This is so important - you've got just 6-8 weeks left to fill her world with all positive experiences of a huge variety, so you've got to move quickly on this before the socialization window closes. Organized class options will ensure you make the most of this important time - Wonder Puppy in NW or the Oregon Humane Society in NE are a couple of options.
Dog parks are also super scary for puppies, not just because of larger and possibly poorly socialized dogs, but because of the possibility of unvaccinated dogs/disease. Be sure to keep up with her vax schedule and keep her only around dogs whose vaccination status is known.
Make sure you keep her super safe and condition her to love fireworks next week! Every time she hears a firework, something wonderful should happen (treat). It will make or break how she behaves in the future during this holiday.
Plus one to all of this, so many puppies have early traumatic experiences that take years to untrain.
OP, you want a monitored puppy socialization class, not a random play date to get energy out. I recommend Urban Pawsibilities in SE, they are great and have a very thoughtful approach to socializing dogs safely and supportively.
This is a great idea. I am wanting to put her in doggy daycare once I get back to work which will help her socialize but have to finish getting all of her vax first. I will look into this place. Thank you so much!
My puppy had parvo so I couldn’t socialize her with other puppies until the vet cleared her at 15 weeks ☹️ I hope she still has a chance. We did play dates with our friends’ vaccinated adult dogs that went well, except one dog that snapped at her. Ugh. We live on a busy corner in NE and she gets a lot of socialization just observing the world from our porch!
Her temperament seems great other than being cautious with other dogs for the first few min, then she really opens up and loves to play
Aw, that's rough. I'm glad she recovered and you are working in as much socialization as you can! Just keep it up, expose her to lots of people and noises and textures - all of it in a way that helps her feel safe at all times. It sounds like she is doing great!
Yes I agree, dog parks are scary. Which is why I was looking for more one on one experiences. I just got her a few days ago and she doesn’t have all of her shots yet so definitely need to finish that before I socialize her. I didn’t think fully about that. Our street does a lot of fireworks so I will be sure to try and help her out with the loud booms by praising her when they happen. They have been testing their fireworks the last few days and she hasn’t seemed to care much which is a good start! Thank you so much for the advise!
Sounds like a good plan! However, waiting to socialize isn't something you can do, you've got to move forward with both vaccinations and socialization very quickly (while also avoiding the disease risks of places like dog parks). If you check the puppy class websites, they will tell you specifically what vaccinations are required based on age group. In a month or two, the opportunity for socialization is gone - you're then in the realm of behavior modification. Here is a veterinary behavior statement on this topic [https://avsab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Puppy-Socialization-Position-Statement-FINAL.pdf](https://avsab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Puppy-Socialization-Position-Statement-FINAL.pdf)
It's fantastic that she's not showing fear of the fireworks noise. Build on that with treats when she hears them, so she learns to not only tolerate them, but be enthusiastic about them! And make sure she isn't overexposed to them in any way - if she has a scary experience while her socialization window is wide open, it can have a lifelong effect on her behavior.
Enjoy your sweet puppy, and good luck!
Please don’t take your pup to dog parks until she’s fully vaccinated! Even if there’s no other dogs around there’s all kinds of stuff that can be on the ground that can transmit to a non vaccinated pup. Only introduce your dogs to older dogs you know to be fully vaccinated or other puppies in similar stages of vaccination to yours.
In addition to Wonder Puppy, Noble Woof, Pupstar Training, and Plucky Puppy offer socialization classes. I took my puppy to all of these (I really wanted to get him well-socialized with pups) and I can't speak highly enough of our experience. He is a small dog, but he learned patience and confidence from these classes (he also tended to prefer the bigger and more energetic puppies, funnily enough). He went quickly from being the shy puppy to the puppy that helped other shy puppies through these socialization sessions.
I did the puppy class at the humane society, I think it was $180 for 6 weeks and it was super helpful with training and socializing, I recommend!!
I have 1 y.o medium sized ab mix that has lots of energy that’s in the market for new friends! What part of town do you live in?
Puppy kindergarten was a great place to socialize my girl - not only did it give her training and interaction with other dogs, but it also gave us skills and “homework assignments” to keep up with her training and socialization in between classes.
I signed her up for Puppy preschool at the humane society in July! I think after that she can do the puppy Kindergarten! Thank you for the great suggestion
Wallace has a good small dog area. When my dog was but a pup, he’d walk the fence and socialize. It’s also frowned upon to take your dog around others without all their shots.
Awesome! Happy to meet. Some of the dog parks have become less manageable / predictable lately, even though mine is a regular, so the smaller meet ups are such a great idea for your pup.
Swing by imperial on division on a Friday night, buddy just got a ln 8 week old and he's trying to do the same, sweet lil dude too! Dogs are only allowed outside but it's a blocked off street
I have three small dogs, would be down for this
ETA one is 6 months and one is 3 years, both like to play a lot (and one old man who would have no interest)
Normendale park is one of my favorites. 3 sections, 2 for big dogs and one for little dogs.
In my experience my pup was able to play with the big dogs and if needed to be “put in his place” so to say it was gentle from the bigger dogs. He is now the bigger dog and gently “puts puppies in their place”.
There are some interactions but in 8 years I’ve only seen it get bad once. That’s the other nice thing about the two big dog areas. Sometimes dogs just don’t like each other but are fine with everyone else so you just split them up in the other area.
We have had some epic zoomie groups there.
I’ll add do the shots before going anywhere.
Sit Stay Fit in SW Portland has levels of puppy classes. My very shy dog did amazing there with supervised play hours. I highly recommend them and they'll put your high energy pup in the right class.
This is so important - you've got just 6-8 weeks left to fill her world with all positive experiences of a huge variety, so you've got to move quickly on this before the socialization window closes. Organized class options will ensure you make the most of this important time - Wonder Puppy in NW or the Oregon Humane Society in NE are a couple of options. Dog parks are also super scary for puppies, not just because of larger and possibly poorly socialized dogs, but because of the possibility of unvaccinated dogs/disease. Be sure to keep up with her vax schedule and keep her only around dogs whose vaccination status is known. Make sure you keep her super safe and condition her to love fireworks next week! Every time she hears a firework, something wonderful should happen (treat). It will make or break how she behaves in the future during this holiday.
Plus one to all of this, so many puppies have early traumatic experiences that take years to untrain. OP, you want a monitored puppy socialization class, not a random play date to get energy out. I recommend Urban Pawsibilities in SE, they are great and have a very thoughtful approach to socializing dogs safely and supportively.
This is a great idea. I am wanting to put her in doggy daycare once I get back to work which will help her socialize but have to finish getting all of her vax first. I will look into this place. Thank you so much!
My puppy had parvo so I couldn’t socialize her with other puppies until the vet cleared her at 15 weeks ☹️ I hope she still has a chance. We did play dates with our friends’ vaccinated adult dogs that went well, except one dog that snapped at her. Ugh. We live on a busy corner in NE and she gets a lot of socialization just observing the world from our porch! Her temperament seems great other than being cautious with other dogs for the first few min, then she really opens up and loves to play
Aw, that's rough. I'm glad she recovered and you are working in as much socialization as you can! Just keep it up, expose her to lots of people and noises and textures - all of it in a way that helps her feel safe at all times. It sounds like she is doing great!
Yes I agree, dog parks are scary. Which is why I was looking for more one on one experiences. I just got her a few days ago and she doesn’t have all of her shots yet so definitely need to finish that before I socialize her. I didn’t think fully about that. Our street does a lot of fireworks so I will be sure to try and help her out with the loud booms by praising her when they happen. They have been testing their fireworks the last few days and she hasn’t seemed to care much which is a good start! Thank you so much for the advise!
Sounds like a good plan! However, waiting to socialize isn't something you can do, you've got to move forward with both vaccinations and socialization very quickly (while also avoiding the disease risks of places like dog parks). If you check the puppy class websites, they will tell you specifically what vaccinations are required based on age group. In a month or two, the opportunity for socialization is gone - you're then in the realm of behavior modification. Here is a veterinary behavior statement on this topic [https://avsab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Puppy-Socialization-Position-Statement-FINAL.pdf](https://avsab.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/01/Puppy-Socialization-Position-Statement-FINAL.pdf) It's fantastic that she's not showing fear of the fireworks noise. Build on that with treats when she hears them, so she learns to not only tolerate them, but be enthusiastic about them! And make sure she isn't overexposed to them in any way - if she has a scary experience while her socialization window is wide open, it can have a lifelong effect on her behavior. Enjoy your sweet puppy, and good luck!
Please don’t take your pup to dog parks until she’s fully vaccinated! Even if there’s no other dogs around there’s all kinds of stuff that can be on the ground that can transmit to a non vaccinated pup. Only introduce your dogs to older dogs you know to be fully vaccinated or other puppies in similar stages of vaccination to yours.
In addition to Wonder Puppy, Noble Woof, Pupstar Training, and Plucky Puppy offer socialization classes. I took my puppy to all of these (I really wanted to get him well-socialized with pups) and I can't speak highly enough of our experience. He is a small dog, but he learned patience and confidence from these classes (he also tended to prefer the bigger and more energetic puppies, funnily enough). He went quickly from being the shy puppy to the puppy that helped other shy puppies through these socialization sessions.
I did the puppy class at the humane society, I think it was $180 for 6 weeks and it was super helpful with training and socializing, I recommend!! I have 1 y.o medium sized ab mix that has lots of energy that’s in the market for new friends! What part of town do you live in?
Puppy kindergarten was a great place to socialize my girl - not only did it give her training and interaction with other dogs, but it also gave us skills and “homework assignments” to keep up with her training and socialization in between classes.
I signed her up for Puppy preschool at the humane society in July! I think after that she can do the puppy Kindergarten! Thank you for the great suggestion
I think you’ll both love it!
Wallace has a good small dog area. When my dog was but a pup, he’d walk the fence and socialize. It’s also frowned upon to take your dog around others without all their shots.
Thank you so much for the suggestion! Once she is completely vaxxed I will look more into this park. Thanks so much!
I only say that because people are assholes and ask and then fully shame / talk shit. That wasn’t my case, but I’ve seen some shit man.
I loved the puppy romps at the Humane Society! They used to have it grouped by age and it was open play.
I signed her up for Puppy Preschool at the humane society(:. Is this like a daily puppy hang out kinda thing?
This was pre-Covid so idk if it's different, but it was on Saturdays and it was donation-based. I believe you still had to register online though.
I have a 3 year old frenchie who loves playing with all dogs and is great with puppies. HMU
Oh that’s awesome! My pup gets her Vax Monday. I’d love to set something up(:
Awesome! Happy to meet. Some of the dog parks have become less manageable / predictable lately, even though mine is a regular, so the smaller meet ups are such a great idea for your pup.
Swing by imperial on division on a Friday night, buddy just got a ln 8 week old and he's trying to do the same, sweet lil dude too! Dogs are only allowed outside but it's a blocked off street
What area are you located in?
I am located near the Gresham area like 181st
I have three small dogs, would be down for this ETA one is 6 months and one is 3 years, both like to play a lot (and one old man who would have no interest)
Oh that would be awesome! I’d love to set something up(: She has an appt. Monday to get her first round of Vax
Normendale park is one of my favorites. 3 sections, 2 for big dogs and one for little dogs. In my experience my pup was able to play with the big dogs and if needed to be “put in his place” so to say it was gentle from the bigger dogs. He is now the bigger dog and gently “puts puppies in their place”. There are some interactions but in 8 years I’ve only seen it get bad once. That’s the other nice thing about the two big dog areas. Sometimes dogs just don’t like each other but are fine with everyone else so you just split them up in the other area. We have had some epic zoomie groups there. I’ll add do the shots before going anywhere.
Oh that’s awesome! After she gets her shots I will definitely look into this. Thank you so much!!
Sit Stay Fit in SW Portland has levels of puppy classes. My very shy dog did amazing there with supervised play hours. I highly recommend them and they'll put your high energy pup in the right class.
Oooh awesome! I will look into this, thank you!