When you are out and about with your dog, have you ever encountered a person who is clutching their small dog to their chest as the furry bundle growls and spits and hisses and snarls?  The person usually says something like, "My dog just doesn't like other dogs!"  Sadly, chances are very good that the dog was not properly socialized early in life.

Professional dog trainers will tell you that you need to give your new pup "100 exposures in 100 days."  Research has shown that dogs imprint and integrate these new experiences and have a much greater chance of being open and enthusiastic (at best) and non-reactive (at a minimum) when encountering the same stimuli later in life.  But....here's the kicker:  the window begins to close at around four months (16 weeks) of age, meaning that your pup becomes less and less open to new experiences from this age forward.