We have an 11 week old puppy and he is not fully vaccinated yet. We do not take him out very often and when we do, we go to the forest where we do not meet many people. Once a week we visit a puppy training school where he meets some other dogs, but that is pretty much all the contact he gets for now.
Today on our forest walk, we met a lady with her dog/puppy. I guess he was around one year old. He was barking at our pup and she asked if he could come closer, saying he is not bad, just barky. We agreed because I thought she would let them look at each other first and maybe play later. Instead she let her dog rush straight at our puppy (he was very larger than our pup). He got very loud and our pup got really scared. She did not pull the leash at all, even when we picked our puppy up, and she still let her dog climb on us.
Luckily, her dog did not hurt him, but our pup was clearly terrified and even tried to fight back at first.
I am worried this could hurt his socialization. Maybe it is good that he learns not all dogs are friendly, but this felt way too much for him. I will not let dogs that look poorly behaved near him again and honestly I should have just said no to her request. I think we will wait for more random dog encounters until he is fully vaccinated.
Do you think this was a seriously bad experience for him and should we do something to balance it out, or should we just let it go and I am being too cautious and worried?
submitted by /u/dwojityv
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