Puppy 'parties' ???

[Mugsgame]

I may be going mad (quite probable actually ) but I thought there was such a thing as young puppy socialisation classes / parties that you could attend so that puppies could play and socialise with new dogs - like pre-school to first puppy training classes?

Out new little fuss pot is 9 weeks old, will have her second vaccination next week at ten weeks so will be fully covered by 12 weeks - have just dicovered that the only socialisation on offer at out vets is a one off evening to all owners of recently vaccinated puppies - the evening consists of "a Q&A session for owners - and the puppies can play a bit at the end". Not knocking this at all because it is probably very informative, but was hoping for a few more fun opportunities...

Does anyone know if these do exist?! She will most probably join a puppy school a little later anyway to continue her socialisation (and some form of training lol!!)

The little toad at 8 weeks

Naughty eyes

...and.... always the best view!!!!

 

[Bosworth]

I personally would never recommend puppy parties after the experience we had with Poppy our lurcher. 12 puppies, all let loose together, 2 had to be excluded as they were very agressive one was a JR and the other a westie. One, a boxer was clearly older than the rest and was trying to hump everything. it was chaos, puppies were getting scared, Poppy just jumped up on a chair and watched. With Flodden, i simply introduced him to all the friends dogs I know. he was thrown in the deep end when we were for dinner with friends and met 4 black labs and a GR as well as our lurcher. I actually think the socialisation is far far far more effective with well mannered adult dogs and bitches. Flodden is calm, confident and happy meeting any number of dogs, and will play with all, but in a sane way. Poppy, who was the one who suffered the puppy party, is far more introverted and very wary about meeting other dogs, she is never agressive, just very standoffish. The trouble is that by socialising only with puppies they do not gain the social graces that they get from adult dogs.

 

[Cedars]

I absolutely agree with above, we never did puppy parties with either of our two, just every time I saw another dog I asked if they could meet-most of the time people said yes and both our dogs, particularly Brax, are very well mannered and socialised. Xx

 

[Mugsgame]

Not what I had in mind at all - poor you, I would have been horrified!!

I am happy that she is getting and will get plenty of adult socialisation here, just that nobody particularly wants to play with her - in my mind she isn't really learning to play with other dogs.

I think in my head I had the notion of a short car journey, followed by some fun in a small group (maybe 6 puppies in total) with them taking it in short turns to play in pairs of trios, then a short car ride home and some dinner!

I will make sure to take her to all sorts of places when her vaccs are up to date, in order that she can meet plenty of dogs in controlled circumstances - but noone I know has a suitably sized young dog to play with - those that I know are all a tad on the large size for this little pipsqueak!

Thank you for sharing your ideas though - I certainly dont want any negative experiences - and that sound very negative indeed... short car ride.. get jumped on and bullied (or even do some bullying).. then home...

Off to think of some more options..

 

[MurphysMinder]

You do have to be very careful with "puppy parties", as Bosworth says they can be a free for all with submissive pups being totally intimidated and aggressive pups learning to be more aggressive.
The puppy training class I go to lets the pups have an off lead play at the end, there are 7 pups and they have a great time. Pickle is by far the smallest (3 of them are akita x labs), but because he is used to playing rough with my GSD he has no problem joining in. There is one quite timid pup and the trainer has advised the owner not to let her take part until she is more confident. I do like the idea of pups meeting and having a game together but it has to be very carefully monitored or can do more harm than good imo.

 

[Dobiegirl]

Your puppy is very cute, our 6month old Pip never went to puppy classes but she is growing up with my 2 Dobes who are wonderful with her and they do play rough. We have also had 2 Labs,1 Springer & Greyhound come to stay who again have all been wonderful so she has had lots of socialisation which is the main thing in my opinion.

We do attend a beginners class which has 6 dogs 3 of which are puppies but they are not allowed a free for all. I Know we would have loved Pip to have had a puppy friend but it never happened but the socialisation she has had with adult dogs is priceless .

 

[Murphs_Mum]

My old Inuit went to puppy parties, he ended up very sensitive and wary of dogs having been pinned to the floor by an older boxer pup. It was chaos all thrown in together. With Humbug our current vets do a socialisation class, all puppies on leads and taught basic commands, one or two let off to play together having been carefully matched. A lot of swapping puppies around so they got used to children, men, women etc. it was fantastic for him and he is brilliant with all dogs now and will play with anyone.

Definitely depends on who runs the course!

 

[bex1984]

We went to a one-off evening at the vets, which sounds similar to the one you've been offered - a tour of the vets, some advice about puppy care, then some time for pups to play. The main purpose, according to the vets, was to give the puppy a positive experience at the vets early on - and it certainly did that for our dog.

We then attended the local puppy training/socialisation class - a bit of training on recall, heel, sit, leave etc, followed by time for pups to all play. Playtime was supervised by the trainer and this for us, as first time dog owners, was worth its weight in gold, and Stan loved it. Ask your vets if they can recommend anywhere.

 

[splashgirl45]

my vets did puppy parties, it was for puppies of similar age and there were only 5 or 6. we had them each week for about 4 weeks and there were 2 vet nurses running them and they kept control of any play. it did my pup the world of good and she came out of her shell, she also absolutely loves going to the vets which is great as my other one starts shaking before we even get out of the car as she hates it so much. i think if they are well controlled puppy parties can be a good idea..

 

[Bethie]

I think in my head I had the notion of a short car journey, followed by some fun in a small group (maybe 6 puppies in total) with them taking it in short turns to play in pairs of trios, then a short car ride home and some dinner!

This is how my vets run their puppy parties, they offer 4 consecutive weeks free to clients, its run by the nurses and is strictly organised fun with puppies of similar sizes and temperaments getting to play together for short periods, with quiet periods inbetween for discussion with the nurses and general handling/saying hello to strangers. We did go to see the puppy class run by a local dog training place as well (without puppy), and decided we would not be attending there under any circumstances!

 

[Bosworth]

When I took Poppy to the Puppy training class it was brilliant. short bursts of training, handling by everyone, teeth checks, claw checks and a little off lead play supervised by a trainer. Had i known about that before I went to the vets puppy party I would never have gone to the puppy party. Flodden has a lovely lab girlfriend. She is 18 months older than he is but she plays madly with him, and has done from meeting him at 8 weeks old. I also have a friend who has a pup who is months older than him who also loves a play. So although they are not young pups they are young enough to play, but old enough to teach him acceptable behaviour. Poppy has never had a friend like that and I am convinced it was because she was totally traumatised by the original puppy party. Good luck, so many of you seem to have had good party experiences, and it seems like the smaller ones are far better than the one we suffered.

 

[zarablue]

My puppy party was well run, the vet did q&a and demo inspcting the dog whilst watching the puppys behaviour.
The dogs were put down in twos for a play and she had tried to match the puppys personality so the shy pup wasnt put with the boistruse one. She managed quite well. If the pups got a bit over excited they were taken away for a few min to calm down
The who floor was disinfcted and we used half the room to play in though one escaped and went to see where the meds were kept
we did a little quiz and they gave us some info and a little rubber ball which she kept loosing under th sofa lol

 

[Mugsgame]

Thanks guys - some proper food for thought! I think I will take her to the one off night the vets do, it doesnt last all that long and I dont have to let her play with other pups if I think it will be negative, based on the other pups and owners on offer!!

I don't think I will source any other other forms of 'parties' unless I see them in action first. Having started teaching 'watch' and 'sit' yesterday and this morning she carried on as if it was second nature... I think she will easily master puppy training in three weeks time (when fully vaccinated). I have found a place that does groups of no more than 8 at a time and they are allowed supervised play with each other in pairs or small groups during the intervals. Think I will ask to pop along and watch for part of a training session just to be sure!

She already knows 'wee' and 'toilet' and names of three toys (duck, ball and rope - if anyone will allow a proud owner post lol!!! ) and she has only been living here 10 days. I think after another 21 days she will need to occupy some more brain cells!

Bosworth, I really feel for you - I am so excited about our new pup, been waiting ages for her as she is out of a friends dog who is related to our own spayed bitch, you just want to get everything right and have a nice, worldly, well balanced and (ok slightly mad!!) dog and you end having a bad experience from trying to do the right thing. I am so glad you posted, to be honest, when I last attended a puppy training class it was with my parents lab puppy and it was probably her doing the bullying (although non aggressive). I took her out of the play because I didn't think it was doing her any good learning to jump on other dogs heads, but didnt spare a thought for the boston terrier whos head was getting jumped on while (in this case) her owner just looked on. I feel bad now! And no, this isn't anywhere near where Bailey and I might attend!!

Bailey with Guinness... (to be fair Guinness is a slight reprobate but we love her and wouldnt change her for the world... most of the time!!! )