Desensitizing your puppy
What is desensitizing and why is it important?
Desensitizing occurs when you safely expose your puppy to new sounds, sights, textures and experiences so that they will not be afraid of them as an adult. We started desensitizing your puppy when he or she was 3 weeks old and continued until they went to their new homes. To ensure that your puppy does not form fears as an adult you will need to continue the process until they are 16 weeks old.
Under our care, they experienced a new sound, texture and experience every day. My recommendations are to continue exposing your puppy to new sights, people and places when they have been safely vaccinated and it is safe to be around other people. Here are some ideas of how to continue desensitizing your puppy.
Sounds
It is important to continue exposing your puppy to new sounds. You can easily find numerous sound recordings online to play. Try to think about any sound that your puppy will hear during the rest of its life and expose them to it now.
The recordings below are a place to start. Start with the volume low. If your puppy does not react fearfully to the sound gradually increase the sound watching their reaction. At any point, if your puppy becomes fearful, reduce the volume and comfort your puppy.
Daily Sound Recordings - click and listen
- Vacuum cleaner (Corgis HATE this noise)
- Fireworks
- Thunderstorm
- Traffic
- Car Engine
- Airplane
- Crying Baby
- Dogs barking
- Washing Machine
- Hair Dryer
- Door Knocking
- Doorbell
- Kids Playing
- Police / Fire Engine Siren
- Phone ringing
- Train
- Sounds of anything that you like to do and that they will be around as adults
Other Ideas
- Different types of music - Country, Rock, Pop
- Music from different time periods
- Songs from different cultures
- Recordings of people speaking in different languages
- Have fun with it and expose them to as many sounds as you can
Music Recordings to get your started
Touch
Keep working on desensitizing their body so that they will be perfect angels when you brush them, they go to the vet or go to the groomer. We worked on this daily but you will need to continue this work until they are around 16 weeks old. The work that you do now will pay off when they are adults. Here are my recommendations for things to work on:
- Body - Brush and rub all over the body daily
- Feet - Handle feet daily. Don't forget to touch nails, pads and between toes. Trim nails weekly
- Mouth - work on opening the mouth and inspecting teeth daily: Gradually work on teeth brushing
- Ears - Inspect and touch daily
- Eyes - Make them be still so that you can inspect their eyes
Desensitizing your puppy to the feel and pressure of a harness now is a great idea and should help prevent your puppy from hating a harness as an adult.
Your puppy wore a harness while with us to get the process started. We like the Voyager harnesses from Amazon. They are cheap and easy to put on and take off of puppies.
Sights
Until your puppy is fully vaccinated, you will need to be careful where you take your puppy. Follow the suggestions for safely socializing your puppy.
Once vaccinated, I recommend that you expose them to activities that you like to do such as hiking, swimming, etc. Just make sure to revisit the Puppy Fitness information in your blue folder for age-appropriate exercise activities. If you can take them with you to stores or places to eat do so once they have been properly vaccinated. They will experience new sounds, sights, smells and surfaces there.
Textures
Once your puppy has been safely vaccinated take them out with you on walks to experience new textures such as concrete, dirt, asphalt, grass, etc. They were exposed to many surfaces as tiny puppies and this exposure can help them not be hesitant when touching a new surface. If you have a backyard you can also work on this there.
