Is this a social call?

Socializing... calmly and politely existing in different environments and around different individuals, human and canine- this definition of socializing doesn’t mean physical contact like petting, feeding treats or getting jazzed up with other dogs.

Most of us are led to believe that the term socializing means a pile of puppies playing wildly, strangers touching and feeding treats to our dogs, and stopping to ‘meet’ face to face and on tight leashes every dog we encounter. These are actually all situations where our dogs are under a lot of pressure, they are uncertain, their adrenaline is up and it’s a perfect opportunity for some bad encounters with lasting effects to happen. Dogs don’t need to interact with strangers .... human or canine. All they need to do is calmly and politely exist around them. I love having the opportunity to walk my dogs in busy urban areas because they are exposed to so many stimuli while they are working and it’s an amazing socializing experience for them... but they are WORKING. They are not staring or loading (getting amped up and intense) by looking at other dogs, they are not being touched by strangers (I advocate for them and politely tell people not to touch them) and they are not having encounters with other dogs (we create space so that everyone can pass at a distance and not feel pressured). This is how we can create calm and respectful dogs through socialization and what we can expect from our dogs.