How to Properly Socialize Your Golden Retriever

The truth is it is important to socialize your dog no matter what breed it is. Good socialization paves the way for healthy relationships both with your family, and friends. A dog that isn't properly socialized can be nippy or even aggressive with people they haven't met.

Golden Retrievers are one of the easier dogs to socialize because they naturally have a friendly nature, and love attention. In some cases Goldens are more comfortable with those who are the same sex, while others are comfortable only with your family and a select group of friends. It just depends on the dog. Also most Golden's love children, but there are a rare few who do not, and prefer the company of adults. This is rare. There are a couple of reasons why this might be the case, one is that the Golden was removed from its mother before the age of seven weeks before it had a chance to learn any socialization from its mother. The other reason is that the Golden was bred in an environment where the breeder was inexperienced or did not care about learning the best way to breed Goldens. If the parents are aggressive, or nippy then this trait could be passed on to their puppies for example.

The best time to begin socializing a Golden is between the ages of eight weeks and eight months. It is very important during this time to have your Golden meet other people including children. Even though you may discover that your Golden is a little shy at first, your dog will eventually become comfortable enough to interact with others. If you do have a shy dog it is important that you be very patient and reassuring during this phaze of your dog's socialization.

One thing that it is very important to keep in mind is that if a Golden puppy is physically hurt or frightened during the period where he should normally be socialized, he can end up with bad mental scars. In these cases the Golden may never fully recover and may be aggressive towards people if it becomes scared. This is one reason it is a good idea to get your Golden after the age of seven weeks and then to provide a loving safe environment, as well as good socialization to prevent these kind of emotional scars and thus prevent behavior that may be less than acceptable.

The best tips for socializing your Golden are to make sure that he interacts a lot with people from an early age, as well as other dogs in the same breed. Being around other older Goldens will help your Golden learn what acceptable behavior is, and picks up with socialization where the Golden's mother left off.

Properly socializing your Golden Retriever is one of the most important tasks you will ever take on. A well socialized Golden is friendly, and loving towards people and other dogs and will bring joy to your life. While genetics do play a part in how a Golden's temperament is going to be, even a dog who comes from Golden's with less than acceptable temperaments may still be able to be socialized properly if the socialization is begun at the right time in the dog's life.