Proper Socialization

[Kacie Hollander]

This weekend I took our 15 week old puppy, Macy to a "Puppy Play Date" at a local dog training facility.  It was a big room with 15 - 20 puppies ranging in age from 8 weeks to 15 weeks.  There were 4 or 5 dog trainers mixed in with the puppies to watch for behavior issues.  Macy ignored all the other puppies the first half, and the second half she was aggressively fighting with any dog that tried to play with her.  It was very upsetting to watch because I've never seen her look so aggressive.  She was having nipping issues a few weeks ago with us but we set up a "time out" spot and the nipping is basically over (thank goodness!!).

It seems to me that Macy doesn't know how to play with other dogs.  She's been around grown dogs and it's always fine, but never really plays with them.

The trainer wants us to bring Macy back again next weekend, but I'm afraid that it's just encouraging poor behavior.  Thoughts?  Does she really need to be able to play with other puppies?  Or just older dogs that are calmer?

[Brittney Dickson]

Where did you find free puppies classes??!

[Katrine]

Hua, that's fantastic. I wish our puppy classes would have started with a little play... Stella was SO wound up she could hardly contain herself when we would start a class, all she wanted to do was a meet and greet with the other pups! It was hard for me to focus because I would have to try to get her to calm down.

[Sandra]

I live in Durham,NC would like to find a group like this here.