Socialising young puppies is very important for their proper development and will help improve their confidence with both different environments and other animals.

Research has revealed that socialising puppies up to the age of 12 weeks gives a long-term improvement in confidence and socialising skills. The effect after this age is much reduced.

Puppy parties provide an environment in which young dogs can mix with each other and therefore become accustomed to different sizes and appearances of dogs. A second effect is that, because the classes are run here at the surgery, they also become more confident about coming to the vets because of the positive experience they had at the puppy class.

It is usually easy to spot those adult dogs that have had the benefit of socialising at the surgery when they were puppies. We encourage puppies to come to such classes from a week after their first vaccination. For most puppies, this is from 9 weeks of age. We usually make appointments for puppy socialising classes at the time of the pup's first vaccination.

These classes normally run for about an hour, usually on a Saturday.

Please note that these are NOT training classes

Socialising young puppies is very important for their proper development and will help improve their confidence with both different environments and other animals. This process makes a long-term difference to their confidence with new situations and other animals. Puppies that have come to socialising classes tend to trot into the surgery rather than having to be dragged over the doorstep!