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If you’re planning to bring home a puppy in the near future, you have a special opportunity to shape how your pet is going to interact with other dogs and people for the rest of its life. While puppies are born with lots of unique personality traits, how they’re raised plays a very big role as well. To raise a dog that’s always going to be comfortable meeting new people, following a few key strategies can help put your puppy on the right track.

A Quick Note About Vaccinations

Puppies need to get a number of vaccinations during their first four months of life. Until these vaccinations are complete, it’s important to avoid going to places like dog parks. Doing so could put your dog at risk for a range of diseases.

Bring People to Your Puppy

Instead of taking your puppy to places with both humans and other dogs, you can invite people over to interact with your puppy. You’ll obviously want to choose people who are comfortable around dogs. While young children generally aren’t the best choice, it is a good idea to include slightly older kids who will interact with your puppy in a positive way. Exposing your puppy to a mix of children, men, and women will prevent your new pet from being scared or nervous around any of these specific groups in the future.

Additional Tips and Preventing Biting

In general, the more people you can expose your puppy to as the weeks progress, the better. You can also use these opportunities as a chance to practice basic commands with your puppy. And even though you don’t want your puppy romping around until it’s at least four months old, you can use a carrier to take your pet out into the world in a safe and controlled way.

When puppies grow up together in a litter, their play fighting teaches them how to avoid biting too hard. As the person responsible for your puppy, you’ll need to handle this training. The best way to teach bite inhibition is by verbally yelping when your puppy gets too rough. You can pause your play for a couple minutes. And if your puppy continues being too aggressive, you can provide a “time-out” by standing up and ignoring your pet for several minutes. This will reinforce the concept that biting brings an end to fun play.

By making socialization a component of your dog’s life from the very beginning, you’ll be able to raise a pet that’s very confident and well-behaved. The same concept applies to nutrition. Starting with our puppy formula and then progressing to our other quality dog food blends as your pet grows will provide all the nutrients it needs to thrive.