Field Guide · Glossary
Under-socialized
Puppy and developmentA dog who encountered too little of the world during the developmental period when new things are most easily accepted.
How it works
The result is a dog for whom ordinary things were never filed as normal, so they arrive at each one as genuinely novel and often alarming. It is common in dogs from poor breeding situations, from some rescue backgrounds, and in dogs whose puppyhood coincided with a period of restricted movement. The work afterwards is the same work socialization would have done, at a slower pace and in smaller steps, and it can be very effective. It rarely becomes effortless in the way it would have been.
What it looks like
A dog who never saw a bicycle before adulthood freezes at the sight of one at a hundred feet. After several months of distance work they walk past bicycles calmly, and still notice each one.
Commonly confused with
- Socialization window
- The window is the period in which the learning happens easily. Under-socialized describes a dog for whom that period went largely unused, which is a description of what happened rather than of when.
Related terms