Hi all, We collected our 11 week old golden retriever cross collie puppy last weekend and she has been amazing settling in so far. The breeder had her in a kitchen with all her litter mates and both the mum and dad were in the house, along with three adults and a 5 year old child – so a noisy and stimulating environment! She was confident and very happy to come over to us when we visited and picked her up, and she is very confident exploring our garden and all new sights and sounds. However, yesterday she seems to have changed her personality a little bit after meeting a few new people – we had a couple of guys at our garage feed her some treats, and then later she met my partners dad at which point she started to become too nervous to accept anything from him (we didn't force any interactions). We were worried that she might have had a negative experience that day that has now led to her being cautious and a bit fearful of new people. Today we took her in a sling to the local village and she seemed very subdued and wouldn't eat a treat that we gave one to someone we met to try and feed her. When we got home our neighbour (female) was there who she met the other day, but she now didn't want to interact with her and was shrinking away on the lead, not accepting any treats. Do you have any thoughts or recommendations on what to do next to try and undo this / build more confidence? We are worried we have created a negative experience for the puppy and may have ruined her socialisation! Is this sort of thing normal for a puppy, and do they recover and regain outgoing/confident personalities?
Many thanks for your input 🙏
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