Socialization and observation log
A checklist of exposures by category with the date and the dog's reaction, and a table of observations: each trigger, the distance, the signals seen and how fast the dog recovered. Stored in this browser.
For a first pass, the exposure checklist is essential for a puppy: Socialization and confidence asks for five dated items in the first week. For an adult dog it is a menu, and three items at the dog's pace are enough to start Socialization and confidence. The observations sheet is essential if anything worries your dog; Read your dog asks for one row. Skip it and you lose the distances, which are the measurements every later step is built on.
Exposure checklist
Tick an item once the dog has met it at a level where it could still take food, and write the reaction. One good meeting is a start, not a finish.
Each item is met at a distance or volume where the dog can still take food, and followed by something the dog likes. "Afraid" means stop, add distance, and read Read your dog; it does not mean try again louder. Ask your veterinarian before taking a puppy into public places or clinic lobbies before the vaccine series is complete.
Observations
One row per encounter with something that worries the dog. Distance and recovery time are what you measure; the status is your judgment so far.
The body-language reference lists the signals to write down. Distance is the number to watch: if it shrinks over weeks, the dog is coping better at that trigger.
How to use these sheets
- One exposure item, one row of notes. Repeat good items; one meeting is a start.
- One encounter per observation row. Write the distance at which the dog first noticed the trigger and the signals in the order you saw them.
- "Could the dog eat?" is the simplest threshold test the sources give: a dog that cannot take food is past the point where it can learn anything good about the trigger.
- Status is a judgment, not a fact. Use "provisional" for what you think is going on and say in the notes who would confirm it.
The observation rows come from Rosie, adopted ten days ago with an unknown history. At about 60 feet from a dog across the street she froze, stared and lunged, and could not eat. Two days later, from the other side of a park at about 100 feet, she looked, licked her lips and looked back at Priya, and took food after each look. Both rows are provisional: whether the lunging is fear or frustration is settled by a credentialed behavior consultant, not by the sheet.
These sheets record what you saw. They do not diagnose fear, anxiety or aggression, and a growing list of "afraid" or "could not eat" rows is a reason to call a professional, not to add exposures. Which places a puppy may visit before its vaccine series is complete is the veterinarian's call. Any bite, any snap, or fear that stops a dog eating in ordinary places goes to the stop-and-call list in Read your dog.