From the time your puppy is first able to understand that there is a world out there until your puppy is 3 months old, your puppy is in the critical developmental stage. During this time, your puppy is learning what is normal in the world. The greater the number of positive experiences your puppy has with different people, places, surfaces, visual stimuli, safe dogs, and other critters, the more comfortable your puppy will be in the world.

From the age of 3 months - 5 months, your puppy's socialization window is closing. After the age of 5 months, you should do continuing "maintenance" socialization.  Dogs who are not adequately socialized will be scared of new things, will not handle changes in their environments well, and depending on the degree of the socialization deprivation they experienced, may never be entirely normal.

Dogs who are improperly socialized - flooded and overwhelmed with new experiences - learn quickly that the world is a scary place and they will be scared of new things, quickly overwhelmed, and prone to shutting down.

Pay attention to your puppy's body language. Keep outings short, and fun, and enjoy the time with your puppy.  By the time your puppy is 3 months old, your puppy should have:

• Gotten a treat, been patted by, and/or been held by at least 100 different people.
• Walked on at least 20 different surfaces.
• Should have heard hundreds of different noises
• Should have seen hundreds of different sights.
• Should have been to at least 20 different places.
• Should have met many, many dogs.
• Should have had positive encounters with any critters that you hope your puppy will be kind to later in life.
• Should be used to being touched, tugged, poked, prodded, and generally looked over.

If your puppy is older than 3 months old, and you haven't begun socializing, start NOW.