Good idea - I live in Florida and the only thing in my area is an occassional rabies alert but the county does a good job staying on top of that. I will however check for anything else.

We started socializing Jäger at three months. We tried introducing him to other dogs who's owners were adamant that their dog was dog friendly. Every time ended with Jäger being attacked. Having read Ed's bark park warnings I kept him held close to me during these ill fated attempts and he never got traumatized. Jäger OTOH still wants to meet,greet, and be the goofy let's play with every dog he sees goober brain that he is, but he's learning quickly to just ignore them.

As for people, we always had treats with us and when people showed any intrest in him we offered them the chance to give him a treat. He's so social with people that many friends don't believe he's even capable at protection dog work let alone excelling at it.

Yes the treats from strangers issue is a double edged sword, and will he take a poisoned treat from someone malicious was weighed heavily. We ask our neighbors about his barking when something/someone is out of place in the neighborhood and have managed to get the neighborhood kids to come play with him so he's less likely to be percieved as a threat to the locals.

Our vet said that in her experience the dogs that get poisoned are generally problem barkers, get loose and crap in other people's yards, or menace the neighborhood kids.