Family Dog Training
Socialization & Neutrality Training
Controlled exposure to people, dogs, sounds, surfaces, vehicles, public spaces, and new environments.
Controlled exposure to people, dogs, sounds, surfaces, vehicles, public spaces, and new environments.
Socialization begins early — typically around three weeks of age at the breeder — and continues through the critical eight-to-twenty-week window, usually handed over to families or trainers during that stretch. Proper socialization means introducing a puppy to as many safe, varied experiences as possible during this period. Dogs isolated from the world, or left without enough exposure to other dogs and people, are prone to real mental and behavioral problems later — dogs are pack animals by nature, descended from wolves, and need social contact to stay psychologically healthy. This is, without question, the most consequential window in a puppy's development, and outcomes are planned and tracked against a clear standard.
Neutrality Training (what we call Sosyalizasyon) is the remedial version — built for dogs that missed proper socialization early on. It works through slow, deliberate exposure to new situations over an extended timeline, keeping every interaction short, positive, and free of fear. Socialization that isn't reinforced and maintained doesn't hold — but dogs that went through the early stages correctly rarely lose it. Dogs that missed the window can still improve significantly, though results vary from dog to dog and require ongoing follow-through from the family, not a single block of sessions.
Structured exposure to people, dogs, sounds, and surfaces
Early socialization for puppies in the critical window
Remedial neutrality work for older, undersocialized dogs
Family follow-through required to maintain results
Critical window runs roughly 3–14 weeks of age
Veterinary behavior organizations recognize the primary socialization window as roughly three to fourteen weeks of age — and recommend that safe, controlled socialization start before a puppy's vaccine series is complete, not after. Waiting until "fully vaccinated" to begin often means missing the window entirely. That's why ICONK9 builds socialization work around safe, low-risk environments from the earliest appropriate point, rather than defaulting to a blanket delay that costs a puppy the most valuable weeks it will ever have for learning the world is safe.
