My golden retriever puppy is almost 5 months old and so far has not shown typical fear signs of being afraid of people or other dogs; big or small. Ever since I got him at 11 weeks he has always been on the more bashful/reserved side, but I’m starting to wonder if daycare would be too overwhelming for him to socialize.
When he meets another dog, his tail is slightly between his legs but ALWAYS wagging. He usually goes in slow and allows them to sniff him and he will slightly cower to them. He’s met big and small dogs; calm and high energy, and he’s never nipped, snapped or shown any aggression. He allows the higher energy dogs to push past him in tight spaces if they need to, or run past him at a distance with no reactions.
With calmer dogs, he shows signs of wanting to play when we are on leashes. He’ll jump on them (mostly sit on his butt and put his paws up on them), jump next to them, giving kisses and overall be excited. However once the are off leash and the other dog starts running around, he gets nervous and either lays down to observe them, will want to be next to me, or just runs away to create space from that dog.
He had his first half day of daycare today (12:15-5:15pm) and i didn’t realize that between 12-2pm this daycare does a naptime in kennels in the play room. I wasn’t aware of this so the first time he was introduced to all these dogs he was put in a kennel for over an hour, then from 2-5:15pm he was allowed free play. This particular daycare as well says the separate by size and temperament. They had big dogs and small dogs in his room, some more on the higher energy side, and I was told he would be with puppies and calmer side. This did not seem the complete case… They have webcams so you can check in on your dog, which I really appreciate though!
For the first hour he was in free play, he stayed to himself but still sniffed other dogs that came up to him. There’s a decent size space by the door of the play room where he stayed and watched the other dogs. By the second hour he ventured out more into the middle of the play room, but if another dog tried to play with him he retreated back to the space against a kennel and a wall where he felt safe. By the time I picked him up, he was trotting around, running, but still not playing with any other dogs. If he got uncomfortable, he retreated to that space against a wall, waited for the dog to walk away then he went back out and walked around more or drank water.
If you’ve ever owned a puppy on the more reserved but still friendly side, did daycare help build their confidence? Did you use smaller daycares rather than large daycares with 15-20 dogs in the playroom to not over stimulate? I’m not sure if this daycare would help him or hurt him in the long run. I know it was only his first time but I still worry that he might get traumatized if the playroom attendant doesn’t pay attention if another dog doesn’t back off enough.
Thanks for any advice!!
submitted by /u/imtheprob1em
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