Comments on: American Veterinary Society of Behavior Recommends Socializing Kittens and Puppies at Seven Weeks of Age

By: Erica

Erica — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 18:59:06 +0000

Lots and lots of otherwise good vets (or sometimes the vets’ staff, even if the vet says differently) still say to keep puppies indoors and away from almost everyone until they are 16 weeks and have finished their vaccine series. Some pups do OK with this, but many end up being shy, fearful, easily overstimulated or even aggressive. If there is any genetic tendency towards shyness or “protectiveness” or “being reserved with strangers” in a dog’s breed or line, then early socialization becomes especially important.

By: JJ

JJ — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 22:21:13 +0000

Yep, its far more likely for a dog to be put down for being an unsocialized “dangerous dog” or having behavior issues than getting an illness from going out when they haven’t finished their vaccinations.
I’ve even heard of some people that don’t take their dog out of the house at all until their six months old, seriously they just use pee pads and don’t ever let the dog set a paw outside!
If you just use common sense and don’t let a pup play with other strange dogs, go to dog parks, pet stores, be around sick dogs etc. then the pup will be fine.
Its far better to take the slight risk of picking up an illness then have to deal with owning an unsocialized aggressive dog or taking months or years of socializing an older dog when you can easily socialize a young pup with very little effort.

By: lionel fox

lionel fox — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 21:49:20 +0000

How do I find the site , to ask the vet a question and recieve an answere