I have a nearly 16 week old pup and we have just started going out for walks. Most of the walks we don’t meet any other dogs but the last 2 days we have ran into a fair few as we are going slightly further away from home.
She has met my parents dog who is 12 years old lab and due to her age isn’t interested in the pup at all. She mostly ignored her and just walks away.
and she’s met our friends dog who she’s happy to be around.
How should I be handling her meeting new dogs though when out on walks? She is always on a lead at the moment but seems scared of any other dogs apart from the two above.
If we are walking past a house that has their dog in the garden and it starts barking she just takes a few steps backwards and sits down and refuses to walk past the house…
Shes come across a dog off lead who paid her no attention and she started to refuse to move again but I just carried on walking and gave her a treat.
However, There was a dog off lead last night who ran up to her, she tried to run away and run behind me and I put myself in front of her and the dog and the owner called the dog back but I could see she was scared as she started shaking.
Im surprised she is so frightened of other dogs considering she loves my parents & friends dog.
Iv read lots of things online about letting dogs go up to her but some of the stuff seems to contradict each other.
She starts puppy classes in a few weeks (couldn’t get in before) and she loves people.
How should I be helping her build confidence around other dogs until we start the classes?
She’s a cavapoo.