My pup is 11 weeks old. He has had 2 rounds of vaccines. There is a basic obedience/socialization class at a local vet office near my home after hours. The class is reserved for a max of 6 puppies, aged 8-18 weeks. I am concerned he is not getting enough exposure to other dogs. Do you think he would be ok in this type of class even though he is not fully vaccinated yet? I am assuming some of the other pups won't be either. I really want him to be well socialized with other dogs and I feel the window is closing. He will 15-16 weeks before he gets his 4th round and able to interact with dogs at the park and around town. That seems too late. I am going to keep reaching out to some of the other dog owners in my neighborhood but I'd love to have something else lined up. Thank you!
If the other puppies are vaccinated then I'd go ahead and book into the class. You are right to think that socialisation is very important. Where I live it is commonplace to have weekly play sessions of pre-12 week old pups, run by a local vet. I would definitely do this if I had a pup.
I was in a similar situation as you. I got Myles at 11 weeks and his vet wanted to start his vaccinations over (he said his first round with the breeder didn't count as Myles was too young and mother's antibodies would fight the vaccine, or something like that ). I was all set to start puppy classes when he said this, so I actually delayed them a couple weeks so I could get 2 rounds in. Then I went ahead and let Myles start classes (he met the requirements of the training facility to have had 2 rounds). The vet tech said he wouldn't risk it and would wait until all 3 rounds were complete, but Myles would have nearly missed the socialization window and I thought that was a bigger risk. That's a long way of saying, I would go ahead and start classes.
Our dog had 1 lot of injections, he started training at 10 weeks, the trainer (who also run the puppy classes at the vets) said that was fine as long as he had had at least 1.
My local vet runs puppy parties himself, and encourages all new puppy owners to start puppy class right away. Charlie had his first romp with other puppies (all who had their first vaccination and a note from the vet that they appeared healthy) 3 days after he came home. This isn't risk free, but it seemed the right thing to do.
