Introduction
Background history on who I am and why I believe it is so important to socialize puppies and begin training right away. When I was 8 years old my aunt handed me the leash to her red Doberman who she regularly showed and began to show me how to work with him. Living a life in the country I had spent a lot of time with animals. Our barn was full of wild barn cats which I spent hours with taming them. I lived and breathed animals. Wild animals, domesticated animals, I spent as much time with them always observing how they interacted with each other, how they communicated with each other. I believe it built the basis of how I work with animals. No one ever told me that I wasn't allowed to teach my barn cat to ride along on the back of my pony while we went out exploring. Or that baby bunnies usually don't make it when brought in from the wild (which my cat brought me many woodland creatures that I always nursed back to health). I learned their language and worked with them. If I needed to be quiet with them, I was. If I needed to bring more energy to the situation, I did. Very shy with people as a child, animals made a lot more sense to me. When I was in my senior year of high school, I was given the opportunity to go to the Vocational Center for animal care. I was finally working with something that I was passionate about. I graduated out of the program early and the highest of my class. I was immediately put out in the work force during those hours and began working at the Calhoun Area Humane Society. I volunteered with a woman who worked with dogs from the shelter that showed potential for leader dogs for the blind. We spent many Saturdays and days through the week working with potential dogs. Teaching them first the basics of good manners; how to sit, to not jump up, to lay down, to stay, heal. Then we began to take them out on the town. We put them on the sky walk, to encourage them to walk on different surfaces; we walked around all four corners of an intersection so they could be comfortable around traffic, to get use to the sound of the walk signal, to sit quietly by our sides. While working at the Humane Society a fat little rolly polly six week old pitbull mix puppy came in. I kept him with me during his stray time and was allowed to adopt him after his stray time (at the time any pitbull or pitbull mix were not allowed to be adopted out to the public). I socialized him around everything. I took him with me to as many places as he was allowed. I knew the more he saw, smelled and touched the more well-rounded a dog he would be later in life. Pitbulls really carried a bad rap at the time (over 20 years ago) and I wanted Titus to be exposed to as many dogs as he could. I didn't want him aggressive towards other dogs or afraid. He always played well with any dog he was around. Because I had exposed him to many different dogs and he learned how to be a social animal. He was excellent around children, elderly, and other animals. How did I make this magic happen? All by socializing him to these things in the first four and a half months of his life. What you exposed your puppy to in the first four and a half months of life will affect them for the rest of their lives.
