One more booster - almost time to meet others.
 

So Max has had all of his initial shots, but Abby will get her last one next week. I have been waiting to take them out or have friends bring their dogs over until they have both finished the first series. A little type A of me, but...that is me. On of my friends has a Yorkie about the same size as Max, but she is a doggie foster mom and did not really want to expose mine to the guest dogs yet. (Nothing wrong with the foster dogs - they are great, just not sure if they have any health issues.) My friends with dogs are great and completely understand my concern.

They have met several people and were around other dogs at the breeder so I am not really worried about socialization issues. However, they have not been around big dogs. My previous Yorkie got along great with all dogs, but she was with a larger one from day one. So, my plan is to have a friend with a large dog (lab) come over next weekend and have an introduction. Her dog is very well behaved and gentle but I know little dogs can be very scary for the larger dogs.

She offered to bring her dog over in her crate so they could meet each other safely. Since my pups crates are already here, I said just to bring the dog. If I put mine in their crate at first and let them sniff thru the crate for a while, and then let them out we should be okay. I will remove all toys and food (leave the water dish down).

Am I forgetting or missing anything? Oh, I have the camera at the ready always.

Someone just started a thread about a golden attacking their yorkie.... I would be extremely cautious and know the warning signs of a big dog that may become agitated by a small puppy.
I have 2 little dogs who are 2-3 years old who have not been around really big dogs. All of that really freaks me out. I am glad that this is a really calm, nice dog. Has the lab been around little pups before? or small dogs?

Thanks for your concern. I read that post earlier today and it was horrible - I cannot imagine that happening to one of my babies. I am so glad the Yorkie is getting better.

My friends lab is smaller than normal - only about 35 pounds. I know accidents can happen and fortunately we are both Type A's. I would never leave my dogs with another dog without a person I trusted with them.

When we introduced her lab to my previous Yorkie, all went well. She had her dog lie down and let Poppy go to her. Poppy sniffed around her for a bit and then laid down in front of the lab belly up - two non-dominant dogs together!

We used to go for walks together all the time. After the walk, they used to lie down together. In fairness, Poppy was about 8 years old at the time. They did play together sometimes and about the worse thing that happened was when the Lab licked Poppy and she almost fell over. You should have seen the look on Poppy's face - what the heck was that! The lab loves to lick.

Her dog has been around several puppies in the past few months (it has been puppy and baby season at work lately) and does really well. The last puppy she was with was very hyper. She put up with her for awhile and when she got tired of the puppy she went into her crate and laid down.

You can socialize your animals all you want, make them perfect gentles.

Problem is, you never know just what temperament the other (bigger) dog
has, if it's had a bad day, just anything could make it aggressive, even a
simple nip in play.

I just don't let either of mine get around larger animals, and even some
smaller ones, they can cause considerable damage as well.

I may be depriving mine from some "temporary" social experience, but
they're healthy, here, not bleeding or dead.