Well finally our new collie puppy is allowed out. She is now 11 weeks old and has completed her course of puppy vaccinations. So, after a last visit to the puppy socialisation class at the vet, where she met the same two poodles as last week, along with a labrador and a pug (very cute !), she finally got to go outside !
She is enjoying being out in the garden (newly fenced off !) and has been following various scents.
Our next task is to introduce her to some well behaved dogs so she can have some good experiences with meeting other dogs. In addition we need to try out "planes, trains and automobiles" ! Well maybe not all of those exactly but before 16 weeks we should expose her to various experiences. The reason for this is that puppies are very impressionable as well as eager to try new things at this age. Any good experiences are stored up by the impressionable little things and will make them more confident dogs in the future.
At the age of 16 weeks, they become much more wary. Apparently in the wild this is the age at which they leave the den and a survival tactic is for them to be wary of new things.
So between 8 weeks and 16 weeks its important to introduce them to a variety of new people and experiences. They will probably only complete their course of injections and be allowed outside at about 11 weeks so you have to cram a lot of new things into those last 5 weeks !
There are quite a number of out of control dogs that walk near us, so I want her to have some controlled good experiences before meeting some of them - and also maybe put on a bit more weight !
So I'm away to text a friend to see if her friendly spaniel is available for a "playdate" !!
No comments:
Post a Comment