to the back door in fear. Again, she will not take treats and my soft voice doesn't seem to help. It's incredibly frustrating, as she used to be totally fine with going to the front yard and now she won't go at all. I don't want to force it but she will have to get used to this and I'm afraid she never will. I think next time I will take her to a quieter area and slowly build up to where she can go out the front door and be OK with the road noise. Is this a good idea, or has the damage already been done?

This is one of my favorite topics! YES! You are doing exactly the right thing. In our puppy class we were given a check list of things to do, see, experience that included things like mowers, busy streets, cows, trains, a loud little kids, a person wearing a hat, a person in a wheelchair, an older person, a person on a bike, a person wearing a mask or helmet, a shy kid, a crying baby.
A scared dog is a SCARY dog... If you do not get her acclimated to these things when she is young, she may act out in fear and hurt someone when she is older. Perhaps you could try to re-introduce her to the street during times of the day when it is the least busy. She's still getting used to everything, but soon she will hang of everything. She's new to this big, scary world! Go, Layla, you can do it!

Quick update on Layla's progress: I planned on taking her to a high school soccer game today just so she would get to meet some new people. I took her to the high school and wasn't able to find the game but we did see the marching band and color guard practicing in the parking lot when we arrived. She was a little scared at first because of the booming drums and instruments but we kept a pretty good distance and she just sat and watched for a while. I carried her to where I thought the game would be and along the way met a few students who asked to pet her. She LOVED all the attention and gave them plenty of kisses back, her tail wagging furiously.

I really think that after that moment something switched in her as she realized how fun it is to meet new people and it's not scary at all. After she met the students she seemed totally confident, not timid or shaking, wanting to approach anyone she saw and eagerly exploring everything. When we got back to the car instead of running away from the marching band she ran toward them as if she wanted to say hi to everyone! I would have loved to have everyone meet her but they were busy and we had to get home so I got her to go in the car.

I see today as a huge step forward. Meeting the kids seemed to be a big turning point. She's even more easygoing around traffic now; the noises of loud trucks going by the house and the sights of large vehicles speeding by doesn't seem to bother her. We are set back from the road a bit so she can stay a good distance away and just watch the traffic go by comfortably. She still won't go down the whole driveway but I'm hoping in the next few weeks we can get her there.

Tomorrow she's got a play date (with Laura and Selena!) and then Saturday she begins her puppy socialization class, so I'm feeling much better about her progress and the ability for us to get her socialized appropriately and safely before the "magic window" closes for her in a few weeks.

That's awesome! Congrats on the progress

That's great news! She is doing so well! Our neighborhood rec league soccer fields, where we used to go alot, has banned dogs! We complained but they stood firm. (One reason sited was the owners who fail to pick up after their dogs...here's the funny thing...we have no leash laws in this county, so a dog from our neighborhood could visit the fields, unaccompanied, at any time pooping all over the place! Crazy...)

Liz, it's so funny how different our girls are personality wise. Caoimhe will go up to anyone who will show her love. ALthough she is around 2 kids everyday, so I'm sure that has something to do with it. We walk her to pick my daughter up from school every day, so she is constantly having tons of people come up to her. Last night we went to a puppy play group and despite that fact that she does get very mouthy when she is playing, she did NOT like the super agressive play from a couple of the older puppies. She tried to get over to me a few times to hide but then shortly got right back in the mix. We have found a handful of free puppy socialization groups that we will be taking her to weekly and start classes next week as well.

She'll be great the more exposure she gets to different stimuli. Let us know how puppy class goes!

We just got back from our playdate with Laura and Selena. They had a great time together! Layla loved meeting all the people and playing with Selena. Selena's definitely got the size advantage and if she got too rough Layla would run under the closest pair of legs, but she wasn't timid or scared and had a lot of fun chasing, wrestling, etc. I think she came away from it with a bunch of great new experiences and is learning her way around in the dog world and in the human world too. An added bonus: Now I will have a pooped puppy for the rest of the day!  

Woohoo, another step forward! Layla's getting much bolder the past few days and today we went most of the way down the driveway to the road. We didn't go all the way down to the edge yet (I didn't want to push it and we don't have a sidewalk on our side of the road so I didn't want her to go too close) but overall I'd say it was a very positive experience for Layla. We have lots of fallen leaves on our lawn that she really loved playing in! She rolled around in them and seemed to have relatively loose body language, so I'd say overall it was a win!