Habituation In Puppies

The world can be a scary place for puppies. Your puppy will experience a large range of different sights, smells and sounds and sometimes this can be a little overwhelming! Habituation is most effective in the first few months of life. Ideally it should be started from birth, however this is not always possible.

What Is Habituation?

Habituation is the process in which your puppy begins to become accustomed to a range of new experiences including different sights, sounds and smells. It helps them to learn that certain things are not so scary and can be ignored.

How Does Habituation Help My Puppy?

There are a range of different scenarios that puppies may find scary but seem completleley normal to us. Learning through habituation can help with many of these scenarios. Some of these may include:

Learning to tolerate the presence of traffic.
To relax in situations that may be new or distracting.
To recover quickly from stressful situations.
To be comfortable with loud noises such as thunder and fireworks.
It can  help prevent over excitement when introduced to new sights, sounds and smells. 
Improves focus on the owner in distracting situations. 
Builds confidence.  
Be comfortable in the presence of different types of people.

Important Things To Remember 

1. Make sure that the puppy has time and space to explore his surroundings and allow him to retreat if he needs to.
2. New items, sounds and experiences should be introduced slowly and gradually so as not to overwhelm the puppy.
3. At some stages the puppy may be experiencing a heightened sense of fear, so be careful when introducing new items and experiences.
4. The puppy should always have choice when it come to partaking in these new experiences. 

How Do I Apply Habituation?

1. Allow the puppy to approach something without encouragement on their own terms.
2. Any interaction with items should be marked and rewarded. When rewarding, always make sure to throw the treats further away. This allows the puppy to interact with the item again should he choose to do so.
3. Introduce new items a short distance away and allow the puppy to observe and not to startle him.
4. Throw tasty food rewards to the puppy when he is lying down or sleeping to help him with mild startling.
5. Snuffle mats can be beneficial when introducing your puppy to new substrates.
Snuffle Mat
6. Supervise interactions with children. Children that are running around and making noise can frighten your puppy,
7. Noises from certain household appliances e.g hoovers can be scary for your puppy. You can place the puppy in a different room where the noise won't be as intense. This can help the puppy to tolerate the noise better.

Remember to always remove the puppy from exposure to something if he reacts negatively. You can try the exposure again another day, but with lower intensity.