Socializing Kibbles

Fostering for Turtle Gardens has been a real learning experience.  I am not a trained dog behaviourist or professional trainer.  I rely on my own instincts about what feels right with each dog and also blend in some techniques that I pick up from TV, other dog owners, things I read about on the internet and my human doglopedia (Yvette from Turtle Gardens ; ) 

I don’t always know immediately what the right thing to do is, to correct a behaviour, but I do recognize when what I’m doing isn’t working or when I’m expecting too much too soon.

Kibbles on the walkway at the dog park. 
(A funny angle that makes him look like he only has 2 legs)

In some ways Kibbles has really blossomed with me and his new environment, which includes dog daycare. He is allowing me to play with him.  His sense of humour is coming out and he doesn’t take me so seriously now that we have a level of trust built.

He is friendly with the staff at the daycare (apparently he gets lots of cuddles there) because he knows them now.  With some people he will approach to smell an extended hand but he does not typically want to allow a newly introduced person to pet him yet.   He may never be a social butterfly so it’s hard to tell what part of his behaviour is just him and his breed and what part comes from not being socialized with enough adults in his puppy days.   If someone’s desire to meet him is too great he might bark or growl and hide behind me a bit.  He doesn’t want to be directly stared at and coaxed to come to someone new.   I have been trying to introduce him to people like I did with little Mindy.   She came out of her shell very quickly and wasn’t defensive with strangers, she was just scared and shied away.  Kibbles will back away a bit but he definitely doesn’t want someone new approaching him too quickly or being too persistent about it.  So I am seeing that I can’t tackle this problem the same way as I did with Mindy.   I was trying to correct Kibbles for his negative reaction but I see that this could potentially make him worse.  So I will take him around many people and ask them to ignore him and let Kibbles approach on his own timing.  He is actually curious about people so he will go up to them if given the chance.  I will also give strangers very valued treats to give Kibbles.   His nose is the key to his socialization.   Good smelling treats and allowing him the time to approach people when he is ready.   That’s the plan for now.