This is Zooka's first time meeting some new dog friends. Only he does not yet know they will be his friends!

Introducing your new puppy to new dogs should be done carefully and hopefully with some prior planning. Ensuring your puppy has a positive experience is essential!

At 10.5 weeks, I brought Zooka along to a local park where my Polite Pooches in Public Class was going to be meeting. A couple of my students arrived early so that Zooka could get a chance to acclimate to some new dogs slowly.

As you can see in the video, he goes on alert as soon as he spots the dogs. One is a Collie and one is a Border Collie / Australian Shepherd mix. He is very alert and watching. He is taking his time to figure out what is happening and trying to assess whether these dogs are going to be safe or not.

Notice that he does NOT try to approach them. He watches from a safe distance. At times, you see him back up and/or move closer to me. If I could choose my puppy's response to other dogs at this age, this is about what I would want. Curious. I definitely want a curious dog. If my pup is too fearful at this age, I am going to have a LOT of work to do.

But I also want a puppy who has some degree of caution! While curiosity should be a trait at this age, if we have no caution to go along with it, we can get into big trouble fast.

I also like that he understands that I am a safe zone. When in doubt, get close to me and I will help you handle anything you are unsure of or feel unsafe about.

He never is fearful enough to want to leave. Even when one dog moves around and approaches from the other side so we have dogs on opposite sides of us. He handles that by sitting in my lap and making sure he's got some backup.

Not long after this video, we are able to move in closer and sit near the other dogs and he is much more comfortable. By that point, he is feeling much safer and less concerned that they are a risk or danger to us.

Note that these are dogs that I know well. I would NOT be doing intros with dogs I do not know or am unsure about at this age. I want all of his exposure to other dogs at this stage to be very safe and with dogs I know are good with puppies if we are getting any closer.

I was very happy with how he handled this first encounter. If you look at photos of him during his later puppyhood and adolescence, you might notice photos of him with these same dogs in other classes and on play dates. They are all good friends now – though he had no idea that would happen back at this time!