12 week old can't be bothered walking on lead question

[brihop]

Hi again all and thanks again for all the advise and help. Duddley is 12 weeks old and this time next week will be able to go outside and start to meet new dogs. My obvious question is how should I approach this?

First of all I have been working on lead walking with some success but at times he flops down and refuses any command and any treat enticement. Advise on what to do please.  Would it be best to first take him to a puppy socialising class? or introduce him to friends dogs I know to be calm? When I do take him out locally should I pick him up when strange people or dogs approach and introduce him in my arms? Don't want him meeting other dogs on the floor and risk bad encounters. Having only seen another dog from the other side of a garden fence I don't  know how he will react close up, so to say. When he hears other dogs he does bark back but I am sure this is just curiosity???

Again any tips will be much appreciated. Hope this isn't too many questions at once. Brian

P.S. Can't get photos to load????

[GentleLake]

I think good puppy socialization classes are awesome.

But, and this is a big but, not all puppy socialization classes are created equal. Some can be real disasters and are essentially puppy free-for-alls.

If I were enrolling in one (and yes, I would be looking for a good class), I'd want to first observe a session. There shouldn't be too many puppies, maybe 4 or 5 so that the instructor can really be paying attention to interactions both between the puppies and the pup and owner, and especially for signs of stress or pups' being over faced. That's not something that can be done in a large group. While it's fine for them to have some playtime, much of the focus should be on appropriate introductions, being comfortable on a leash, etc. And they shouldn't be very long. Young pups just don't have the attention span of older pups and dogs and something like this can be a lot for a little guy.

[D'Elle]

I agree with the above. Make sure you are going to a really good trainer who has a lot of experience (not just whoever they hired to train a class at the local big-box pet store). You will learn a lot doing that and so will your puppy. You need to learn what is most appropriate for your dog, how outgoing he is, how fearful, and so on, and a well-supervised class will give you a lot of that information, allowing you to adapt your approaches to introducing him to things accordingly.