Socialisation

[Cassandra]

We have been invited to go walkies with about 7 dogs & bitches off the estate. All the dogs are extremely well behaved.

We have been taking Ash on the occasional quiet walk down a track near our house.

Tonight Ash and I met up with the 'pack' and he was EXTREMELY scared bless him. There is at least two german shepherds in there, one very maternal one. But he wet himself and was getting quite overwhelmed by all these big dogs.
So I pulled him out and stopped the dogs getting to him for a bit.

One of the owners came to say hello whilst the rest of the dogs were at a distance. Another dog came to say hello it was at this point he was hugging me with a very pleading look on his poor wee face.

Now I not entirely sure how to handle this. Cos I don't want to over protect him, but I don't want him to feel like he can't trust me.

Any advice please?

[kendal]

i would say cut it back a bit see if like two or three of the owners want to go an a walk with you so its not such a big pack and gradually bring the numbers up. but that depend on is the other owners were OK about it.

[Eleanor]

hi Cassandra and Ash

poor Ash, sounds like he was just a bit overwhelmed by the new experience

I would advise that you take Ash's socialization at his pace and he is clearly not ready to walk with the pack at the moment, puppies should be socialized with other puppies and introduced to gentle well behaved adult dogs - one at a time, but again it must be at his pace.

If you go at his pace his confidence will grow, if puppies are pushed on too quickly and can't cope with the new experiences it take a lot more work to undo the damage done and overall progress is slower

I know that you don't want to be over protective with Ash, but he will feel safe if he knows that you are there to protect him, you are his new mum/leader and he will look to you to protect him. If not he will eventually think it is his job to protect you............could result in issues later

hope this helps a little

Eleanor

[Cassandra]

hi

we haven't started walking with them just yet, we just happened to meet up with them on our wee walk.

All the dogs are extremely well behaved, not a bark or show of agression from anyone of them.

We met 3 of the dogs on our way home this morning and he was a little better. He has taken a shine to the big black dog (I can't remember his name), but he is an BCxGSD. Stunning dog and he wanted to play with his ball, but I was a bit concerned about letting him off the lead in a situation he wasn't sure in.

thanks for your advice Eleanor. Will keep any meetings small if I can. The ones above were just 'accidents' if you see what I mean?

[John Thomson]

Cassandra
I have to agree with Eleanor.......Ash is just at the stage where everything you do should boost his confidence not hinder it, I'd saw ( as you have already decided ) not to try to expose him to a situation which may dent his confidence.

From experience it is very difficult to boost the confidence of a nervous adolescent dog.........far easier to take a firm stance and 'reign in' an over confident dog.....these dogs usually end up more reliable faithful dogs.
_________________
John Thomson
www.cumbernaulddogtraining.co.uk

[Cassandra]

one of our friends came over this evening. She is another staffie fan.

She is a dog walker/sitter. She taken in a dog whose owner has had to go into hospital and the poor wee thing was left over night last night on her own. She was a nervous wreck. She been trying all day to try and tire her out a bit so she might settle a wee bit.

Basically we used the opportunity for both dogs, give them something else to focus on. Ash was brilliant and settled right down after alot of chasing, bit of barking, lots of sniffing...and wonderfully, so did the wee dog my friend brought.
She is some sort of whippet cross but was about the same size as Ash. It gave him opportunity to play the 'big' dog, and he was really settled and quite happy with himself when she left...in fact I think he was sort of dissapointed.

[Cassandra]

Ash been doing really well!

Last two nights we met up for the dog walk.

First night after an initial bit of submission he went around trying to herd the group up!

Last night he was submissive again but the other owners kept their dogs away after an initial greet and we been encouraging Ash to stand up and not cower to the other dogs. He didn't wee at all last night when he met them.
He is really enjoying the walk with the other dogs. There is only one other dog around his size, all the others are bigger so I am really really impressed with him.

Definately need work on my recall tho