Socialisation

This is where we dispel and improve on a bugbear of ours: the overly misused term of socialisation that blights the growing industry of pet care. No prices, it’s a soapbox moment and for good reason.

This isn’t taking any paying customer and putting their pet into a situation without fully considering the implications. It also doesn’t mean having a selection criterion that excludes perfectly well behaved and suitable dogs. These are the failures of those coming into this industry, or impersonal, PR focused corporate style businesses evolving without having the core belief of what is best for your dog and you.

Socialisation isn’t just a convenient buzzword.

Putting any and often incompatible dogs together is not socialisation, neither is surrounding them with apparatus they don’t use or gain any benefit from. Furthermore, the relationship your dog has with all of those that care for it should guide it through its essential development. They should be knowledgeable, motivated and capable of supporting your pet to the highest degree.

When bringing a new dog into any of our services for the first time, the full range of behaviours of the dogs already within our care will be considered to ensure a safe and rewarding environment for all. This could include offering a package of care that makes improvements and leads to exposing dogs that have negative reactions to specific factors in a safe and gradual way, monitored by those experienced in recognising how and when to do so.

The same diligence will be applied to our puppies that are joining the world of walking and day care, ensuring they become well rounded and symbiotic in nature, reducing the potential for negative behavioural traits to surface.

We also understand that many negative reactions to specific stimuli are genetically or environmentally rooted, proven by several recent studies, and regardless of diligence or persistence to improve, may never be fully resolved. We won’t force the issue, but instead work to the best possible solution to create a happy developmental environment for the individual dog.

As well as other dogs, socialisation is also about environment and people. Our varied and pre-inspected routes will provide the multi-faceted stimulation required to prevent boredom and the monotony of the same place, the same things and the same interactions every day. In our role as carer, we take it as our duty to ensure each dog included in every service receives the benefit of this knowledge without exemption.

Being conscientious and focused on the importance of doing what we say and knowing what that really means underpins our view of socialisation as much as every other consideration of our services. Combining this with flexibility for the individual is something we are very proud of.