Puppy life - how to make 100 new friends a day

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BBP

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Take puppy to a National Trust property on an Easter egg hunt children’s weekend. Every time puppy spots a potential new best friend (I.e. every single grown up, teenager, child and dog on the place) puppy locks on with collie eyes until they look his way. Puppy then sits and wags tail. Potential new best friend smiles unconsciously. Puppy then lies down with chin on paws (having never taken eyes off them) and starts waggling bottom. Potential new best friend(s) divert from what they were doing and come over to ask to stroke the puppy. Puppy is then in heaven wiggling, smiling up at them and sitting in their feet. He had a 95% strike rate with this technique. I assume the other 5% were dead inside. Even the other dogs fell for it and not a cross word was spoken. They either passed by calmly, said hello nicely and then moved on, or, in the case of one mad WCS started up a mad game of chase (which boring old me had to curtail before puppy was exhausted...he was on a long line but it was a good test of his new recall to whistle skills as to his credit he did leave her and come to me mid game).

I swear he must have met and cuddled at least 100 people. It’s just as well really, given he is only on 20mins of ‘proper’ walks, so meeting people and doing little bits of obedience training filled up the day nicely around naps in the car with me as the rest of our group spent the whole day in the house, cafe and gardens. And the car park area was a great place to meet people and work on the collie trait of soooking at it wanting to chase cars, he was ignoring them really well. I just make sure that he goes back to a bed to sleep before the tired toddler behaviour kicks in as you could tell then he started to get over stimulated. Then after a couple of hours sleep we would pop out onto the Car park lawn to chat to more people to pass the time. At the end of the day my group apologised for leaving us all day and asked if I was bored spending most of it in Car park, but I had had a great day with my dog!

He went to Go Outdoor as well the day before, where he had closer to 100% strike rate with customers and staff who all quit what they were doing to come and talk to him. He was brilliant and worked really well on practicing sit, down, stay (only to end of lead and back to him) and heel around the shop.

He is such a super star. I don’t kniw what his breeder did to give him such a great affection for people (last collie was farm bred and only oriented towards her own family and her toys so I’m not used to one who goes out of his way to make complete strangers feel like best friends) but he is amazing!

Sadly no photos as too busy socialising! (I am much less sociable than him so he is teaching me how to make friends!)
 
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Doesn’t surprise me in the least - how could anyone resist?! The people orientation will be in the genes. All ours are working/farm bred and we have a number who naturally gravitate towards people (usually hill walkers up here as they don’t see anyone else) for a fuss. Sounds like a pleasant way to spend the day and great training for pup at the same time. Win win.
 
To play devils advocate......I would be careful of overdoing the friendly puppy outings. Obviously you want him to be friendly with everyone but what’s acceptable in a puppy is different when you have an adult, muddy grown up. I think it’s better to have a dog that’s indifferent to strangers, over friendly dogs can be a real pain.
 
bonny said:
To play devils advocate......I would be careful of overdoing the friendly puppy outings. Obviously you want him to be friendly with everyone but what’s acceptable in a puppy is different when you have an adult, muddy grown up. I think it’s better to have a dog that’s indifferent to strangers, over friendly dogs can be a real pain.
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I think as long as pup is learning to greet people calmly , which it would seem BBp is teaching then it can only be a good thing. BBP, I had one particular GSD pup who used to employ a similar technique to get a fuss which was very successful, poor girl was so upset as she grew up and people didn't have the same tendency to come and fuss a gangly teenage GSD, she couldn't understand why.
 
MurphysMinder said:
I think as long as pup is learning to greet people calmly , which it would seem BBp is teaching then it can only be a good thing. BBP, I had one particular GSD pup who used to employ a similar technique to get a fuss which was very successful, poor girl was so upset as she grew up and people didn't have the same tendency to come and fuss a gangly teenage GSD, she couldn't understand why.
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There is a difference between collies and GSD dogs though and with the latter you probably can’t overdo the socialisation as a pup
 
bonny said:
To play devils advocate......I would be careful of overdoing the friendly puppy outings. Obviously you want him to be friendly with everyone but what’s acceptable in a puppy is different when you have an adult, muddy grown up. I think it’s better to have a dog that’s indifferent to strangers, over friendly dogs can be a real pain.
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You have something of a point if he was leaping all over them or pulling to get to them but at the moment he is just parking his bum on the spot and waiting for them to come to him (he is on a lead so I see your point if he was off lead and behaving differently). And he then waggles and wiggles nicely on the floor rather than jumping up on people, for the most part anyway, he isn’t perfect. I actually think socialising collies is very important as having had a bitey warey one I would much rather this way round. He will walk past people nicely, he’s just very , I just have to make sure that as with the GSD above he isn’t disappointed when people don’t want to talk to him. I’m no expert so maybe I am doing this puppy thing all wrong?!
 
BBP said:
You have something of a point if he was leaping all over them or pulling to get to them but at the moment he is just parking his bum on the spot and waiting for them to come to him (he is on a lead so I see your point if he was off lead and behaving differently). And he then waggles and wiggles nicely on the floor rather than jumping up on people, for the most part anyway, he isn’t perfect. I actually think socialising collies is very important as having had a bitey warey one I would much rather this way round. He will walk past people nicely, he’s just very , I just have to make sure that as with the GSD above he isn’t disappointed when people don’t want to talk to him. I’m no expert so maybe I am doing this puppy thing all wrong?!
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Just bear in mind that most people are drawn to puppies and are happy to pay them attention, the opposite is true of adult dogs. Indifference is the best way for your dog to be in my opinion.
 
bonny said:
Just bear in mind that most people are drawn to puppies and are happy to pay them attention, the opposite is true of adult dogs. Indifference is the best way for your dog to be in my opinion.
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Indifference in an adult dog is definitely the ideal imo - BUT as pups I want mine to socialise and get used to strange people, other dogs and situations etc etc. I have collies and GSDs and do the same process with both. Having a fuss as a puppy from strangers does not equate to an over-friendly dog leaping all over strangers as an adult (the latter comes down to personality but also to a large extent the training put in).
 
I think being sociable with people is very different from being a PITA with other dogs, tho. I completely agree, I want neutral dogs who aren’t interested in other dogs, I have this in Brig and Bear. It’s really handy. We can go anywhere and there’s no drama, they are lovely with people too, useful for reassuring nervous children.

Someone once said sitting outside the supermarket is brilliant for ensuring plenty of people socialising, National Trust property sounds equally brilliant!

I’m horrified at the lack of photos, OP. :(
 
That sounds like such a lovely day! I took my new pup out and about loads (pre vaccs etc, I'd had an issue with an unsocialised dog previously and wanted to avoid...) when he was teeny, took him a box to our local farm shop and he LOVED all the attention and everyone within a 1 mile radius was making a bee line for us. "We heard about a puppy in a box, can we see him."

He's such a friendly chap, but does look mildly put out now hes bigger and less cute when not every single person stops to say hello!
 
Very proud puppy parent today, pup went back to puppy class (missed 2 of 4 so far) and was well ahead of the game in most aspects according to OH (I was off at a clinic with BBP). He was the only puppy to do a recall along a line of baby obstacles. So my training efforts are obviously going along the right lines. Helped by having a very trainable dog!
 
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