24/10/2026
**Advocate for your dog (and other dogs, too!)**
When your dog is interacting with another dog, you can and should step in if something is happening that doesn’t make you feel comfortable.
Your puppy doesn’t have all the social skills they need yet. No puppy does. They’re still learning how to communicate, play, and interact appropriately with other dogs.
**Trust your instincts. Listen to your gut.**
Sometimes you will need to protect your puppy from another dog’s poor choices. Other times, it means stepping in when your puppy is the one making a poor choice.
Advocating for your dog isn’t just about protecting them. It’s also about helping them learn to interact appropriately and respecting the needs and boundaries of other dogs.
If an interaction isn’t going well, step in. Help the dogs disengage, give them a break, and allow everyone an opportunity to reset.
**But shouldn’t dogs just work it out for themselves?**
You might hear people say that dogs should be left to work things out for themselves. Well, sometimes they can! Dogs communicate with one another in all sorts of subtle ways, and learning to navigate social interactions is an important part of growing up.
But puppies and adolescent dogs are still developing those skills. They don’t always recognise or respond appropriately to another dog’s signals, and they may struggle to disengage when things become too exciting or overwhelming.
*We can’t expect dogs to work everything out themselves, especially when they’re still learning how.*
Sometimes the best thing we can do is step in, help everyone take a break, and give them another opportunity when they’re ready.
**Helping them learn**
Young puppies are learning so much from every experience, and interactions with other dogs can influence how they approach similar situations in the future.
It’s better to interrupt an interaction unnecessarily than to stand back and allow a negative experience that could have been prevented.
And there’s something else worth remembering. Every time you advocate for your dog, you’re also setting an example for the people around you.
Other owners may not recognise when a dog is uncomfortable, when play is becoming too intense, or when it’s time to take a break. By stepping in, and perhaps explaining what you’ve noticed, you can help them learn to recognise those moments too.
The more of us who do this, the more we can influence how people manage interactions between dogs in our communities.
A little advocacy can have a ripple effect, making the world a better place for all dogs.
Photos: Blue the Labradoodle navigating new relationships earlier this year. Photos by Molly & Kodak the Aussie
