You may not worry now and care more about puppy socialization more, but once you have a puppy whose life is messed up or he dies because of parvo you will be much more cautious. I care much more about protecting Gunnar's life then if he meets new dogs.5 month old puppies can still be socialized just fine
The trouble is, if a pup has missed out on socialization during the critical period...(birth to 3-4 months) you can't socialize them "just fine" later. There's a window and it closes. That window is present in
ALL animals. It varies between species. If animals could be socialized any time, no animal species would survive, evolve and pass on their "caution genes" because they wouldn't have the necessary fear and caution when it comes to predators and dangerous environments because they'd already be dead. They have to learn what is safe and what is dangerous, when to be curious and when to be cautious. Once they find they can get along without certain things in their life, they don't feel a need to. Those things left unknown to them will be things they leave out of their repertoire as dangerous and unnecessary. If they don't
learn during that critical period how to bounce back from or get right over initial fears, they won't
develop the ability of "bounce back." And that means that novel things will be avoided and feared and it's extremely difficult to over-come that.
It's absolutely imperative to get a new puppy out and about. To me, an under-socialized dog is an unstable, miserable thing that can never re-coupe that lost time.
Of course, pre-cautions should be made to avoid diseases like parvo. Ask around....have there been any cases of parvo in your area? Do like it's already been mentioned...avoid high traffic areas where a
lot of dogs you don't know frequent, like dog parks and pet stores. But puppies do need to meet lots of people of all shapes, sizes, colors, carrying packages, umbrellas, joggers, bikers etc, other safe, friendly, healthy dogs, see all kinds of environments, machinery, objects, different ground surfaces, other animals, as well as grooming chores etc. The list goes on and on. Avoid frightening, over-whelming experiences and associate all with a good time.
Parvo is a
horrible disease and there is a risk. The risk can be minimized by reasonable pre-cautions. But the risk of not socializing a puppy properly is more than a risk. It's a
known. There is no question what it will do to a puppy who is sheltered from exposure to novel things. And the results of that are devestating too. A dog that is forever excessively fearful of every novel thing he encounters, who can't adjust to life is every bit as sad or more so, (imo) as a dog dying from parvo because he has to live with this psychological pain and inability to handle life for years to come.
