If you’ve just welcomed a new French Bulldog puppy into your home, congratulations! Now for the fun part of training and socializing your friendly, pleasant, and protective little bundle of love! The fact that you are reading this very article means that you are a great pet parent preparing for your new pup, or you might be desperate for your four-legged child to be playful with other humans and fellow dogs. Of course, you don’t want to live in constant fear of chaos ruining your morning hike or a stroll around the block.
While this breed needs to socialize from a young age, it’s never too late to start socializing your dog, especially if your pet is growing, barking, or behaving antisocially in the presence of other pets and people. Remember, with patience, love, and a few simple tricks, you can conquer the world, not just your pup’s poor socializing skills! These tips for socializing a French Bulldog puppy might even work on humans too!
Introduce the Learning Process as Early as Possible
According to Barkspot, the French Bulldog is one of the most popular dog breeds for its friendly and sociable nature. However, they can be very protective, and that could land you in an uncomfortable situation. Protectiveness and the resulting behavior is the main reason it is so important to socialize and train your French Bulldog from an early age. The measures you take now will immensely impact the later stages of development and might have a permanent effect on the behavior of your Frenchie.
By following a few easy tips, you can make sure your French Bulldog is less aggressive to other people and pups in the surrounding environment. This will leave you with an adequately socialized bulldog and a perfect companion for you and others as well.
Avoiding and Overcoming Antisocial French Bulldog Behavior
If you want to overcome and avoid antisocial behavior and ensure that you train your Frenchie to be an easy-going pup for life, there are a few simple tricks you can use. See them below.
1. Start by Introducing New Things to Your Puppy
The first four months of your pup’s life are crucial as this is their excited, curious, learning faze where everything is new to them. Consider what must be going on in that little mind with all the sights, sounds, smells, and objects around.
Use this time to expose your French Bulldog puppy to as many different types of people and places as possible. Expose him to new, places, unusual noises, different textures, and objects he doesn’t see every day.
2. Create a Fun and Encouraging Environment
Exposing your French Bulldog puppy to everything is great, but ensuring that every experience is positive is crucial, especially if you want a confident and easy-going Frenchie.
Create an encouraging and fun environment for your puppy to explore by giving plenty of treats and praise! One tip is to use a dog treat pouch during your dog training sessions to help motivate your Frenchie. It is also essential to demonstrate relaxed and open body language, smile, and laugh as you go about it. This breed is especially sensitive, and they can easily pick up on body language and your energy.
3. Handle Your Puppy
Socializing your French Bulldog puppy is also about getting your pet used to human interaction. Get your pup accustomed to handling, as this will help tremendously for future grooming sessions, playing with kids or other dogs, and generally being around people.
Here are a few examples of what you can do to get pups used to handling:
- Hold your pet in a variety of different positions, like on their back and up in the air.
- You can hold their paws and gently stick your fingers between each toe.
- Lift their tail if possible.
- Use a Q-tip or washcloth to clean their ears and eyes.
- Open their mouths to look at their gums and teeth.
- Brush their teeth and fur.
- And get them used to the nail clippers.
- Familiarize them with a leash even if you just walk them in and outside the house.
Tip: It’s important to keep their delicate eye area clean to prevent infection as French Bulldogs easily develop tear stains under their eyes. Start doing this from a young age so that it’s not a shock to the system when your pet needs this type of cleaning as an adult pup.
4. Don’t Do Too Much Too Fast
Although this is a new and exciting phase of your puppy’s life, it is also scary. You might end up with the opposite effect if you rush the socialization process and overwhelm them.
They need to feel excited and confident, not scared and overwhelmed.
5. Involve Friends and Family
Let them experience new and strange things with everyone. This will help them to explore unknown environments regardless of who they are with confidently. Let your pet spend a few hours in the care of someone else or at a family member’s house.
Following this step will enable you to easily leave them at a kennel when you have an upcoming wedding or business trip, for example.
6. Explore the Outside World
As soon as your pup has been exposed and is comfortable with household objects, friends, family, and experiences they’ll come across in everyday life, it’s time to explore further. The outside world can be a scary place and often it’s a feeling of discomfort that makes encountering another dog that sends a pet into antisocial behavior.
The best course of action is to take your pet on walks to the local park or where you know other dog lovers will be. Go cautiously at first. Don’t rush straight to the park and let your puppy run wild. Approach slowly and when you see another dog, ensure that your pet waits and watches before diving in. If another dog approaches, don’t snatch your puppy up and turn away as this can cause over-excitement. Rather let the dogs sniff each other out and only get involved if it looks like things are getting aggressive. It’s completely normal for a dog to pant, jump excitedly, rollover, nose bump, or even urinate a little when meeting another dog.
7. Before You Socialize, Exercise!
Have you been wondering how to get your doggie to approach a potentially stressful environment calmly? Well, it’s really easy; you can play fetch until they are fairly tired before exposing them to someone or something new. Exercise allows them to have a fun and positive experience that burns off nervous energy.
This is also an excellent time to sneak in some training. For example, have them “sit” and “stay” before presenting the new object to them. This will help your pet to see that you’re in control of the environment and that they can trust you.
8. Meet with Other Dogs
Veterinary experts say that it is healthy for puppies to start socializing at 7-8 weeks. This is incredibly important for developing a happy, adaptable, and confident adult dog. Taking your pet to a training class will help your puppy understand the basics of appropriate behavior with other dogs and people
Nervous about letting your fur baby meet other dogs for the first time? Here are some helpful tips:
- Introduce something like a toy, towel, or anything that has the scent of other dogs to your French Bulldog before the meeting. Don’t worry if you can’t but it can he helpful.
- Owners can keep both dogs on a leash and slowly have their pups walk towards one another.
- Calmly walk off immediately if there are any signs of aggression.
- Reward and praise them if they are calm and not showing any aggression.
- Take a short break and try again if there are signs of aggression.
- You can practice this a few times while the dogs remain on a leash.
- Provide treats and plenty of praise when they successfully come up to one another.
Final Thoughts on Socializing Your French Bulldog Puppy
French Bulldogs are sweet-natured and clownish by nature – these are the very reasons why millions of people love them. Unfortunately, some French Bulldogs can be aggressive or growl when presented with new people, pets, and situations if they are not properly socialized. Prevent this from happening by starting sooner rather than later as it can be incredibly challenging and time-consuming to socialize an older grown-up bulldog to the outside world. Use the tips above to get your French Bulldog pup’s training underway – you won’t regret it.
