dog parks

Responsible dog owners want to make sure their dog gets along well with others. Often, if a dog park is nearby, they may consider taking their dog there to play with other canines.  But there is a real difference in having fun, social play encounters at a dog park and socializing a puppy. Let’s look at this more in depth. Professional dog trainer and behaviorists use the term “socialization’ in a very specific way. Socialization refers to exposing a puppy to new experiences, people, objects and other animals while they are relatively young, in a restricted time window known as…