That’s so interesting about the vaccinations. Here in Cape Town, there is a very well regarded force-free positive-rewards trainer who has written articles about getting your puppy out about in the critical window for socialising. She advocates for interactions with healthy vaccinated dogs that you know are well adjusted (not unknown strange dogs). She says she is very often contacted to help with behavioural problems with dogs who were kept isolated as puppies. She does mention that Labradors have a bigger socialisation window compared to, say, a GSD. Here’s one of her articles:
Facebook
This was the standard advice when I last had a puppy - which admittedly was ages ago so who knows what US vets are advising now. I’ve been surprised in my travels that medical (including for dogs) standard practice can vary widely, even within the relatively small area of the EU.
For example when I was going to get a puppy before Carbón (I know, what a silly idea to get a puppy and not Carbón
), and consulted my German vet, she said to walk him around town on the ground and meeting dogs from day one. She said the risk of disease was minuscule and puppies needed socialisation. This was very different from the US where it was no contact with the ground outside but socialisation with known and vaccinated dogs. I carried my Rottie puppies in a sling until I couldn’t lift them any more.
