Puppy Socialization

[NotDesperate]

Hi all,

I've had my puppy for about a month now, she is a poodle mix and is now 5 months old. I want to get her socialized, but whenever I take her where there are dogs she FREAKS out!! She is SOOO excited and does this cry/bark/yell thing that is so loud! She has done it on walks when we see other dogs and I tried to take her to PetSmart once but she started doing it outside at a dog on the sidewalk so we turned around and left.

I don't want to disturb everyone in the store, you know?

My other dog did this when he was a puppy a tiny bit but he got over it. He was never this crazy. And now Lucy is getting him wound up when we go out.

Should I just go to the store anyway and at least try to stay 5 minutes?

I am definitely doing obedience classes but not until I finish student teacher and I want her to get some socialization in the meantime.

Did anyone else experience this? Anyone have any advice?

TIA! :)

[pocket]

do you know anyone with a nice well-socialized older dog she could play with? It sounds like she's just not met enough dogs to have nice doggy manners. Like a home-schooled kid. She means well, but she doesn't really know how to hang.

[NotDesperate]

LOL! True. She is fine with the neighbor dog now- but that is only one dog. I guess I'll have to ask some friends with dogs if we can get together.

[TazLuv]

Are there any dog parks near you? That would give her a chance to socialize off leash and since she would be outside the noise shouldn't bother anyone.

All I can say is don't give up on her because I don't think our beagle got the proper socialization and she still gets really excited around other dogs which kind of freaks out the other owners.

Good luck!

[lovebugs2003]

My puppy is 5 months old now, and as soon as we could (after he got all of his shots), we put him in Doggie Daycare. He absolutely loves it. There are about 20 different dogs that go there at one point or another. Diego goes for 3 days a week. When he meets other dogs outside of daycare, he is really great with them, and has a great demeanour with them.

He plays so much during the day, that when he gets home, he is so pooped, he just chills out all night.

[NotDesperate]

Well we don't have anything cool here so 1) no doggie parks and 2) only one doggie daycare close to here and I would never leave my dog there (scary).

:***(

Which is why we went to Petsmart for socialization ;)

[TazLuv]

Well then I would say try the store again - if you really don't have any other options then people will just have to get over it. She needs to learn socialization at a young age, if they don't they may never acquire the right skills.

Sorry you don't have other choices. :(

[NotDesperate]

Thanks TazLuz, we will try the store again. I wish we had other options too. Also, when we go on walks we will intentionally go by yards with dogs in them.

What do I do whens he starts freaking out and barking/crying/yelling? Let her do it? Correct her and say "quiet"? Hold her?

[pocket]

I would say that this can be handled under the general rule of - correct all behavior you don't like and praise all behavior you like.

[TazLuv]

Yup - I would pet her to try to calm her when she freaks out, worst case close her mouth with your hand. Eventually she will understand its not acceptable it just takes time. Good luck! :)

[pocket]

TazLuv - well, I definitely soothed freakouts too much and as a result Ari is too skittish. I mean he totally freaks out sometimes and had a hard time calming himself. In retrospect i wish i hadn't soothed so much. Once he even had what looked to me like a panic attack after the smoke alarm went off. And once he hid his head in my knees and cried like a baby when he got nipped at the dogpark. I mean, geez! He wasn't even hurt! People were staring, it was emabrrassing!

[NotDesperate]

Well if she freaks out, I am not going to soothe or pet her. That will just reinforce the behavior and she will think she is doing what she should do. I think correcting or even ignoring would be better. We will see!