Dr. Lucas Kandefer talks about pet behaviors and pet training. One really important issue and key point he wants to make to everyone is that dogs in particular, have a very short socialization window. What that means is what our pets learn when they are young is what helps form what they are going to do the rest of their lives. So, usually about between 12 and 20 weeks that kind of learning curve really starts to narrow. He says we find our dog really doesn’t know what normal is if they haven’t been exposed to things in that time period. Dr. Kandefer recommends making sure your pet meet new dogs and meet new people in that time period. During COVID that can be difficult but try and find a way to expose that pet to what should be normal.
A lot of our dogs at one point will find that firework issues and thunderstorm issues are things we see during the summer months with dogs that were born in the winter. They weren’t exposed to that noise and they don’t know what it is and they don’t understand or interpret it and that’s where they see a lot of those phobias. The same thing with people. He says we do find that that they aren’t exposed to hats, different heights of people and especially children in particular, and they don’t know how to take that, so when we expose them early it really helps them learn how to cope and how to manage and how to interact and do things. The more they see early the better they will do later.
