Help with introducing puppy to other dogs

[Notmyrealmum]

We have had our 12 week old Springador (springer spaniel/ labrador cross) since she was 8 weeks old and she is doing really well in general - minimal accidents inside, learning basic commands nicely and apart from the razor sharp teeth she's generally lovely.

We've been taking her for a 5/10 minute carry around our local area to acclimatise her to some sights and sounds (need to wait a week after her last injection) and she's loving being out & about. The only problem comes when she sees other dogs and she wants to jump down. We have let her say a quick hello to a family dog and she was so excited, jumped all over him and he had enough after about 20 seconds so we picked her up again and separated them.

We don't really know any other dogs to socialise her with so how should we go about this? She'll be going out properly from this weekend and I want to make sure she has interactions with other dogs but how she gets so so excitable is off putting to other dogs and I worry they may snap at her and scare her.

Sign up for some good puppy classes. They will really help. Socialising is about exposure to other dogs but still being focused on you. Most dog to dog play isn’t really sensible. Dog to puppy play even worse. So it is something you need to manage carefully.

Puppies are annoying for adult dogs, it's better for her to socialise and play with puppies so yeah, puppy classes is a good starting point.

Also, interactions with other dogs are not mandatory for a happy dog.
I personally tried a bit too hard with mine, taking any opportunity for my pup to say hi to passing dogs, and up until very recently he was OBSESSED with other dogs, which was very annoying, because it led to some lead reactivity, out of frustration.
Now that he's more mature, he doesn't care that much, but I still need to enforce a "leave it" command when we see another dog approaching us. If the dog is friendly and willing to play, I let him go, but I don't want playing to be the default interaction. I also keep play sessions short, a quick chase, a bit of jumping and off we go.

So socialisation yes, but no need for prolonged interactions.

Fantastic- thanks for the advice. I am looking for a puppy class for the new year for us.

Like everyone has mentioned, puppy classes are the best start for a bit of puppy play. But also puppy obedience classes are great for learning to co-exist with other dogs calmly.

You definitely don’t want to socialise with random dogs you don’t know as you can never trust how they will react to an excited puppy. The last thing you need is them being attacked or scared during an interaction. Most people think the best of their dogs so I wouldn’t trust a random person saying their dog is friendly. Maybe if you have a trusted family or friends dog?

But you don’t actually need your puppy to meet any dogs face to face to socialise them at all. The best thing to do is go out and let them observe the world from afar. sit in car parks and watch people come and go. Go to the park but stay on the side lines. They don’t actually need to get involved. It’s a myth that socialisation is just meeting loads of different dogs and people.

Most important thing is that they are focused on you and not always looking to go and say hello to other dogs or people, it can lead to reactivity in the future.

Teach your dog that you are much more exciting than other dogs and you’re onto a winner

dogs don’t need friends or to play with other dogs altho it’s something you can introduce with other dogs that play appropriately with yours as yours get older