Hello all! Owen is now a little over 4 1/2 months old. It seems like everytime I have him play with another dog it ends up scaring him. For instance, my mom's bigger dog didn't like him since he is a puppy and growled at him. My grandma's tiny dog growled and snapped at him. Another larger lab we had a play date with ended up being possessive over Owen's ball and growled a lot at him as well. All three of these dogs do not have any other playdates with him. So we went to the dog park. First time was great! The other dog and him got along. The second time started ok. Another person had two dogs, one got along with Owen and the other kept growling. The owner was good and kept scolding the other dog, so Owen wasn't too affected. However than this big dog showed up. The big dog was deaf, so she didn't hear Owen whimper when she accidently stepped on him, so Owen was scared whenever she came close. We left shortly after that. Owen also had a growling experience with our neighbors saint bernard. None of these except for the tiny dog actually made an intention of hurting him, just growling. So I am slightly concerned that all of these bad experiences are bad for him. Will he end up being afraid of other dogs? Right now he is still extremely interested in meeting every dog he sees, and we go to the pet store freqently where he gets to do a small good interaction with other dogs a lot. Let me know if the pic doesn't show up. http://i61.photobucket.com/albums/h...loads/2017-03/20170323_093554_zpscbmgeupp.jpg
One of the first responsibilities of an owner with a puppy is to ensure that all dogs we intend to arrange a play date with are good and patient with puppies to try and ensure that the experience is good. We also have a responsibility to remove our puppy if will not stop worrying another dog and we all know how tiring a puppy can be . There are numerous reasons as to why a dog will growl at a puppy the most common being to tell the puppy off for his behaviour (particularly for biting). An older dog may also be suffering from health problems or be uncomfortable through joint pain and simply doesn't want a young pup bouncing around them. Some dogs simply do not like annoying, pesky, demanding puppies in just the same way that not all people like babies and small children. The ball 'possessive' Lab may have been resource guarding or he may have been playing as growling forms a part of play - balls can be an particular problem for play as 2 dogs can't be in possession of the ball and play together unlike a good tugger toy. I never let my dogs play with strange dogs in the park unless I have been able to assess the dog's body language or know the dog already. It can be beneficial to train that we don't greet and play with every dog we see and can make life easier as they grow bigger, stronger and gain confidence and independence. Without knowing the full details of exactly what was happening in each of the situations when Owen was growled at it's not really possible to comment on whether they were a 'bad' experience - they may have been a 'manners' experience from an adult to a pup which can be a 'good' experience and help him when puppy exuberance is not so well tolerated as he gets older and matures. It does sound as if Owen has been pretty unphased by the experiences though so I wouldn't be unduly worried.
Hi. Have you had a chance to take Owen to a puppy socialisation class? Where he will be with pups of a similar age? Where we live it is common for vet practices to sponsor a 4 week or so puppy socialisation class for pups, usually that come to the practice but not always, I am not sure of the requirements. Harley is a very enthusiastic pup and as @Jojo83 says, it can be more than an older dog wants to deal with, and rightly so. On the other hand, not all dogs are well socialised, even if they go out for walks, and they may not understand how to deal with pups and other dogs. When we went to puppy socialisation Harley learned how to "speak dog" with the other puppies and it was so helpful. She has since had play dates that weren't successful and we removed her and that was that, but on the whole it is very interesting to watch her body language with dogs of different ages, sizes and familiarity. Just yesterday we went to the vet to have her weighed and buy some treats and I had a chance to see her interact with a very young BC pup, probably about 8 weeks old. She lowered herself onto the floor so she was at a similar height to the pup and let the puppy explore her while gently interacting. I was so very proud of her. I am very new to dog owning so I would advise that you listen to what everyone has to say on this forum, read the very informative and well written articles on thelabradorsite and just from me, I would recommend finding a puppy socialisation class with someone that uses positive reinforcement training. Good luck, Owen looks like he has a lovely sense of humour and he is a beautiful pup.
With my schedule it was almost impossible to sign up for puppy classes or training classes. However, I did find one that worked, and the person cancelled the day before. Now I am starting a new job, so I will have time. And now I cannot find any puppy classes except for the one training class I signed up for. However, that will be one on one. I have tried to make my own puppy socialization play dates with puppies of similar ages, but the other puppies owner always cancels on me.
@DrizztGirl socialisation is not just about meting and playing with other puppies and/or dogs. Socialisation is giving your pup lots of different experiences to help him cope with life in our forever changing world. Whereabouts are? If you are in the UK you coukd try the APDT or the IMDT for a positive trainer in your area. At 4.5 months old Owen is actually a little too old for most 'puppy classes'. Look for trainers offering a class for beginners or adolescents or even a beginning clicker class
I'm not actively trying to find a puppy class anymore, just explaining that all the times I tried when he was younger didn't work out. But I am less concerned. We will just keep going to the dog park and soon enough he will be more comfortable when there are more dogs there. It will just take some getting used to I think. And we have signed up for a beginner training class that uses positive reinforcement. I personally have tried the clicke training myself but would rather say good because then I don't have to remember the clicker. He already knows some basic stuff, so he has a head start on his class already! And there will be one other pup close to his age there I found out!
I look forward to hearing how you get on with your class with Owen . Using a marker word is fine if you don't want to use a clicker although some trainers will try to insist that you use one (not very positive reinforcement ) but my training mentor suggests using the wordetails "click" rather than "good" as it is less likely to appear in conversation and cause confusion for the dog and it is easier to.maintain a consistent tone with "click"
