Trinity has been quite busy lately as we try to take her lots of different places to make sure that she grows up to be a well balanced, well socialized pup. I always find it fascinating to socialize one of my own pups and see just how their personalities develop. Trinity is proving to be quite confident and bold in most situations though I am finding that she is much more daring when she is with another dog from her pack than when she is on her own. Being on her own is an important part of her development so I often take her by herself so that she gets to experience the world without the backup of a pack member.
Trinity is the 5th puppy I have raised in 3 years so I have sort of mastered a strategy that works. The secret of owning 7 dogs and raising so many that are close in age is to develop a personal relationship with each of them. I do this by taking them out alone and bonding with them during this very critical socialization period. I love this getting to know you period, it helps me form a deep bond with each pup that I raise and makes it easier to make sure that each dog gets what they need.
Trinity graduated from one Puppy Kindergarten class and started another. The new class has a new set of dogs to play with some of which are bold and some of which are a little shyer. Such a nice opportunity for Trinity to develop her social skills and work on the nuances of playing with different personalities. After spending the last 3 yrs socializing puppies and watching them develop their play styles I have learned that the more different personalities a puppy meets and plays with the better his play skills will be. Trinity tends to start off the play well enough but she can get overstimulated easily with a playmate that wants to play rough or one that gives in too easily and goes belly up. It is not appropriate for her to pile on these puppies and tell them off so we worked on calling her away when she's thinking about taking advantage of them and within a few repetitions she was running to me to get a treat for breaking away from the pig pile. This is a very important part of proper dog to dog socialization so that she grows up to be a healthy, socially appropriate adult dog that plays well with other dogs.
Early in the week we took Rush and Trinity to the woods for a romp. Watching them run together was so much fun. Seeing Rush with his ears back and tail tucked, a complete look of joy on his face as he ran top speed through the woods with Trinity doing her best to keep up on her little short legs was just amazing. At one point my oldest son Mark asked me what game Rush was playing with Trinity and I told him it was called "lose the baby in the woods". The more we watched Rush's antics and how excited he was getting the funnier it got because it really did look like he was trying to ditch her. She ran for an hour with him and even took a dip in the stream in her attempt to keep up with the kids while they were playing. It was pretty cute to see her try to leap across the stream to be with her Dad and the kids on the other side only to not quite make it and slide back into the water. It was a fun adventure to say the least !
Later in the week we attempted a trip to the beach. The day was bright and sunny but the beach was wild. The tide was coming in and there was hardly any beach ! The waves were wild and though we attmepted to walk down to meet a group of dog people it didn't take long to get swamped twice by the incoming tide. Trinity was a little offended by the fast moving water and quickly learned to scale the rocks in order to avoid getting totally swamped by the incoming waves. I was not so lucky and ended up getting dunked up to my knees in the cold surf. In the brief time we were there we met quite a few people and dogs, we just didn't get alot of running time in.
On the way back home we stopped off at Ipswich River Park in North Reading. Though we had driven by this park several times we had never stopped to explore it. Nothing like a puppy to socialize to have an excuse to explore. This was one cool park and a perfect opportunity to socialize Trinity to lots of unique sights and sounds. This park has a skate board park so we stopped and watched a group of boys ride skate boards and skooters and make all kind of noise. Trinity was fascinated by this and sat and watched them for several minutes. There were quite a few younger kids riding bicycles and skooters along the walkway, a few adult dogs that she had to pass without saying hello, a jogger, an older man walking by talking on a cell phone, 4 little girls screaming puppy, puppy can we say hello to the puppy and running at her added to the chaos. There was a large group of young men sitting at a picnic table sorting their street hockey gear one of which called her over and pet her. There were also two people playing tennis which totally blew her mind. Imagine a ball going back and forth and no dog chasing after it. She met several people as she was heading back to the car as well. There were some wooded trails that we didn't get to explore but since it was getting dark we decided to leave that for another day.
Tonight we held a chiropractic clinic at the training center for dogs. Trinity met quite a few dogs and new people including two huge Newfoundlands which was a great experience for her. She was not all that intimated by their size and they are HUGE ! They were very sweet to her and she was offering them play bows within a few minutes of meeting them. This is one confident little pup !! The chiropractor was able to adjust her and make sure that her neck and spine were all in the right places :). She takes a beating trying to keep up with all the adult dogs and though they are mostly gentle with her they do squish her on occasion.
Training is going well, I am very pleased with her concentration and endurance. She is learning how to learn and that training is a game where she can make stuff happen by offering the right behaviors. Sit and down are on cue now and we have a rudimentary Come cue that we use to get her to check in with us on walks or during play time with other dogs. We have done some remedial handling work on collar, ears, eyes and feet. I like to go back to these areas every few weeks to help puppies learn to not only accept handling and manipulation but actually look forward to and enjoy it.
My little girl is getting bigger everyday and though I haven't weighed her lately I would say she is close to 30lbs. She is having alot of fun and fitting into our family quite nicely. Well, we're off to have more adventures and teach our little girl a little more about the world.
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