So pup is now 16 weeks old & is a male golden retriever. We got him at 13 weeks, but he was socialised with people before we got him, though not with lots of different people & he was part of a big litter so even when people came around to visit the pups, he wasn't getting lots of individual attention iygwim. Since we've had him I have obviously been socialising him, but he is a timid pup and Im going by something I heard which is 'no experience is better than a bad experience' with dog socialisation. Slow and steady is how we are doing things. The first week we got him he growled at DD and snarled at DS. It worried me, but I felt DD in particular was not giving pup any space and I ended up printing off a poster of do's and don'ts with puppies & she has respected this and been very good. Consequently he has not growled at her since. However this week he has growled a lot at people. One time at our neighbour who approached him on the street & then today to my friend and then later at my niece. He then hid behind me. I told them to ignore him for a bit and just chat to me, and then later I got my friend to give him treats and eventually he allowed her to stroke him, but he was still rather wary.
We will be going to puppy training with him but not until he's 19 weeks old. I couldn't get onto an earlier course.
He is quite bouncy with other dogs as the breeder had lots of pet dogs of their own and my feeling is he was left for long periods in the company of dogs, rather than people.
My instinct tells me he is not an aggressive dog, just a rather shy puppy who needs to warm up to people in his own time.
He is such a good boy in every other way, housetraining seems to be quite straight forward with him, he's happy being left for up to 2 hours in the house and never messes; he's very good at night; he has learnt to 'sit', 'fetch', 'drop' and comes to his name in the house; he is an excellent 'communicator & he tells you when he wants to go to bed at night, when he does or does not want to play or if he's had enough when we're out with him.
What's making me slightly stress is all the puppy books telling me the window for socialisation closes at 16 weeks! I need to get him over his fear of people and I feel like I'm under pressure to do this each week that goes by. The trouble is that because he's so timid, I cannot rush him so I feel like I'm in a catch 22.
Please, any thoughts from more experienced dog owners! This is my first puppy. We love him and are prepared to put the work in. Would the growling worry you? I don't want to tell him off for growling as its a warning I feel.