Ideas for occupying a very sociable puppy

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Marigold4

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I have a lovely collie puppy. She's 6 months old and full of fun! Our other collie (aged 9) is really good with her but there are limits to how much she wants to play. What can I do with the puppy so that she meets other dogs? She's too old for puppy socialisation and too young for agility. Don't fancy obedience classes as she already knows all the key commands and I don't want someone telling us to do it all differently. Any ideas anyone??
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Some of the secure dog exercise areas hold breed specific sessions, so that dogs can meet and play with others of a similar size. You might be able to find one locally.
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I would avoid doing this. If she's as sociable as you say, she'd be better off doing group classes and learning that she can be in close proximity with other dogs without being allowed to play with them. Plus you'd be risking her having a bad experience or getting overwhelmed by letting her socialise with lots of strange dogs.

Have a look for KC puppy foundation/bronze classes, Hoopers, or scentwork classes near you. Once you're there, you can identify a suitable friend for her and ask the owner if they would be interested in arranging playdates for the two of them.
 
Pearlsasinger said:
Some of the secure dog exercise areas hold breed specific sessions, so that dogs can meet and play with others of a similar size. You might be able to find one locally.
Click to expand...
I’m not really a fan of these . More often than not someone ends up being intimidated. pups really need to learn they don’t have to interact with every dog they meet . You’d probably find obedience classes ok , so she learns to do exercises with lots of distraction . As above foundation agility would be fine as long as no jumping.
 
Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. Much appreciated. I rang round a few agility and hoopers people and they won't let her join in until she is 12 months. She has found a new activity to keep herself occupied though - chasing house flies. Not got one yet but apparently it's great fun! Here she is (the red and white one) with our other, 9 year old collie. dogs.jpg
 
Marigold4 said:
Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. Much appreciated. I rang round a few agility and hoopers people and they won't let her join in until she is 12 months. She has found a new activity to keep herself occupied though - chasing house flies. Not got one yet but apparently it's great fun! Here she is (the red and white one) with our other, 9 year old collie. View attachment 163147
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Fab pup!
 
Debbie Downer here... with a collie, it's best not to let chasing flies and similar behaviors develop into obsessions (as they can so easily do in collies and work themselves into an exhausted frenzy not knowing when to stop). It will soon become annoying ;)

As on another thread... it's best if the owner can play with/occupy the puppy/give it something to do.
 
Petalpoos said:
Maybe just take her walking in parks or other areas where you know there will be lots of other dogs? You will hopefully meet people who will be ok with you letting your puppy off the lead to play / interact with their dogs.
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Now I wouldn't allow that. I want my dogs to be dog neutral and don't allow them to interact with random dogs. My thinking about the breed sessions was that at least you know that the other owners want their dogs to interact.
 
gunnergundog said:
I'll be Debbie Downer No.2! :)
Apart from the obsessive element, if they chase, catch AND swallow you may be okay with flies, but not so okay when they start on wasps and bees.
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Mine has the most amazing reflexes, she is just walking along and then snaps them out of the air before I've realised. She doesn't appear to have been stung yet, I am not sure what tactic she uses to avoid it but it's really not something I want to encourage.
Once I had a wasp bury itself in her coat trying to sting her and it was quite a job trying to get out with, literally, a fine toothed comb!!!

A dog at stables I used to frequent would eat mouthfuls of wasps, puke them back up and then eat them again!!
 
I thought Brae was dying one day, she had a bee sting in her tongue! She did not learn from the experience.
I wonder if a private agility trainer might take you on? (Assuming money is no object 🤣.).
 
Thanks for your suggestions, everyone. Much appreciated. I rang round a few agility and hoopers people and they won't let her join in until she is 12 months. She has found a new activity to keep herself occupied though - chasing house flies. Not got one yet but apparently it's great fun! Here she is (the red and white one) with our other, 9 year old collie. View attachment 163147
CorvusCorax said:
Debbie Downer here... with a collie, it's best not to let chasing flies and similar behaviors develop into obsessions (as they can so easily do in collies and work themselves into an exhausted frenzy not knowing when to stop). It will soon become annoying ;)

As on another thread... it's best if the owner can play with/occupy the puppy/give it something to do.
Click to expand...
It's difficult to avoid as there are flies everywhere at the moment - inside and out. She's just having fun snapping at them but I'll keep an eye on it. She hasn't actually caught one yet and I think she'll get bored of it soon. This is our 4th collie. Only one has had a little bit of obsessive behaviour - my young son introduced her to chasing lights by shining his laser pen on the wall. Luckily, she was interested in them but not obsessive and she was perfect in every other respect.
 
This short video made me laugh, as the Cairn in it looks exactly like mine.
Cairn terrier and an interactive cat/dog toy from Amazon, a kind of strobing, spinning robot rat. Hours of fun apparently, but not relaxing for the humans.

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We have a pub near us and the bar staff come with dog biscuits to talk to our lot. We went last night with bil’s puppy just to let him see the sights and sounds, it was quite busy being so warm. We sat for 20 minutes in the shade with plenty of water. I’m hoping to get him used to that kind of easy no pressure interaction, nobody came over last night, but we allowed some very polite children to say hello at the park.

I read on here about sitting at a supermarket entrance to let a pup see people come and go. I’ve never done it, I thought it might be overwhelming, but I suppose it could be useful for stimulation. We have found that taking a puppy everywhere we go has worked well to tire them out, get them used to the car (this one doesn’t know the wait command so likes to try to jump out of the boot, this will not be the case when he goes home!)
 
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