Puppy meeting unknown dogs

[praia]

Putting your dog on a lead when you see another dog isn't going to make him any more wary of other dogs.   I did that all the time with my Cocker puppy and she's now completely indifferent towards strange dogs.  Perhaps if your dog picks up feelings of anxiety from you when seeing another dog your dog might become wary, but the simple act of leashing up or leading away shouldn't be a problem. 

As for recall, I think what people are trying to say is that when puppies are this young they are naturally more inclined to stay close to you simply because at this point it's still a very big and kind of scary world for them.  Once a puppy gets older and more confident he will test his boundaries and may run off when he never did in the past. 

One shouldn't assume that any dog's recall is good or very good when you haven't even proofed the training in various environments under different levels of distractions.  Many people think they've achieved good recall because their young puppy sticks so close and comes back, but once adolescence hits they are surprised that they never really proofed any of that training when their dog runs off and refuses to come back. 

[jonnytrabant]

Excellent post Praia.

[Lovely]

I totally agree with what Praia says. It's great that Bracken has good recall but he is likely to go through several developmental phases over the next few months and years which will probably affect his behaviour. Sometimes it might even seem like training is going backwards, and you have to go back to basics again. As far as meeting other dogs, i try and ensure that a very young puppy only socialises with dogs i know to be well mannered. As the dog gets older, walks get longer and we meet more different dogs. Hopefully the early positive socialisation then helps, but if i see a dog i'm concerned about, i will call pup to me and put her on lead if necessary. Even with all these precautions unfortunately sometimes accidents happen. I don't worry too much about the lead making pup worried about other dogs though. I think this is more a factor when people get very anxious and constantly pick puppy up when another dog approaches.

[Toni-UK]

We never put our puppy on lead when meeting unknown dogs,it would have been impossible as where we walk is a high dog traffic area and would have been taking the lead off and on every few minutes.
We also didn't have the luxury of letting our pup socialise with only we dogs we knew,as we didn't know any and there were no puppy training classes close by.
We were lucky that Ruby never had a bad experience apart from being chased by bigger breeds a couple of times but i do feel pups need to be taught manners and handle situations themselves,not us deciding for them as after all,we don't speak dog,they do.
My OH made it a mission that she met everything from a yorkie to a rottie but would call out to the owner was it ok to come over.We always avoided a dog on lead out of respect but where i live there are MANY owners that do not know or care about doggie etiquette what so ever  and don't even know what recall is so keep up the good work you are doing with recalling your pup. 

[dal55]

Elaine.e experiences are almost the same as mine and Cassies. She will tell off, in no uncertain terms, any dog that is over exuberant on meeting (however big) by growling VERY loudly and chasing them off, she doesn't bite though .  I'm never too sure about dogs meeting off lead, Cass was attacked (out of the blue) by a Staffie, Cassie was on the lead just by chance and I am thankful that she was or I wouldn't have been able to Kick 3 shades of brown out of the thing and save Cassie from a serious mauling. Doesn't that sound dreadful, but since then the Staffie has nearly killed my friends dog and attacked others and sheep.
I take my lead from other owners, if they put their dog on the lead I do the same. I consider t hat either their dog is questionable or they think mine is. On meeting if all is ok I let Cass off to get on with things and I honestly believe this is the safest way

[*Marie*]

Lots of different opinions here and I respect your own opinions on the subject, I have owned a golden retriever for 15 years and from the age of 4 months I had done the same and obviously was aware of dogs coming our way looking at their body posture, tails and eyes to see if they were friendly and put him on the lead if it was necessarily, in the 15 years of his life there was only a handful of times I had to put him on the lead, giving him as much freedom as safely possible, and I would like to do the same with Bracken making sure he has the same respect I have given my retriever, by doing this I am not making Bracken weary of other dogs! Today I took him for a walk and saw a dog owner coming towards us she immediately put her springer on the lead, I did the same knowing that she did it for a reason! Yes over time he will probably test his boundaries with me and yes will have to avert to doing more training with him! We all love our cockers and will do anything thing to protect them even though we all do things differently! I would like to thankyou all for your comments!