Dog Socialisation 1 – What do you think of when you hear the word “socialisation”?

Socialisation.

That is a big word, isn’t it? And one that is not particularly intuitive either. 

Just a couple of weeks ago, we took Donna for an audition a temperament assessment with a Dog Daycare Center. Before that, the owner had asked me over email, “what breed is your dog”. And when I replied mongrel, I was asked – “Is your dog socialised?”

To say I got my hackles up was an understatement. I got the underlying implication that mongrels are likely to be trouble-makers, and further conversation with the owner of the daycare center confirmed the truth of my suspicions. The owner said that the few times they had a mongrel, it had caused them problems.

Do we look like problems to you?

What happened to – Please treat each dog as an individual and see them for themselves?
Wasn’t that the point to the temperament assessment?

Is your dog socialised? – A very simple question.

I refused to answer it.

I don’t think socialisation is a one-day or even a one-week exercise. And to be honest, it would hurt my pride to say that my dog is not socialised. That will just blow all the time and effort I spent on her in the last 10+ months to smithereens.

If you have been reading this blog, you will know how much time we spent outdoors with her daily, how much we varied our walking routes so that can walk safely and quietly past dogs, people, bicycles, cars and cats, how much time we put to training her everyday on basic obedience, and how we try to engineer outings with other varying breed of dogs so that she may be expose to all sorts of dogs etc. , how much time we spent reading up on dogs so we discover there is a whole other dog world out there beyond Cesar Millan on TV.

What was I doing all that time then? If not socialising my dog?

We’re social. We’re kind of wishing you’ll be sociable with us too!

I wholly believe socialisation is an on-going process. My dog is not un-socialised, but she is not certifiably socialised as well. (It’s at times like this I wish I have that piece of paper called Good Canine Citizen to wave around! *paces around, agitated. :P*)

We did go ahead with temperament assessment. That Daycare Center is the nearest to our flat.

Process of temperament assessment

First thing the owner did after greeting us was to abruptly take Donna alone to an enclosed cubicle where she could spend time alone with Donna there. Donna paced around and jumped against the short wall surrounding the cubicle to survey her surroundings. We weren’t there and she could hear the dogs in the other play enclosures.

After a while, the owner starting introducing dogs, one by one into Donna’s cubicle. Donna did fine, so they took her to the larger play room where all the rest of the dogs were. Donna took some time to adjust, since she usually is more fearful in unfamiliar situations, and stuck close to the wall nearest to the office where we were. The office was a separate room where she couldn’t see or hear us, but we could see her view the online streaming video.

Eventually, she seemed to be more comfortable and started to play-bow this loudmouth of a beagle. So that’s good. Our Donna passed the temperament assessment.

That niggling sense of dissonance

And yet, I can’t help having this niggling doubt of whether Donna will be blamed because she is a mongrel, should there be an incident between Donna and another dog during daycare. I can’t help it. The seed of it was planted the moment the owner asked that one simple question – Is your dog socialised?

An innocent looking question, but it speaks volumes for the owner’s own understanding of mongrels as a type of dog for her business.

I’m good with small dogs :) Are you sure I am not good for your business?

It is human to be protective of your own dog, just as it is human to be protective of your own daycare business. Nobody is in the right or wrong.

And so we do intend to have Donna go to daycare when our schedules get too tight. And hopefully, as we get to know the owner better, there would be more trust in this relationship .

On hindsight, I do feel that perhaps I was too sensitive when it comes to the Daycare Center owner’s comments. But it was the first time I had come directly across someone with a clear bias against mongrel dogs. Of course, I do pass by the odd parent that tells their children the dog will bite them when we go for walks. But I tend to think that these parents will warn kids about a dog, whether it is a mongrel or a big dog like a Golden Retriever. At least, I am hopeful that is the case.

Have you had similar issues with Daycare before? What do you look out for to determine if a daycare center is a good choice for your dog?  

This is part 1 of a series of posts looking at socialising our dog. Look at for part 2 where we talk more about what is socialisation, coming soon!

Note: Some of you who have been visiting recently or have read the about page, will already know that I am not the expert, having only adopted a dog early this year. What I have written in these series of posts on Socialisation, is what I understand from what I have read and my experience with Donna. What I hope to achieve with this exercise is hopefully a discussion on dog socialisation and from there verify or adjust my approach, based on the good learnings I may get from this discussion. I am sure there is always room from improvement. I know I have benefited a lot from comments in my previous posts, and I hope you find the post and comments helpful too!