Would you like to have a weapon to use against canine parvovirus in puppies that doesn't interfere with their proper socialization?

Because the immunity puppies get from their mothers makes it difficult to successfully immunize them against parvo until they're several months old, it can be challenging to expose puppies to all the different people, places, and things that help them become happy and well-adjusted dogs.

This is even more applicable to shelter puppies, who are at greater risk of both parvo and inadequate socialization.

In a recent webcast, Dr. Sandra Newbury of the Koret Shelter Medicine Program at UC Davis spelled out her program for protecting puppies from parvo while also making sure they get proper socialization: Foster homes.

The ideal for me is minimize how much time they're in the shelter. So can they go out on grass? My answer is yes, at someone's foster home. That's the best place for them.

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And then counsel foster parents and adopters about safe socialization. So limit that puppy-to-puppy contact for about two weeks after adoption, especially if they came from a high-risk shelter…. And then extra caution going to places like pet stores, dog parks and vet clinics.

This is an example of what we do at my foster home where we let puppies out into the backyard. In the first two weeks of time that they're with us, we always keep them -– if they're going to go out on the grass, we keep them in a single area on the grass so that if somebody did break with parvo, we would know that this part of the yard should be off limits to other puppies that were coming over.

You can access additional resources and watch the archived version of the webcast here.