Puppy Parties

Our vets do puppy parties, so I asked if Millie could go to one even though she's a bit older than they usually do them for. There was one last week and one again last night and I was really impressed at how they helped some of the dogs.

Millie has already had plenty of socialisation so is fine with dogs of all sizes and ages, but a few of the pups were quite nervous. There was a little Old English Sheepdog called Nelson, who hid behind his owners' legs at the beginning of last week, came out of his shell towards the end of the that evening, and this week was bounding around from the word go! A tiny little Jack Russell pup was clearly concerned by the bigger dogs but he soon learned he could pile in with the best of them.

The only one that didn't improve was a fox terrier with an over protective mum. She kept picking him up and fussing over him if one of the more boistrous pups went anywhere near him, and he has probably now learned that being worried about other dogs gets you a good cuddle.

Lucy, the vet nurse who ran the evenings, was really good, just monitoring and making helpful suggestions, and trying to encourage the protective owners to trust their dogs' abilities to look after themselves. She was on hand for advice and gave a balanced view of things like neutering.

I'd really encourage anyone with a young pup to see if their vet or a local trainer does anything like this. Especially the vet, because of course all of these puppies have now spent a couple of hours at the vets having fun. Apparently it's rare for pups who have been to their parties to worry about going to the vets later on.

They are a good idea particularly for new inexperienced owners

I go every Saturday to a puppy party held at the local petshop.  Its such great fun, and often there are about 10-12 puppies there, all shapes and sizes.  Roxy has a brilliant time.. There is a lurcher puppy there too who was so timid at the beginning, but now she is getting really confident, and I think thats down to the puppy parties.. plus my Roxy adores her.  The little small breed puppies find it all a bit boisterous, but Roxy is in her element

We went to one at our vets. Unfortunately it started out with just Bane and 2 other pups: a cockapoo and a Chihuahua. The Chihuahua was a viscious little thing and wouldn't stop barking when it saw the other two dogs so they didn't return after the first session.

The rest of the time, Bane and the cockapoo just ran riot. We learnt a lot from the vet nurse about all sorts of things and Bane got to socialise with the cockapoo and a couple of the vet nurses dogs but it was just mayhem most of the time. At least Bane gets excited to go to the vets now though