Hi all, I'm pretty new to all of this. My partner and I have just adopted a 16 week old Vizla who had been a Christmas present to someone who couldn't look after him. We've wanted a Vizsla for a while now but they're pretty hard to come by in Spain through all the normal channels. However, we found him, fell in love with his photos and after a very anxious night he arrived earlier this week. He seems to have settled very quickly and we're thrilled with him. Such a fast learner and such a little love bug! Anyway, the only thing that concerns me is that he doesn't seem to have been socialised with other dogs. We have been for walks and the only other dogs we have encountered were the neighbours dogs who were obviously guarding and barking at him. He freaked out completely! So I'm wary of how to approach this, obviously I don't want to make this into a problem and I want to get him used to other dogs as soon as possible but it's a bit difficult in this pandemic situation (all our friends with dogs are in different towns and we're not allowed to travel at the moment) so does anyone have any advice on this? Thanks!
Is 16 weeks too late to start socialising with other dogs?
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I hope this advice I found online from UK may help a little Vet Q&A: How can I socialise my puppy during the lockdown?
Congrats on your new Vizsla, if you can please show us some photos of him.
Congrats on your new Vizsla, if you can please show us some photos of him.
Hi there! Congrats on your new puppy and to many many many years of unconditional love!
It's true that socialization at this time is quite hard. Our pup was 4 months old when the lockdown started in March and it was though socializing him (especially when all parks closed for 1 month). Also, he was not used to the city life - everything spooked him: from barking dogs in people's yards to trams, buses and loud noises. I am not sure what level of lockdown you have in Spain now, but perhaps the parks are still open. We are taking our pup to parks and he meets other dogs there. I am sure you should have some dog parks where you live, or at least a doggy daycare nearby. To be honest, although doggy daycare seems a big thing in the US, I was not very happy with the idea of leaving him completely alone with other dogs where he could pick up strange behaviours from others. Every time he went there, he came back a little weird, so I stopped taking him to daycare. Also, you could look into some sort of activities that you can take part in - like obedience for his age and later, perhaps agility. There may be clubs in your city that organize different trainings and there you will meet other dogs. Sometimes these places have organized play-dates. Also, you could try joining a local vizsla or GSP faebook group in your area. Sometimes people organize play dates on these groups. We took part with Oscar in several such meetings and it was fun - especially that among themselves and also with GSPs they play lovely. I hope some of these ideas will work for you and perhaps you find a nice group of dogs that meet regularly
.
It's true that socialization at this time is quite hard. Our pup was 4 months old when the lockdown started in March and it was though socializing him (especially when all parks closed for 1 month). Also, he was not used to the city life - everything spooked him: from barking dogs in people's yards to trams, buses and loud noises. I am not sure what level of lockdown you have in Spain now, but perhaps the parks are still open. We are taking our pup to parks and he meets other dogs there. I am sure you should have some dog parks where you live, or at least a doggy daycare nearby. To be honest, although doggy daycare seems a big thing in the US, I was not very happy with the idea of leaving him completely alone with other dogs where he could pick up strange behaviours from others. Every time he went there, he came back a little weird, so I stopped taking him to daycare. Also, you could look into some sort of activities that you can take part in - like obedience for his age and later, perhaps agility. There may be clubs in your city that organize different trainings and there you will meet other dogs. Sometimes these places have organized play-dates. Also, you could try joining a local vizsla or GSP faebook group in your area. Sometimes people organize play dates on these groups. We took part with Oscar in several such meetings and it was fun - especially that among themselves and also with GSPs they play lovely. I hope some of these ideas will work for you and perhaps you find a nice group of dogs that meet regularly
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