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New Owner Tri Rescue from puppy farm lots of issues

I was really confused and nervous about proper socialization too. I wasn't sure how to go about it without putting my puppy at risk, but we tried to take Sonny to various family and friend's houses and we let him play with adult dogs that we knew were fully vaccinated. And I would say puppy preschool was the most important! I would highly recommend it! We didn't start until Sonny was 11 weeks old, but I wish we would have started as soon as we got him at 9 weeks. I really noticed a difference in the way Sonny interacted with dogs, our cat and people after his classes.:)

Is it okay to start puppy preschool before all the vaccinations are completed? I would have thought to avoid that type of situation just like walks until the shots were done.
Sorry for all the questions - I'm turning into a nervous wreck trying to make sure I'm prepared for my puppy in a few weeks!
 
Is it okay to start puppy preschool before all the vaccinations are completed? I would have thought to avoid that type of situation just like walks until the shots were done.
Sorry for all the questions - I'm turning into a nervous wreck trying to make sure I'm prepared for my puppy in a few weeks!

I was really nervous too! I spent hours reading and talking to people. My best friend is a vet and in the end I listened to her and other people from this forum. I believe that there are some good articles posted on the importance of socialization on the forum somewhere. I just don't remember where. :confused: A lot of the material that I read really stressed that not socializing a puppy can lead to a lot of behavior issues later in life for the dog. Also I believe I read somewhere that between 8 and 12 weeks is the most critical socialization period, I was told that puppy class is fine because it is all puppies and they all should be in the same place vaccination wise and being kept out of places that could be dangerous like dog parks, ect. Most of the places I looked at required for the puppy to be up to date age wise on vaccinations, so if your puppy is 8 weeks, he will probably have had his 1rst vaccine by the time he starts class. I would research places in your area to find a place that you feel comfortable with. I called about 5 different places that offered puppy preschool or socialization classes and after talking to the trainers I went and toured the places that I felt comfortable with. We were really lucky and found an AMAZING place and from the first class I had no worries that Sonny was going to be safe health wise. We still took precautions and carried him in from the car and up to the room where puppy class was held. I know that it can be stressful making all of these decisions. I can empathize because I was in the same place and just wanted to make the right decisions for Sonny, but in the end for us we decided that the pros outweighed the cons for puppy socialization classes. Also, do you have friends with adult dogs that are fully vaccinated that you could socialize your puppy with? We also tried to take Sonny in our front yard a lot and just let him watch people, cars, kids other dogs pass by so that he could get used to different things. I never let him roam around in the front yard because I feared that other dogs could have contaminated places, but I would just hold him. I also took Sonny on drives so that he could get used to the different sounds and see new places and he has turned out to be a great traveler. He seems to love the car! Sorry for the long message. I hope this helps a little. Good Luck!
 
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