Is the puppy too young to...

KFontaine04

There is a Shiba Meetup group north of Boston that is having a meetup on November 15th. I have meet most of the shiba's in this group and Miso loves them and plays really well with all of them.

Do you think it would be okay to take Sake, who will be 15 weeks at the time of the meetup, to join the play? She has all her shots already, including rabies and loves other dogs and plays with the dogs in our complex including a 80lb chocolate lab. She seems to have Miso's take on other dogs, they are all friends and it makes him happy. He never gets snarly, growly, or reactive. He just has fun and I want Sake to be the same way.

Let me know what you guys think, as always I value your opinions.

lindsayt

The immue system of a healthy dog is fully developed (present) at birth, but not fully mature (capable of warding off pathogens) until they are around 1.5 years or older. Socialization is important at early ages and meetups are fun, but maybe best with small groups of dogs and people at first vs many dogs acting wildly at an off leash park. Older dogs can be direct/impatient with puppies and puppies don't have all their doggy manners, so they are targets for 1) random strangers to grab at, 2) huge dogs to stomp on, 3) and children to chase. Maybe take your pup and carry her for some of the meet and keep her on a little leash so you can grab her out of the way if you need to.

KFontaine04

Yeah, I was planning on holding onto her 99% of the time and keeping her in harness and leash just in case. We have an enclosed courtyard in our complex which is like our own personal dog park and all 10 dogs that reside there use it to romp and play. She really enjoys going out there but I only let her down if it's just her and Miso and sometime Charlotte the Chocolate Lab who loves the puppy and Sake loves her and they play really well together.

tsukitsune

We went to a meet up 2 months ago and there was an adorable 16 week old cream pup there (mallow!) and they held onto her for some of the time and let her get acquainted with calmer dogs some of the time. I don't think there is any harm in bringing her, just be aware of when it gets to be too much for her.

dlroberts

I took Joey to his first Shiba meetup at about that age. He LOVED it. He latched onto a 5 month old female named Beowulf and they were attached to each other almost the whole time. He played himself to the point of exhaustion after a few hours, so I then passed him around from person to person for some human socialization time. That particular meetup with in someone's backyard though. So it was a controlled environment with only Shibas I already knew.

I would be a bit more cautious at a public dog park. You just don't know how other dogs react to puppies.