Socialization is a critical component of training to create a healthy, well-rounded dog. Socialization, at its core, involves exposing your puppy (or any dog) to other animals, people, and environments to build their confidence. Puppies who are exposed to a variety of novel sounds, smells, and sights are better behaved and therefore safer. In order for socialization to be effective, puppies should therefore be exposed to those with mobility aids—and even environmental mobility aids—to actually be well-behaved and well-trained.
1. Socialized Puppies are Friendly (and Safe) For Everyone
Nearly everyone has someone in their life that uses a mobility aid, whether it’s a grandparent or elderly person, disabled individual, or even someone who was just in an accident. Despite this, puppies in training to become service dogs and therapy dogs are often the only ones socialized with mobility aids. This is detrimental not only to the many people who use mobility aids, but also for puppies themselves.
Puppies are already boisterous and prone to running, jumping, and nipping. All of these behaviors can range from being annoying to outright dangerous for certain people, especially those who are unsteady on their feet. But the danger is compounded for people who use mobility aids, such as walkers, canes, mobility scooters, rollators, or wheelchairs.
Such mobility aids are essential for many people to maintain an active, social lifestyle, which in turn promotes mental and emotional health. If your puppy is unused to a mobility aid, they could panic and bolt, potentially causing someone to fall. Alternatively, they could become aggressive or scared and begin attacking the mobility aid. Even if your puppy simply thinks the mobility aid is a toy and tries to play with it, this could still pose a physical risk.
2. Socialized Puppies are Prepared for Potential Lifestyle Changes
Life can be unpredictable, which means that your life could change abruptly. An accident at work, an injury while playing with friends, or even a sudden illness could mean you’ll be using a mobility aid either in the short or long-term. This is already an incredibly stressful scenario, so properly socializing pets to mobility aids becomes one less thing for you to worry about.
A great example of this is axillary (e.g., underarm) crutches. If you hurt one or both of your legs, it’s likely you’ll be provided with a pair of crutches until you recover. Alternatively, you could be equipped with a mobility scooter or knee walker, both of which assist with short-term leg recoveries. If you socialized your puppy to mobility aids, they won’t be prone to biting, playing with, or barking at the aids. Instead, they’ll be able to adapt to your lifestyle change with more ease.
3. Socialized Puppies Can Age with You
It’s a simple fact of life that everyone ages. But depending on when you get a puppy, that animal may be with you through several different stages of life. They could be with you as you enter middle adulthood, late adulthood, or your senior years. If you want your pet to successfully age with you, socializing them around mobility aids as a puppy means they can adapt to lifestyle changes when you get older.
Socializing puppies around mobility aids also means that they can better adapt to their own canine life stages. For example, many dogs have issues with their hips and back legs as they age. These medical issues may necessitate your dog be equipped with their own wheelchair, mobility sling, mobility harness, or even a drag bag. While any dog would naturally go through an adjustment period having to wear a mobility aid, the impact to your dog will be lessened if they are at least familiar with aids.
4. Socialized Puppies Prevent Financial Woes
Puppy socialization may be frustrating, but you can either spend time up-front to train your dog or spend money later on making up for their misdeeds. Mobility aids range in price from fairly cheap for basic canes to incredibly expensive for more specialized equipment, like wheelchairs. If your puppy isn’t used to being around mobility aids and accidentally damages or destroys an aid, you could be on the hook for a replacement.
Besides hurting your wallet, the person who owned or used the mobility aid could be materially hurt without the use of their mobility aid. Using the examples above, a person who uses a wheelchair would find their day-to-day life difficult without it if your puppy damaged the wheelchair. Given this, mobility aid replacements and repairs are time-sensitive. This means you could pay extra for rapid service if your dog damages or destroys a person’s mobility aid.
An even worse case scenario is that you’ll have to pay to repair or replace a mobility aid and pay for someone’s medical treatment. Picture this: someone is walking with a cane and your puppy mistakes it for a toy. They yank on the cane and the person falls, hurting their leg. Now, you are responsible for replacing the cane and paying for that person’s trip to the nearest urgent care center.
Depending on how heavily a person relies on their mobility aid, your puppy could do serious bodily harm by damaging or destroying that aid. You could also be feasibly sued because of your dog’s poor behavior, which could result in even more financial costs. Depending on how expensive a mobility aid is and essential it is to the owner’s quality of life, the claim could be worth thousands of dollars.
