Hello everyone, I have a 16 week old golden lab called Monty. We take him to a local park in the evening where we meet up with a man and his dog. We would love to let Monty off the lead to play, and the other man keeps telling us to, he says that Monty won’t run off as he would be with his dog. Do you think this is right or should we wait?
Providing the park is secure (i.e the puppy can't get onto the road) I would let him off-lead. I've let each of my dogs off-lead on their very first outings as puppies - when they are young they tend to stay close to you. You obviously need to watch how the other dog behaves with your puppy - if the older dog is getting fed-up then remove your puppy, don't let the older dog 'tell him off'. Keep the play session fairly short. I would also try to go somewhere you can safely let Monty off-lead where there are no other dogs and play tug and encourage him to chase you. It's more important to build Monty's relationship with you and the idea that fun things happen when he is near you than it is for him to play with other dogs.
