Comment on Would it be silly of me to get a small dog if I am a little afraid of bigger ones?
ugh@lemmy.world 1 week ago
I agree with what everyone else said. I wanted to add that socialization is very important for dogs. You can have a happy dog without socializing, but they can become dog aggressive or generally scared of other dogs. That can be a huge inconvenience if you ever need to board them, do group training, or have them around dogs belonging to friends or family. The vet can be even more stressful, and you’re more likely to have issues while walking if your dog is reactive to other dogs.
AskewLord@piefed.social 1 week ago
No, that’s not true. Dogs generally are less social as they age. The vast majority of dogs are ‘dog selective’, just like people are. As in they only like certain dogs and dislike others.
Very few dogs are actively hostile or actively friendly to ever dog, and often it’s due to their personality and training of the owner, than ‘socialization’. Proper socializing of a dog is not about other dogs so much as it is about introducing your dog to different environments and stimulus, of which other dogs are only one thing.
Not to mention many people ‘socialize’ their dogs poorly. I live next to a dog park and every couple of days some new dog owner dumps their 3 month old puppy into a crowd of dogs to ‘socialize’ it and shoves their face in their phone and chaos ensues. And they never come back.