took my puppy out of socialisation class
my puppy (17wk dachshund) has attended a puppy socialisation class thing since he was 12 weeks old and we have had 0 issues with other dogs there and he loves going to meet and play with other puppies. today however we had to leave early.
there were three dogs (2 border collies 1 labrador) that were incessantly going at mine. barking, pinning, biting, chasing, knocking over, growling etc which i’m aware is normal puppy behaviour. my concern was the constant pinning of mine to the point he was yelping and none of the owners/workers seemed too bothered by this. i understand that all puppy sizes are welcome in these classes and the puppies weren’t really my problem more the owners reluctance to actually react to what their dogs(who were giant in comparison to mine) were doing constantly, for around half an hour mine was a target. the worker intervened a couple of times and the behaviour wasn’t aggressive but my puppy was yelping due to being knocked over or nipped, he stopped trying to play soon after and was just running away with his tail between his legs.
there was a point that caused me to leave where i had to push the labrador away from mine because he had cornered my puppy under my legs and was barking inches away from his face.
as i left the worker said the behaviour wasn’t aggressive to which i responded that it wasn’t that it’s just the size difference i don’t want mine to get hurt it’s not the dogs fault at all, it’s just me not wanting my tiny puppy to be injured by accident.
this post isn’t to say don’t bring your dogs to these classes as i believe socialisation is important for dogs of all sizes to meet and learn to play, but if you have a large dog that is consistently going at a much smaller dog to the point they’re yelling or running away and hiding please intervene.
apologies for long post i needed to vent as this is my first puppy that’s belonged to me and im now concerned this will turn into a fear of other dogs.