Hola! Today’s post is all about Huxley’s adventures as he traveled to and fro meeting new friends…if you still want him to come visit your house after reading then shoot me and e-mail and we’ll pencil you in. 😉
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Week 2 at “Puppy Kindergarten” we discussed the importance / how-to’s of puppy socialization. It’s muy importante, especially at this stage in his development. <And yes. I did just reference my dog’s social development. I am that far gone.>
But we’ve always had this dilemma going on, because he has very limited exposure to other dogs. He met my brother’s dog a few times, but Bell wanted nothing to do with him and would actually run in the opposite direction any time Huxley came around.
Our neighbors have an interesting pair of dogs, both of which are part Corgi. Zeus is fat, old, lazy, and has very little tolerance for Hux. Jasper is young, hyper, fast, and will play with Huxley for a few rough, wild seconds…but he comes and goes in a flash.
It really is a shame, because Huxley loves to meet new people and dogs. He’s so friendly, and he’s practically begging for new friends. See?!
Is this pic not just adorable?! I snapped it one day when he was watching some of our neighbors out and about.
Can I go play Ma?!
So, like any good parent would do, we set up a couple of puppy playdates for him.
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The first was over at my sister-in-law’s house. She has a couple of dogs about Huxley’s size named Rocket and Daisy, and one super-adorable almost 3 year old daughter named A. We were looking forward to catching up with her, playing with A, and seeing how the dogs all got along, so we loaded up and went over for dinner one night.
It was pretty much craziness from the get go. My niece LOVES dogs, Huxley being no exception, and he absolutely adores her. He goes wild with excitement when she’s around, and with the added stimulation of 2 other dogs it wasn’t long before the four of them were literally running laps around the house. It was so funny to see them all chasing after one another, and A was definitely loving it.
Things went pretty smoothly, except for the “peeing contest” Huxley got into with Daisy. (How typical. I tried explaining to him before we went in that this was not his house, and that he was a guest, etc. etc. All that and he still had to go and try to “mark” the couch. Ugh.) Oh yeah, and there was that one incident in A’s room. We knew it couldn’t be good when all we could hear was her saying “Bad Huxwey. Nasty. Gross Huxwey!”
At least he didn’t poop ON any of her toys. Just on her carpet. That’s better right?!
Anyway, I still called it a success.
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Puppy playdate #2 was scheduled for Friday night during our home-group bible study. The couple hosting boasted a BIG fenced in back yard and two BIG dogs to play with….and boy did they deliver! Their backyard was really nice and very big, as were their dogs. (I got the biggest kick out of watching their lab drink out of their big concrete fountain / bird bath. What a water bowl!)
Another couple brought their bassett hound. Her name was Delilah. She’ll come back into the story later, if you know what I mean. 😉
When we first took Huxley outside he was instantly surrounding by dogs that were WAY bigger than him, and he just flat did not know what to do. He sat there kind of hunkered up with wide eyes while they sniffed at him, and spent the first few minutes trying to hide under the table or a chair and just watching them. Eventually he ventured a little further out, which is when I think he discovered that he wasn’t on a leash and was free to roam. I was worried that he was going to be totally anti-social (Great. Our dog is emo.) but he just needed to get the lay of the land and stretch his wings a little.
After sniffing around and watching the other dogs play from a distance, he started to try and play with them. It was really funny to watch how he would insert himself into the play for a minute, then back out and watch for a few. Each time he joined the play he stayed a little longer, and before long he was running with the big dogs and having a grand ol’ time.
They were all getting along so well that when it was time for dinner and bible study all the humans went in the house and left the dogs to their own devices. I went out once to check on him, and it was so sweet to see him come running toward me when I called his name. I tried to pick him up and hold him for a minute, but he was fighting against me to get down and go play. One of the human hosts said he was probably thinking “Awh come on Mom…not in front of my friends!” Haha…so true!
Once we were done with our study they let all the dogs in the house, which is where we began to notice how infatuated Huxley was with Miss Delilah. Once again, he ignored my instructions of “keep your hotdog to yourself” (if you know what I mean *ahem*) and pretty much sexually harrassed Delilah until we got him on the leash and gathered up all of our things. Ah, young love.
It took us a little while to actually leave, enjoying good conversation and such, and by the time we did it was obvious that we had one very tired puppy on our hands. Almost 5 hours of uninhibited play with 3 very active new friends will do that to ya I guess.
Definitely safe to say that puppies and humans alike had a great time though.
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Which leads us up to our 3rd session of “Puppy Kindergarten.” Huxley slept much later than normal that morning and still looked sooo tired. Even the trainer noticed how worn out he was when we brought him in for the session, and we actually had to wrap it up more quickly than we normally do. I mean seriously, the agenda for the day was teaching “down” and “stay.” No problem for a dog who is so tired all he wants to do is lay down and go to sleep.
We had to give him more treats to try and get him UP than to get him to lay down or to stay.
Oops.
Before leaving we promised her that we won’t keep him out so late before next week’s class. Apparently he can’t handle that. 😀
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So…can we come over?!
KEEP CALM & PUPPY PLAY-DATE ON!
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