Where to Socialize Your New Puppy

Find out what the best place to socialize your new puppy is, such as the dog park or local dogwalking area.

Host: Are dog parks are good place to socialize my newly adopted puppy? Kevin Simpson: A dog park can be a good source of socialization for your young puppy but it certainly shouldn’t be the only source. If a dog park with the dogs inside is not supervised properly, the arousal levels of play can get to a point where it turns into an ugly situation for your dog. In some instances what we may proceed as a play or friend for the dog, can actually be quite frustrating, quite stressful and quite traumatizing for young dog if we’re getting beaten up by an older or bigger, larger dog. So you need to be very careful and personally, I like to pick and choose who my dogs play with and give them good examples. A general rule of thumb is to teach your dog to learn to ignore other dogs while they're also learning to play with other dogs. If the dog’s only source of socialization around dogs is during moments of high levels of arousal then it may make it difficult to walk your dog down the street later when it sees another dog and instantly becomes highly excited and aroused because that’s been its only source of play with other dogs. So other sources of socialization can include dog group training classes, group obedience classes, a well-supervised daycare center or just getting together with your friends and neighbors that have dogs and going along group walks together.