Hi, my name is Lynn. My husband and I have a beautiful 10-month-old chocolate Lab…our first dog ever! We are both retired, so our pup is with us all of the time. He is rambunctious and full of mischief. We are working with a trainer on impulse control, etc. as he gets overly excited meeting new people and such. He goes absolutely bonkers if someone comes to the or and rings the bell. My question is about socialization. We live in the country with a limited number of homes. There just aren’t dogs out there for our pup to play with. One of our friends has a seven-year-old lab, but he doesn’t have any interest in playing with our puppy. Our boy in not yet neutered, and the local daycare places will not take intact dogs between 8 months to a year. We are waiting until March to have him neutered. I’m worried that we are not providing our dog with enough opportunities to play with other dogs. Thoughts, comments, suggestions?
Why do you feel the need for him to play with other dogs? Personally, I prefer a dog who will happily ignore other dogs, than one who sees another dog in the distance and flies over to it to 'play'. I would try taking him to your local town and sit quietly with him, working on his impulse control with other people and dogs walking by. I think you'll find this much more useful than him roughhousing with other dogs.
^^ this. I have actively avoided my puppy playing with too many other dogs; I’m the source of her fun and compared to my older dog (who did play more with other dogs) she has been a total dream with recall and staying close to me through her teenage months. I would consider joining a local group (Facebook) to see if anyone is interested in a 1:1 meet up and walk together. There are some trainers who also arrange this for appropriate introductions and interactions as well.
