Posted: Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:06 pm Post subject: Puppy Parties. An Article from the KC.
I've never been to a Puppy Party myself, as I was never comfortable with the idea of my pup being thrust in with a load of other random puppies, plus I certainly wouldn't trust a vet or vet nurse to know a lot about dog behaviour (unless of course they had studied this separately).
I know a lot of you have been to them, or are planning on taking your pups to them though, so I thought you'd like a read of this article.
I'm not saying it's right or wrong, but it certainly gives food for thought.
What an interesting article. We never took Indi to these as I didnt like the sound of them. Our puppy sitter use to bring in 1 or 2 dogs when we were out to socialise indi. She started with a nice quiet female choc 2 years old she then worked up to a more bouncy male springer spaniel - indi's face was priceless! The lab became very mothery towards Indi and would protect her from dangers, play with her, wash her and teach her lots of interesting tricks! She taught Indi that if a dog runs in a circle, if you cut through the middle your more likely to catch them. We also took Indi to training classes from 12 weeks - no off the lead "play time" was encouraged as they had to learn to be in the same room but not lunge at one another to play. If we see another dog and indi is interested. I encourage her to go sniff their bottom or their bits, have a look at one another whilst I exchange pleasantries and then say "walk on" to Indi to encourage her to to leave the dog. If there is a dog I dont like the look of or is being aggressive by barking madly at her I encourage her to sit nicely with a firm "wait" - her tail is usually frantically going as to her barking means play! Then if they walk past she has to wait and then she gets a biscuit for waiting. Or if they sit and motion me past i get her attention with a nice yummy treat and get her to heel and all her attention focused on the treat, once she is past she gets it and lots of positive praise. She was socialised off the lead at 12 weeks with a pack of dogs but she would run after them. She occasionally does go for the neck playing but its usually a 2 sided thing with the other dog doing it to her. If it gets too rough for my liking or barking on the other dogs part (indi never barks) then I go separate them, give indi a quick im watching you by looking at her directly in the eyes and usually it calms down. If not they get separated on a time out, so they can both see each other but not "play" and then once they are calm i let them in together again. indi is a very friendly and well socialised dog. She doesnt understand aggression but Ive never allowed her to be near aggressive dogs. Maybe thats my fault she doesnt understand aggressive dogs but I always feared my baby would get hurt. I never lifted her up into my arms (she was too big to start with anyway) I just walked her away from the situation as I didnt want to encourage aggression or barking in her. We had real problems with her puppy biting but as you have probably read in the "Puppies Do bite" thread you`ll see that its quite common. We tackled it by a firm "no" to the biting and when she licked us and gave us a "kiss kiss" she got the gooey baby voice and we encouraged her to lick us and give us kisses and it worked. Now if she is feeling insecure and needs her mum (like on the tunnel crossing today) I sat with her and she sat licking me and giving me kisses! To me its letting them know when they have gone too far with socialisation and positively praising the good behaviour. I now have a few dogs I dont allow Indi to play with purely because they encourage negative behaviours that I dont want to see because they dont play and have good socialisation as Indi does. She is so friendly, everyone comments on her calm nature and how good she is. She loves other dogs and is always the first one to want to say hello. I know being choosey about who they socialise with is probably a bad thing in some peoples eyes but Its what I wanted to do to protect my puppy. I didnt want a quivering wreck. After she got attacked by a border collie in training - the teacher was using her off the lead to show her good recall, she threw a ball near the collie and the collie went for her. I actively encourage her to socialise with collies now. She got growled at by my friends staffy but I still encourage her to socialise with them in a more controlled environment. How can you not love a lab they are the most social creatures known to man I think! All they want to do is play but I think like it says in this article it needs to be in a controlled way that encourages positive play and not making them upset.
Last edited by hayleyharrison on Fri Nov 18, 2011 5:32 pm; edited 2 times in total
Certainly interesting.Tara didn't ever go to a puppy party.We did go to puppy training, and the pups used to play during training.Tara was afraid at first,and she hid behind our chairs.After a week or two she loved training and playing.
As I said, I've never been to one before, simply because I didn't like the sound of them. I would guess some are run very well and others are not, just like training classes really.
I did take some of mine to puppy training from very young though, but this was more to do with getting the pup used to concentrating on me (in very short bursts to start with), when surrounded by other dogs, than on socialising. There was no off lead play time for them there and I'm very glad of that too, as some of the pups there frightened me, let alone my pupsters.
I've always been really lucky to have plenty of dogs of all ages, sizes and temperaments (no really dodgy ones) available for my pups to socialise with. I do wonder how I would have coped without them though.
We never went to puppy parties - with Bran this was because the vets we were registered with then told me he was far too big to be let loose with other pups - but we did take the terriers to puppy training classes run by "proper" trainers who were supposed to be following the KC rules for puppy training and the classes were held at - and strongly recommended by - our vets.
I think it's fairly well documented how incredibly well that went and I'm just thankful that I knew enough to know that the "dominance theory" stuff being spouted was quite likely to make confident Casey very much less so and had the potential to make incredibly nervous and worried Moss fear aggressive. I gave up after locking horns with the caveman just one time too many. I have no doubt that those classes were about a million miles from "suitable socialisation" and do wonder how the pups belonging to first time dog owning families have fared....
____________ Sarah and Bran
Always watched over with love by our angel, Flora, from Rainbow Bridge
Bran Training
Our vets ran a puppy party and we did go. It was a one off thing and the dogs had to be between a certain age and they were split by size - i.e. the larger breed puppies went one night and the smaller breed puppies went another night. It involved us getting a talk about dog care and a general introduction to things we might want to consider such as flea and tic treatment and worming and dental care, a talk from a local dog behaviourist. We then went for a tour round the vet hospital while the pups played under the supervision of the vet nurses (i forget the number of pups to nurse ratio but it was pretty high). What the vet nurses did to was split the less confident dogs from the more confident dogs so that the dogs didn't get scared by the more confident and bouncy dogs which i thought was good (strangely Tiber was very shy - strange when you think of him now)
This was a one of event but we did book Tiber in for a batch of puppy classes and only went to about 2 as on our second week the trainer wanted to put a muzzle on Tiber because he was a lot bigger than the other dogs. We never went back but did continue to do our own training and socialising ourselves (Tiber comes to dog friendly pubs and restuarnats with us all the time).
Interesting article, which makes for rather scary reading (how some of these things are run!).
I took Mins to a puppy party at our vets and it was very well run in comparison. It wasn't a "free for all".
I did take my own puppy kong along though, pre-filled with Naturediet, because I didn't want to give her whatever food they were handing out to everyone else
I did take my own puppy <a href=http://www.furbabies.co.uk/index.php/cPath/30_7>Kong</a> along though, pre-filled with Naturediet, because I didn't want to give her whatever food they were handing out to everyone else
That was another of my issues with our puppy classes - they handed out medium sized Kongs to each of the pups stuffed with big chunks of chicken and large Bonio bones broken into large pieces: not great given that our pups are yorkie x chihuahua and were tiny and they knew that in advance
____________ Sarah and Bran
Always watched over with love by our angel, Flora, from Rainbow Bridge
Bran Training
We never went to a puppy party but did do some very well run KC puppy class it was great and everything was done great they had play time with big dogs little separated I think what helped was he has a maximum number in each class I think 10 which was more than enough with some great exercises.
Interestingly when he started his bronze last sunday there was 5 in his class all from the puppy class and other dogs doing other bronze class and they were all in Max class well behaved in the main not easily distracted and knew how to play with each other well
Cheryl
____________
Max my shadow
Luther 1994-2008 I will see you at the bridge sweetie
One life Live it
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and I'm just thankful that I knew enough to know that the "dominance theory" stuff being spouted was quite likely to make confident Casey very much less so and had the potential to make incredibly nervous and worried Moss fear aggressive. I gave up after locking horns with the caveman just one time too many. I have no doubt that those classes were about a million miles from "suitable socialisation" and do wonder how the pups belonging to first time dog owning families have fared....
