How does everyone go about dog/dog socialization with their puppies?
I was just thinking this morning...I don't expect my adult dogs to love every dog they meet. I do expect them to be polite in public and be accepting of dogs I'm trying to introduce (within reason). Which lead me to think, why would I bother trying to introduce my puppy to other dogs in public? Wouldn't it be better to start working on being polite and ignoring other dogs in public places from the get go?
The puppy would socialize with my own dogs and select other dogs that I know the pup would be seeing a lot of (friend's dogs, extended family dogs), but is it really necessary to do the whole "puppy play group" thing? Or let them greet other dogs while at Petsmart or some such in order to work on "friendly interaction" and "dog body language"?
The thought popped in to my head because 3/4 of the breeds I'm interested in aren't typically friendly with dogs outside of their family. And since as adults they will have a tendency to not like other (strange) dogs, I thought that it would make more sense to start working with them on polite disinterest towards dogs in public from the get go than it would be to have them socially play/interact with dogs in public.
When Sadie (Labrador) was a puppy she never really had any interaction with dogs outside of ours. She wasn't dog aggressive or reactive and when she was around other dogs in public she ignored them. The few times she actually met other dogs she was a bit uncertain, but fine. She was being raised as a Guide Dog, so we kept her from interacting with other dogs in public because we didn't want her thinking, "ZOMG, another dog! Play!!!!!!" if she came across another dog.
And I feel that if when Chloe was a puppy I had worked with her more on ignoring other dogs than trying to get her to accept and agreeably interact with other dogs I would have made much more progress with her reactivity issues as a young dog.
So those were my musings. Thoughts?
I was just thinking this morning...I don't expect my adult dogs to love every dog they meet. I do expect them to be polite in public and be accepting of dogs I'm trying to introduce (within reason). Which lead me to think, why would I bother trying to introduce my puppy to other dogs in public? Wouldn't it be better to start working on being polite and ignoring other dogs in public places from the get go?
The puppy would socialize with my own dogs and select other dogs that I know the pup would be seeing a lot of (friend's dogs, extended family dogs), but is it really necessary to do the whole "puppy play group" thing? Or let them greet other dogs while at Petsmart or some such in order to work on "friendly interaction" and "dog body language"?
The thought popped in to my head because 3/4 of the breeds I'm interested in aren't typically friendly with dogs outside of their family. And since as adults they will have a tendency to not like other (strange) dogs, I thought that it would make more sense to start working with them on polite disinterest towards dogs in public from the get go than it would be to have them socially play/interact with dogs in public.
When Sadie (Labrador) was a puppy she never really had any interaction with dogs outside of ours. She wasn't dog aggressive or reactive and when she was around other dogs in public she ignored them. The few times she actually met other dogs she was a bit uncertain, but fine. She was being raised as a Guide Dog, so we kept her from interacting with other dogs in public because we didn't want her thinking, "ZOMG, another dog! Play!!!!!!" if she came across another dog.
And I feel that if when Chloe was a puppy I had worked with her more on ignoring other dogs than trying to get her to accept and agreeably interact with other dogs I would have made much more progress with her reactivity issues as a young dog.
So those were my musings. Thoughts?