The calendar for meeting other dogs is set less by your puppy's age in weeks than by where she is in her vaccination series and what disease risk looks like locally, which is why your own vet's plan is the one to follow. Her own garden and being carried or kept off the ground in public places are fine from the start. Introductions to adult dogs you know well — steady animals, fully vaccinated, met on ground you trust — are often encouraged early, because those meetings stay controlled. Walking on public pavements and mixing freely waits until your vet confirms her series has reached the right stage. Good puppy classes often accept puppies part-way through their series because their floors and rules are managed, so ask local classes what they require. Do not let caution cost her the socialisation window entirely; the vet's plan threads both needs.
What Owners Need to Know
Those early weeks carry two jobs at once: protecting a puppy whose immunity is still building, and giving her the meetings that teach her other dogs are ordinary. The compromise is selection, not isolation. Choose adult dogs you know personally — calm, healthy, fully vaccinated, and tolerant of clumsy puppy manners — and let them meet on private ground you trust, for a few minutes at a time. A puppy who has greeted a handful of steady adults at home arrives at her first pavement walks with social skills already started, rather than meeting every neighbourhood dog as a complete novelty on the same day her vaccinations finish.
Watch her side of the meeting as carefully as the other dog's: brief sniffing, loose wiggles, and choosing to wander off are healthy signs, while freezing, hiding behind you, or frantic lunging means the session was too much and the next one should be quieter and shorter.
A Workable Routine
Work through these in order and give each one time to become routine before you judge it:
- Feed a diet made for growth, in measured meals suited to the age
- Introduce new people, sounds, and places in short, happy doses
- Start grooming and handling practice early, with treats and no pressure
- Protect sleep — youngsters need far more of it than owners expect
- Book early vet checks and keep the vaccination schedule on track
Tie each new introduction to a part of the day that already exists — a garden visit after the morning feed, a carried trip past the street at the hour the school-run dogs go by — so the social plan survives busy weeks instead of depending on special outings nobody has time for.
Making It Part of Everyday Life
When several people walk or carry her, agree the rules for greetings before anyone sets out: which dogs she may meet, that she stays off public ground until the vet clears it, and that a polite sniff ends before either dog gets overwhelmed. Consistency matters because a puppy told 'say hello to everyone' by one person and kept back by another learns neither lesson well. In KinsLe, Care Teams lets a partner or family helper pick up a planned introduction duty, sees the notification for it, and has that duty marked with a timestamp once the outing is done.