Advice on socialising my puppy with other dogs

[Didiplanthis]

I'm looking for safe ways to get my puppy out and about and comfortable with other dogs. There are no puppy socialisation classes locally as lots shut due to covid. My last dog was fear aggressive having been badly attacked as a puppy and despite lots of work with behaviourists she never got over it, and walking her was utterly miserable for both of us. She was fine if dogs ignored her she never reacted unless they hassled her but everyone just let their dogs bound up to her and she hated it. She was walked in a muzzle and only off lead on our own land. But dog ownership was greatly marred by it.

I now have an 8 week puppy. I want to get her out and about when she safe to do so and until then I will be taking her out in arms to see stuff. But I am scared after last time. I'm worried about aggressive dogs, over friendly dogs - basically dogs that are not under control and they are bloody everywhere.. I'm not bothered about her playing with random dogs and running off lead.. that won't be happening unless her recall is 100% and as a sight hound that may never happen although we are already working on it.

Help me work out how to do this and not let past experiences spoil this.
I want a hsppy dog I can take out and enjoy being out with !

First fear aggression in dogs is generally breed and rarely down to poor socialisation or the owner. So you did not do anything to your first dog to cause them to be reactive. Even though your dog was attacked there would have been a predisposition to fear aggresion in your dog.

However saying all that as you are aware one bad experience can haunt you and your dog for a long time!

Socialisation with other dog is more getting your dog to focus on you when dogs are around. There is no need at all for your dog to interact with every dog they see. In fact that is a really bad idea. You either open your dog up to the chance of having a bad experience or your dog will always rush up to other dogs and ignore you (depending on your dogs personality)

Watch other dogs and if you see a calm older dog then that is the type of dog you would allow an interaction with. It may be worth stalking a popular walking area and watching some dogs and then returning at a similar time to then allow an interaction. Do not hesitate to turn away and leave any situation you are not happy about.

If in doubt dont let them interact!

The dogs should approach in an arc and meet face to face and then the dogs should go to each others rear. At that point they will either walk away or choose to play. If the meeting does not happen like that give a cheery goodbye and move your dog on.

If the dogs do choose to play let it happen for a short time and again move on.

breed = bred

I have just started taking our pup out and this worries me too. So far we have gone to quieter areas, but today a massive dog came flying over and to me looked quite menacing, I picked pup up which I probably shouldn't do, then the dog was trying to jump at me to get to pup. The owner was shouting oh she's fine etc etc. Nah, fuck off love and get your dog away!

What is the right thing to do when a large dog, or small, comes haring up to your puppy?

What is the right thing to do when a large dog, or small, comes haring up to your puppy?

My default position has always been 'can you call your dog off', shouted loudly enough for the owner, who is usually quite far away, to hear me.

My dog isn't interested in interacting with other dogs and will generally ignore any other dogs we come across.

Unfortunately, that doesn't stop random dogs, large and small, from running at her from time to time.

She's small and has been jumped on by some big dogs, on one occasion two very big dogs with absolutely no recall who followed us across a park while completely ignoring their ineffectual owner who just went on yelling their names over and over, so I've learned to become quite forceful in telling other dog owners to call off their dogs.

What is the right thing to do when a large dog, or small, comes haring up to your puppy?

There is never anything positive for either dog meeting in this situation. So get away from the situation, keep your eyes out and tried to avoid the situation (hard at times but this is your best defence). You can ask the owners to call their dog but tbh if the dog is behaving like that initially I doubt they have much recal.

I would pick up a small dog if it is in danger of being bowled over or frightened by another dog. Your dog will feel more secure if they know you have their backs - rather than increase fear which is what the old fashioned view on picking up your dog was.

If you are new to dog walking areas I would actually walk in the areas for a while without your dog. You can check out how many dogs are in the area, what type of owners there are etc and if you feel it is a sensible place to walk your dog. Usually common popuar dog walking areas are best avoided at all times!

Clockingoffcloud I have no idea, but similar problem! I did once feed other dog treats to get focus on to me instead of puppy ! Probably wrong thing to do but I just instinctively wanted to break the interaction with puppy.

It is hard to find the right area to walk a dog. I was specifically trying to choose quieter areas. But then I did notice there seemed to be more antisocial/reactive dogs there with owners who wanted a quieter spot. So started to wonder if she almost had more chance of a bad interaction occurring there.

Keep your lead loose. If they feel the tension in you, they’ll be tense.

I find that the very busy dog areas are full of fairly friendly dogs. For us locally the busiest places are a park which has a car park, and the beach during the winter months. When we were in London, Hampstead Heath was fantastic - you couldn't go 5 minutes without seeing a dog.

Basically only people with friendly dogs take their dogs to those places. Those with dogs that aren't keen on other dogs go for the quieter areas.

Friendly dogs can be the worst dogs to socialise a puppy with......

You want calm indifferent dogs

Friendly as in unlikely to snap at your puppy, or worse.

You can't seriously think that it's worse to socialise your dog among friendly dogs than reactive ones...

@UndertonesOfCake

Friendly as in unlikely to snap at your puppy, or worse.

You can't seriously think that it's worse to socialise your dog among friendly dogs than reactive ones...

“Friendly” and in popular dog walking areas usually means quite a high chance of rude and pushy and then not being able to avoid them.

People walking reactive dogs in quiet areas are trying to avoid other dogs, you then only need to watch out for what your puppy is doing.

No interaction is much better than repeated negative interactions with rude pushy dogs.

Hence why I expanded in the second post @UndertonesofCake.

"Friendly" dogs who want to play , constantly dance around all dogs, run up to dogs or chase or want interaction with all dogs are the worst kind of dogs to socialise puppies unless you also want an out of control dog whenever they see another dog.

You want a calm indifferent dog that will politely greet and then move on.

Although being devils advocate If I had a large distance between my puppy and a reactive dog that was onlead and not reacting that would actually be a better choice for any puppies than a "he is friendly" dog. With the dog onlead we can acknowldge the dogs presence get focus onto the owner and move on.

With all of mine I start as I mean to go on and don’t allow my dogs to interact with any dogs on walks unless I know them.

I teach a solid watch and wait as young as possible and make myself or my other dog the most fun in the world so the puppy wants to stay with us. As we are able to go out I usually spend lots of time somewhere busy sitting drinking coffee watching lots of dogs and people go past and treating/praising for calm focused behaviour.

In addition I always always attend an obedience or training class (or ringcraft is brilliant for this) teaching the puppy to focus on myself while there are other dogs as distractions. The aim for me is to have dogs that find others boring and are indifferent to them rather than them seeing a dog and thinking they may run off or get into trouble. I don’t trust other people’s dogs or their level of training. If an out of control dog does come up to mine I tend to just block it and turn the other way and make myself much much more interesting so my dogs ignore it. The other dog will get bored 9 times out of 10 and sod off but it does not happen too often because my dogs are massive and people tend to be more wary.

I do allow socialisation with friends dogs I know are equally well behaved but random untested dogs absolutely not.

@Housebears

With all of mine I start as I mean to go on and don’t allow my dogs to interact with any dogs on walks unless I know them.

I teach a solid watch and wait as young as possible and make myself or my other dog the most fun in the world so the puppy wants to stay with us. As we are able to go out I usually spend lots of time somewhere busy sitting drinking coffee watching lots of dogs and people go past and treating/praising for calm focused behaviour.

In addition I always always attend an obedience or training class (or ringcraft is brilliant for this) teaching the puppy to focus on myself while there are other dogs as distractions. The aim for me is to have dogs that find others boring and are indifferent to them rather than them seeing a dog and thinking they may run off or get into trouble. I don’t trust other people’s dogs or their level of training. If an out of control dog does come up to mine I tend to just block it and turn the other way and make myself much much more interesting so my dogs ignore it. The other dog will get bored 9 times out of 10 and sod off but it does not happen too often because my dogs are massive and people tend to be more wary.

I do allow socialisation with friends dogs I know are equally well behaved but random untested dogs absolutely not.

^ this is the way to socialise your dogs

Do you have a local fb group? You could ask for a meet up with dogs who dont care/arent interested in puppies and build confidence from there. My girl ignores every dog (growls slightly at over interested puppies ) and loves humans so I'd be happy to meet up if someone requested.