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Adventure Camp

A Guide to Socializing Your Adventure-Ready Puppy

A Guide to Socializing Your Adventure-Ready Puppy

A Guide to Socializing Your Adventure-Ready Puppy

By: Shay Cline & Amber Quann

Positive exposure to things your puppy will experience for the rest of their life during the early stages of development can help ensure you have a happy and confident adventure buddy!

What is Puppy Socialization?

There are many definitions of socialization - almost as many as the opinions you will find on how it should be done! 

Laura VanArendonk Baugh describes the need for socialization in puppies this way: "If we want our dogs to be acceptable, happy, welcome, and safe in human society, we need to socialize them to human norms." And not just any human norms, but your daily norms. Prioritize what your puppy will need to be comfortable with as a partner in your life. At its core, socializing is preparing your puppy to accept and navigate the situations they will likely encounter during their adventures with you.

Socialization isn't about simply exposing our puppies to something until they accept it. It is about teaching our puppies how to cope with the world around them and how to deal with future adventures.

Safety in Socialization

When planning to socialize your puppy, safety should be a top priority. The American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior recommends starting safe socialization efforts before your puppy is fully vaccinated. (Read the full position statement here.)

  • Choose your environments carefully - you can start your socialization in low-traffic areas frequented by known vaccinated dogs (i.e. neighbor’s backyard), and move to higher-traffic areas as your puppy completes their vaccinations. Areas that are familiar to you will also give you more confidence when handling various situations that you and your pup may encounter- this will help them view you as safe and reliable. 

  • Think “Observe & Learns” - Taking your puppy on a ride in the car and letting them watch out the window at a shopping mall parking lot is a great socialization experience with minimal risks. Bring a chewy along to help them process all of the new information in a safe, appropriate way.

What Does a Good Socialization Experience Look Like?

Everything should be the puppy’s choice! We should never force a puppy to interact with anyone or anything that they are not choosing to interact with if it isn’t completely necessary. You can always make a mental note of the things that are scary for your puppy and try reintroducing them in a way that feels more comfortable for them later on.

  • New things = puppy gets lots of things they enjoy. This could be yummy treats, a favorite toy, attention from you, the opportunity to sniff something new, etc.  This helps puppies maintain optimism about novel things later in life. 

  • More than just meeting dogs & people - Realistically, we don’t interact with every person and dog we pass. Focusing on neutrality around most people can also help you reserve interactions for people who are safe, coachable, and open to helping you with your puppy’s training! A good socialization list also includes exposure to different sights, sounds, and smells, so keep these things in mind when setting up new experiences for your puppy. 

  • Quality over Quantity - Keep socialization experiences short and sweet!  A good socialization experience leaves your puppy wanting more, rather than being overwhelmed. 5-10 minutes may be all your puppy can handle confidently in a new situation at first. 

  • Recover with rest time in between - Nap time is important recovery time between new experiences. A well-rested puppy will be more ready to enjoy the next socialization experience!

Signs That Your Puppy is Comfortable

Body Language - Learning a bit about how dogs communicate using their body language is an essential part of supporting our puppies.  Once you understand the basics of how your puppy communicates, be on the lookout for these behaviors as you are watching your puppy during their socialization experiences.

  • Eating Food - Can your puppy eat food during the socialization experience?  If they normally eat food willingly, and they become unable to eat food, this is a good indication that they might be overwhelmed or nearing their comfort threshold.

  • Playing with Favorite Toys - Can your puppy play with their favorite toy?  

  • Exploring and Engaging with the Environment - Can they sniff and explore the new environment with relaxed body language?  Or are they sticking close to you or looking for a place to hide? 

Let Us Help Socialize Your Adventure Buddy!

Our Adventure Camp for Puppies is designed with all these principles—and more—in mind to help your puppy become an adventure-ready, well-socialized companion.

Each day of our camp includes:

  • Social Skills Development: We aim to create a safe learning environment for your puppy to develop social skills in a small group setting of appropriate people and dogs, and learn how to be calm and neutral around strangers.

  • Exposure to New Experiences: We introduce new sights, surfaces, sounds, and experiences to puppies in age-appropriate ways, with an emphasis on building confidence, optimism, and trust.

  • Naps & Downtime: Every day includes quiet time in individual pens where puppies can chew, rest, and decompress. We also use this time to focus on building settle, confinement, and separation skills.

  • Life Skills Training: We start introducing your puppy to a wide range of concepts and skills they will need to be successful in Fort Collins and beyond. This includes leash walking skills, coming when called, relaxing on a mat, greeting politely, and more! You will get a daily progress report that comes with focus points unique to your puppy, as well as private sessions with a trainer to build your skills as a team. 

Are you ready to start your puppy’s socialization journey and create a confident, adventure-ready companion? Our Adventure Camp for Puppies is here to help! Schedule a Discovery Call with the Adventure Camp team today!

See what a day of Adventure Puppy Camp looks like!

Our Facility Cleaning Routines for Puppy Wellness

Our Facility Cleaning Routines for Puppy Wellness

Written by Meredith Decker & Amber Quann

When you bring a new puppy home, you want to make sure to protect them from anything that may hurt them. It can feel daunting to bring them into a space like a training room that many other dogs have occupied.  You may have gotten recommendation from your rescue, breeder, or trusted veterinarian to wait until your puppy is fully vaccinated to take them out in public.

Early socialization is so important to healthy puppy development, and there isn’t time to waste! The optimal window for early puppy socialization actually closes before puppies are fully vaccinated, so avoiding socialization opportunities before 16 weeks can actually be detrimental to the dog’s behavioral health. Because of this, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior’s position is that puppies should start positive socialization group experiences as early as 9 weeks of age, after at least one vaccination and deworming.

“In general, puppies can start puppy socialization classes as early as 7-8 weeks of age. Puppies should receive a minimum of one set of vaccines at least 7 days prior to the first class and a first deworming. They should be kept up-to-date on vaccines throughout the class. The primary and most important time for puppy socialization is the first three months of life. During this time puppies should be exposed to as many new people, animals, stimuli and environments as can be achieved safely and without causing overstimulation manifested as excessive fear, withdrawal or avoidance behavior. For this reason, the American Veterinary Society of Animal Behavior believes that it should be the standard of care for puppies to receive such socialization before they are fully vaccinated.”

We carefully curate the our training room environment to minimize risks to our young puppy students. Our training room is thoroughly cleaned daily (we share more about our cleaning routines below!), and we evaluate each puppy during each service for health and wellness. No environment can be completely without risk, and we understand that your veterinarian may have different recommendations for when your puppy should start group socialization. Your veterinarian treats physically sick puppies and we work with behavior challenges in dogs often associated with missing early socialization periods, so we are coming at this from two different sides of the issue. Both sides are very important to consider as you decide what is right for your puppy. If you decide to wait until your puppy is fully vaccinated at 16 weeks, we'd love to see you in our Level 1 Puppy Basics class or drop-in to Puppy Playschool Plus.

We know that you want to do everything in your power to keep your puppy safe and healthy before their final vaccinations. Balancing this with the need for healthy early socialization can feel tricky. We want to do everything we can to build a safe environment for you and your puppy to come and learn, and a piece of that is by keeping our training rooms clean and sanitized.

The Summit Cleaning Routine

Both training rooms are cleaned and disinfected daily, and deep-cleaned once a month with an attention to detail.

All of the toys that your puppy may play with are cleaned daily; monthly, we also sanitize each of the shelves where those toys are stored so that the toys can remain clean once they are put away. Not only does it keep everything safe, but it also keeps things looking nice and neat.

A lot of time is spent making sure the floors where your puppies love to wrestle remain safe and clean. We always vacuum and mop after the end of our classes, and this is done at least once a day. During our monthly cleanings, any moveable item, such as our x-pens or chairs are moved from their usual spot, and each corner and crevice is cleaned. Special care is taken to make sure any debris is removed and then that area is properly mopped with kennel-grade disinfectant and there is no residue left behind. 

We never forget about cleaning our cleaning supplies either. The mop, mop buckets and vacuum are all cleared and cleaned to make sure they're working as best as possible to maintain our standards.

When it comes to our Adventure Camp (drop-off learning for puppies 9-16 weeks), we take extra precautions to make sure we keep your pups safe. Any toys they may use such as puzzle toys, kongs or chew toys are washed and scrubbed with our other dishes at the end of every Camp day. This also applies to any cots or platforms your pup might play on. We spray them with our disinfectant and wipe them down so they are clean for next time. Any accidents that may occur during Camp are promptly cleaned up and we make sure to restrict access to that area while we clean so puppies won't be exposed to the mess or the disinfectant.

We screen our Adventure Camp puppies ahead of time for health, and ask all puppy parents who use this service to keep us informed if they notice anything unusual about their puppy’s health or behavior ahead of a Camp day. If we notice any signs of illness while a puppy is at Camp, we make sure to take proper precautions by keeping that puppy separate until they can be picked up early, and initiate additional deep cleaning on that day by washing all sheets, towels, or soft toys that were played with that day, and anything that can't be cleaned (such as the popular sniff boxes) are disposed of and replaced.

Your puppy's physical health is just as important as their social development, which is why we take the time to keep our training rooms clean and safe. If you have any questions or concerns about this, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us!

Check out these photos from our #12 classroom during a monthly deep clean:

Fort colllins puppy socialization classes, safe and clean dog training facility Fort Collins, northern colorado dog training, puppy training, puppy socialization, safe puppy playtime
Fort Collins puppy training, clean puppy training facility, northern colorado dog training, safe puppy socialization Fort Collins, colorado,
A photo of the interior of a dog training facility with exercise pens set up in their normal position prior to getting cleaned. Fort Collins Dog training, puppy socialization, safe and clean dog training facility
A photo of the interior of a dog training facility with exercise pens removed and vacuum out in the middle of the floor during cleaning routine. Fort Collins Dog training, puppy socialization, safe and clean dog training facility