WHY SOCIALIZATION IS SO IMPORTANT
- Friday, May 30 2025 @ 10:16 pm UTC
- Contributed by: erik
- Views: 1,038
WHY SOCIALIZATION IS SO IMPORTANT FOR SHEP OWNERS SOCIALIZATION IS SO VERY IMPORTANT, IT CAN SAVEW YOURS DOGS LIFE!
I had a rough time today dealing with a stressful situation surrounding a healthy dog that a lady wants to euthanize because her husband was no longer there to care for him. This problem is of their own making and is the basis of this article.
I got a call this afternoon from a distraught lady who just put her husband into a facility and now had to decide what happens with her 8 year old male German Shepherd dog. Her family wasn’t interested, so she turned to rescue or euthanasia to fix her problem. This 8 yr old healthy male, has a lot of life left in him but sorely lacked social dog on dog skills. I could see just how upset she was on the phone, so I told her to bring him (Marco) here so I could evaluate him, and possibly put him in rescue. I asked her the usual questions about Marco and was led to believe he was a ‘softy senior’ who we could help. Test and verify, is how I operate, and the rules of the rescue dictate that we only take in people and dog friendly dogs, no exceptions. Everyone will tell you that they have the best dog! No so fast Sparky! (In the owners eyes their dog is special but you can’t make that decision until you meet the pup and see for yourself.)
Marco came over and proceeded to radically fail our sociability test, and therefore I was unable to take him. The lady was devastated; but the answer is not in assuming someone else’s problems, but rather what they should have done over the years to have avoided this crisis. She went from my house to a vet to put him down. The vet refused, and also called me. That broke my heart.
Marco was never truly socialized and only somewhat trained. They had him from 8 weeks! He was never handled consistently by the wife, nor was she able to control him. Age of the owners, you might say is the cause, but I say BS. If you are going to have a GSD you must socialize the dog from the time he enters your home. You need to reinforce social techniques throughout the dog’s life by walking them in public and meeting people, by friends in the home and in general, exposure to life outside the home. Medical care is important, but so equally is socialization. You also must have something in place, where if you become unable to care for your pet. It is a good idea to have a place to put him or a system to get him into a new home should you become unable to care for him. You should have adequate funding for all contingencies and hopefully people in your life to assist.
We all age (especially me) and Diane and I realize that our pack will some day need placement and care. We have set a system in motion where our pack can go seamlessly into homes, but we have also trained them such that anyone who got them would have zero problems in having them adapt.
Please understand that socialization isn’t an option, but a requirement and if you are not prepared to embrace that concept. DON’T GET A GSD.
I had a rough time today dealing with a stressful situation surrounding a healthy dog that a lady wants to euthanize because her husband was no longer there to care for him. This problem is of their own making and is the basis of this article.
I got a call this afternoon from a distraught lady who just put her husband into a facility and now had to decide what happens with her 8 year old male German Shepherd dog. Her family wasn’t interested, so she turned to rescue or euthanasia to fix her problem. This 8 yr old healthy male, has a lot of life left in him but sorely lacked social dog on dog skills. I could see just how upset she was on the phone, so I told her to bring him (Marco) here so I could evaluate him, and possibly put him in rescue. I asked her the usual questions about Marco and was led to believe he was a ‘softy senior’ who we could help. Test and verify, is how I operate, and the rules of the rescue dictate that we only take in people and dog friendly dogs, no exceptions. Everyone will tell you that they have the best dog! No so fast Sparky! (In the owners eyes their dog is special but you can’t make that decision until you meet the pup and see for yourself.)
Marco came over and proceeded to radically fail our sociability test, and therefore I was unable to take him. The lady was devastated; but the answer is not in assuming someone else’s problems, but rather what they should have done over the years to have avoided this crisis. She went from my house to a vet to put him down. The vet refused, and also called me. That broke my heart.
Marco was never truly socialized and only somewhat trained. They had him from 8 weeks! He was never handled consistently by the wife, nor was she able to control him. Age of the owners, you might say is the cause, but I say BS. If you are going to have a GSD you must socialize the dog from the time he enters your home. You need to reinforce social techniques throughout the dog’s life by walking them in public and meeting people, by friends in the home and in general, exposure to life outside the home. Medical care is important, but so equally is socialization. You also must have something in place, where if you become unable to care for your pet. It is a good idea to have a place to put him or a system to get him into a new home should you become unable to care for him. You should have adequate funding for all contingencies and hopefully people in your life to assist.
We all age (especially me) and Diane and I realize that our pack will some day need placement and care. We have set a system in motion where our pack can go seamlessly into homes, but we have also trained them such that anyone who got them would have zero problems in having them adapt.
Please understand that socialization isn’t an option, but a requirement and if you are not prepared to embrace that concept. DON’T GET A GSD.