E7: Socialisation and the world our dogs grew up in

Listen to episode 7. Available wherever you listen to your podcasts.

Judge grew up before COVID in a house with a backyard and learned to go on concrete for the first time when he moved to London. Bowie was a pandemic puppy in Canada who ended up better socialised than most, because during lockdown the parks were full and it was the only place anyone could go freely, then moved to a farmhouse in England and laid down the social order the day he arrived. Makenzie arrived in London at eleven months and stopped on her first time out, held in place by the Canary Wharf wind tunnel, and couldn't go to the bathroom there for weeks.

In all three cases, the world each dog had been prepared for was not the one waiting for them.

This is a conversation about what socialisation actually builds, and what it can't anticipate.

I used to have a checklist for Makenzie: the vacuum, the washing machine, the car door, all introduced on my own terms. What it didn't cover was a dog approaching before she'd seen it coming, on its own timing, the moments no checklist could prepare either of us for. About a year and a half ago I started stepping in between her and whatever was approaching instead, showing her I was there to handle it rather than leaving her to work it out alone. It's changed how quickly she moves past those moments now.

The conversation moves through Judge's first flight in the cabin as a trained service dog, and his refusal to go to the bathroom until he had made it past customs. Through Bowie telling his new farmhouse pack he was in charge within days of arriving. Through the idea I brought into the conversation myself: a dog who gets to feel a hard moment through and recover from it comes out the other side more capable than one who is kept from ever meeting one.

Can a dog be socialised for a world that no longer exists?