Dog Longevity Survey Part II: How Important is Socialization to Longevity? ~ CookingFood.Org

To a varying degree, everybody who took the survey believes that socialization is important to longevity. I would love to know everybody's reasoning. What is yours?

What is socialization anyway?

The general belief, it seems, is that socialization is your dog meeting other dogs. Which is true to a degree but far from that simple.

Yes, socialization involves exposure to other dogs. Not just any exposure, though, it should be positive encounters. Why? Because socialization is about your dog making a positive association with other dogs. If the encounters are scary or unpleasant, the whole concept falls apart, doesn't it?

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In a way, the term socialization is misleading. It implies social interactions only. But it is much more than that. Proper socialization is about positive encounters not only with other dogs and people but also objects and situations.

Socialization is about teaching dogs that the many things that they encounter by living with us are okay and nothing to be afraid of. That goes for dogs, kids, men with beard, women with carriages, people in wheelchairs, people in funny hats, people with backpacks, traffic, elevators, thunder, fireworks, washing machines, umbrellas, doorbells ... All the things we take for granted can be strange, unnatural and scary to a dog.

We fear what we don't understand.

Fear is a negative emotional state triggered by the presence of a stimulus that has the potential to cause harm. That could be something your dog has learned is dangerous, or something your dog doesn't know it isn't. From survival point, if you don't know whether you should be scared of something or not, being scared is more likely to keep you alive and therefore to live and procreate.

Extremely important	40.00%
Important	46.67%
Somewhat important	13.33%
Not important	0.00%
I don't know	0.00%
Other	0.00%

So what does socialization have to do with longevity?

There is the obvious, of course, which is pretty much the same as with training, and that is the immediate danger. Getting into a fight in a dog park, running away and other behaviors that can cause harm or injury.

Beyond that, though, it is about stress.

As people, we can consider haunted houses, scary movies, rollercoaster rides and other scary entertainment fun. But what if your whole life was a scary ride? What if you really had to live in a hunted house? Have you ever been camping and heard sounds in the bush you didn't know what they were? Did you get scared?

Dogs are not adrenaline junkies like some of us are. And many of them really do live in haunted houses in haunted towns from their perspective. That not only makes their lives a living hell but chronic stress is absolutely not conducive to longevity.

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