UNDERSTANDING DOG SOCIALIZATION AND UNDER SOCIALIZATION IN DOGO ARGENTINO DOGS
welcome to Dogo Argentino USA the
channel where we talk Dogo it’s your
host nicole in today’s episode we’re
going to explore the under socialized
Dogo Argentino socialization for our
purposes is the process of gently
exposing your Dogo Argentino to novel
experiences in a safe way that allows
the Dogo to minimize fear anxiety and
stress while slowly growing tolerant of
new situations and under socialized Dogo
who did not get active brain enriching
exposure to novel environments and
experiences as a pup is more likely to
manifest fear-based aggression and OCO
argentino that is properly socialized is
exposed to new people animals and
environments between the ages of three
weeks to three months while early brain
development is most easily and
profoundly shaped proper socialization
is critical at this time while the baby
puppy’s brain is absorbing information
about sounds sights smells and social
exchanges allowing the Dogo Argentino to
grow into a more stable confident and
courageous dog if this period of
critical development is botched it is
much more difficult to make up for these
deficiencies later in life which is why
choosing the right breeder profoundly in
permanently affects the puppies and the
adults interactions with the world a
lack of exposure to novelty or under
socialization can be generalized as a
I’m terrified by everyone in everything
kind of response or it can be triggered
by a specific experience such as being
afraid of tall men and baseball caps
these are responses that are generally
undesirable because the Dogo Argentino
is reacting to a non-lethal experience
that is calm enough to be problematic
aggression as the behavior is a
genetically necessary evolutionary
adaptation to survival and is present in
nearly all animals on
including the Dogo Argentino as a
genetic behavior it is instinctive and
impossible to remove any dog under the
right circumstances can be aggressive
and display behaviors like growling
lunging barking biting or snapping and
any one of these behaviors in a given
context may be defensive offensive or
ritualized as play the under socialized
Dogo Argentino is the most likely Dogo
to express fear-based
aggression and anxiety in general three
types of Dogo Argentino z’ will find
their way into shelters and rescues Dogo
Argentino that are deaf doko argentinos
that are grossly under socialized having
reached adolescence with growing
aggression reactions and those
surrendered by families incapable or
unwilling to meet the breeds basic daily
needs while unfortunate victims of dog
fighting are also found in rescue these
animals are more likely to be killed or
to die of neglect than not my opinion is
that the lion’s share of the Dogo
Argentino s that are ultimately
surrendered to rescues or shelters as
problem dogs are simply under socialized
not specifically abused as the family
grows more fearful about the Dogo
Argentino z’ reaction to novel people
animals situations or environments they
tend to further isolate the animal which
deepens the fear-based aggression
causing even further isolation until
such time as the animal is too large and
too unpredictable to integrate into
society without extreme desensitization
and counter conditioning often requiring
professional intervention or in very
very extreme and rare cases termination
under socialization is not the only
factor that causes aggression Guardian
breeds like the Dogo Argentino are at
greater risk for aggression despite
typical breed standard severely
punishing dobo argent
of aggressive temperament the fighting
dog of cordova is the foundation of our
breed along with other Guardian breeds
thus to some degree however slight there
is a genetic predisposition for
suspicion if not outright aggression one
must also consider that the mother’s
emotional state during pregnancy has
been scientifically shown to affect the
temperament of her pups a well loved and
heavily petted bitch produces oxytocin
which causes her pups to be more docile
while extreme stress triggers epigenetic
hormones that cause pups to be less
docile during a puppy’s early
development they have fear periods and
during these periods a single negative
experience can actually imprint the dog
with a negative reaction towards that
experience for life and a perfect storm
is all of these conditions paired with
botched socialization there are tons of
reasons for an under socialized Dogo
Argentino maybe the owners didn’t know
what to do or how to do it or how
important it was to socialize the dog
perhaps a rescue or shelter held the
Dogo Argentino in partial or full
isolation due to lack of resources lack
of time or lack of available fostering
homes coming from a pet store which gets
its stock from puppy mills who are
unlikely to either select temperament
tested adults or properly socialize
their puppies you are more likely to get
a candidate that develops socialization
problems maybe that pup was quarantined
due to an injury or an illness while
growing up so socialization was
neglected maybe the breeder is
uneducated or unconcerned about the
early development of their litters if
you find yourself with an under
socialized Dogo Argentino there’s a few
things that you absolutely should not do
the first do not go it alone have the
Dogo Argentino examined to rule out
medical problems and then work with a
professional behaviorist don’t try to
ignore the problem which puts not only
the world at risk but they do go
Argentino at risk and definitely do not
be inconsistent in your response to the
problem inconsistency Foster’s further
temperament instability now if you’re
looking to socialize your Dogo Argentino
most socialization regimens are going to
have some common steps but again you
should be working with a professional
dog behaviorist but the first step that
most people are going to do is determine
your goals and temper your expectation
so if your goal is to have the dog be
perfect around little children and to
have little children play with them you
may have to temper your expectation
perhaps that’s not a goal that’s
reachable maybe what you can do however
is get it to be tolerant of walking by
children in a park so part of your goals
and part of your expectations are going
to be determined by the dog how deeply
see that the behavior is how long and
how much money you’re willing to spend
on a professional behavior is to work on
the problem
the next thing a regime is likely to
have is to figure out what triggers the
Dogo Argentino and make a long list
maybe the Dogo Argentino is fine with
kids but really doesn’t like older women
who wear glasses you can’t really work
on a regimen until you know exactly
what’s triggering the Dogo Argentino you
want to figure out how close one can be
to the trigger or stimuli before the
Dogo Argentino goes into a response so
for example if the Dogo Argentino
doesn’t like strange dogs and you can
only get 75 feet near a strange dog
before the dog goes off you’re you know
that that’s the trigger point you can
get 75 feet so maybe you would start
your regimen at 76 feet you’re not close
enough to trigger the dog but you’re
close enough that it can see the
stimulus you know you’re basic
trying to systematically determine how
to safely desensitize encounter
condition the Dogo Argentino you are
most definitely going to need to protect
yourself and your Dogo Argentino and the
world through management and training
and in cases of fear based under
socialization that could mean that you
also need to do muzzle training first
before you can even bring the dog out
into the world to work on certain things
and something else that I think a lot of
people under look they immediately
assume that the problem might be under
socialized aggression when the problem
is actually not that at all it could be
a lack of exercise if you for example
exercise your dog an hour or two if you
double that amount of vigorous exercise
you may find that these behaviors become
extinct and it’s really a matter of pent
up under stimulation that could be
physical stimulation it could be mental
stimulation food allergies surprisingly
can cause certain behavioral issues so
you need to test for food allergies and
of course you want to make sure that
you’re always and forever working on
obedience training and that the
motivation for that training is
appropriate to the dog so let’s talk
about desensitizing and understimulated
Dogo Argentino puppy first you need to
control exposure to its trigger so for
example if the puppy is triggered by
tall men wearing baseball caps it would
be very easy to say nobody who’s super
tall can come in wearing a baseball cap
into your home but you want to control
the exposure to the trigger so again
that can be a matter of distance so
perhaps your puppy can tolerate a tall
man with a baseball cap if that tall man
is 20 feet away in an open yard you want
to make sure that the dog notices the
trigger and then if the dog doesn’t go
and behave in a way that you don’t like
it’s not acting super aggressively it’s
not lunging it’s not barking you’re
going to find a reward that works
because the trigger was noticed but not
aggressively reacted to if you’re too
close and it’s too intense and the dog
reacts you need to try either further
away if it’s a distance based thing or
in a different environment like if the
dog is only reacting to these triggers
inside the house then you’re gonna start
working on it outside the house before
you bring it back into the house the
other thing that’s important is you’re
trying to distract through training
because the dog can’t behave in a way
that’s undesirable if it’s busy doing a
different behavior so you might try
doing down stays and sit stays and
training those requiring the dog to
think and react so that that trigger is
present but not necessarily in the
forefront of the Dogo Argentino mind and
as part of the desensitization process
you want to make sure that you’re doing
frequent sessions that are very short
like no more than three to five minutes
several times a day now remember under
socialization can be changed in many
many many Dogo Argentino z’ and so it’s
not a life sentence you can work on
these behaviors and ninety nine out of a
hundred dogs and if not correct them at
least learn to manage them to an
acceptable point it’s very rare that the
behavior is too far going to do anything
with now as always I remind my audience
that I am a Dogo Argentino enthusiast a
micro breeder I do conformation
exhibition I do obedience training and
I’m sharing my thoughts my feelings of
my opinions on these subjects which are
provided in an informational context and
as a Dogo Argentino enthusiast nothing I
should say should be taken as a
substitute for professional advice and I
always recommend seeking out a
professional behaviorist or retirin
Arian if you need help with your Dogo
Argentino s behavior and of course you
should know this is not a sponsored
video this is my own
an effort to serve the Dogo Argentino
public so I hope you will bless me with
your like your comment your share follow
me on instagram at Dogo Argentino zeus
Dogo Argentino underscore USA or Dogo
Argentino emma frost and of course you
can look up our fanpage on facebook
which is facebook.com backslash Dogo
Argentino USA as always i hope you guys
have a Dogo tastic day and i thank you
for your viewership your like your heart
your suggestion i really appreciate it
be good be safe and have fun
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