Socialising puppies with other puppies is overrated!

Koba got to hang out with Halo today!

It can be surprising, but I don’t encourage puppy play in my classes. Generally puppy classes which focus on playing with other puppies turns into a pretty negative experience all round - bolder puppies learn to bully other puppies, less confident puppies tend to either retreat or learn to be more defensive in creating space that they need in this situation. It’s the socially blind leading the socially blind, none of which leads to the neutral, well balanced dog we want in an adult.

Instead, I mostly prioritise puppies socialising with more neutral, well controlled adults who can be good role models for them. Halo here doesn’t really care for other dogs/puppies, and is more than happy to do her own thing and ignore puppies. Puppy learns that other dogs aren’t scary or something to get super excited by triggering rowdy play time (the trouble with learning from super “friendly” outgoing adult dogs!), instead learning to just get on with things and that I’m the most fun thing to engage with in this situation.

Once out of the litter, puppies need to learn primarily from dogs who can demonstrate the behaviour you want to see in your grown up dog. Not other puppies who are still learning the social rules themselves.