We've known for years how important it is to socialize puppies (and, in fact, animals of all mammalian species) at a young age in order to prevent behavior problems such as fearfulness and aggression from cropping up later. In this webinar, we will learn about how the canine socialization period was discovered, and we'll review the current state of knowledge about its timing. In the meat of the talk, we'll discuss some recent research findings about exactly what is going on in the brain which is different in puppies in their socialization window compared to older dogs outside the socialization window. We'll talk about differences in the puppy stress response and where those differences originate; we'll also talk about studies that have used a critical period of eye development to learn about neural wiring differences in the socialization period, and what implications those have for puppies. Finally, we will discuss appropriate ways of balancing a puppy's need for socialization with the dangers of exposing a puppy to other dogs before its immune system is mature.

Sponsor:Pet Professional Guild
Speaker(s):Dr. Jessica Hekman

Contact: Rebekah King
 Email: membership@petprofessionalguild.com
 Phone: 413-648-7246
 Web: http://petprofessionalguild.com/event-2008318