Doggie Socialization

Puppy kindergarten was wonderful on Thursday- probably our best session yet! Because it was so nice outside, the instructor, Cari, took advantage and held class outside. The main focus of class that night was leash-walking, which our guys are pretty good with. For the first time since we started class, I took Jackson for the night and Greg worked with Lance. Lance gets distracted a lot easier than Jackson does, so it was nice to change it up. Cari remarked several times on how good the boys were doing with commands and leash walking and that it was obvious that we have been working with them at home a lot (we have!).

My mom had come over during the week to feed the dogs one night because we were in Baltimore for dinner and a lecture. She brought her co-worker Susan with her, who is a fellow Golden-lover. Apparently the boys went nuts when they came in to our house to take care of them- jumping around so uncontrollably that it was hard to get them to calm down. I noticed that they act a lot more hyper when they see new faces and just can't control their excitement. They act like this whenever we get into puppy kindergarten and whenever people come over. However, when we walk in the room, the look happy and tails are wagging, but they are no where near as nuts as they are around other people. I don't know if it's the smells or what, but we've got to figure out a way to calm them down.

We continue to try to introduce them to as many people as possible and take them out to different places each weekend. We hiked Gambrill again on Saturday (yellow trail),but made a quick stop to the Trail House first. The Trail House is this great outdoor store on Market Street that has all kinds of great hiking, kayaking, climbing, etc. gear. They are hosting a rock-climbing clinic next month that we needed to go sign up for in person. Since the Trail House is one of the dog-friendly stores downtown, we brought the pups along. Jackson was a little nutty and excited about walking on Market St. and seeing all the people, but Lance was great. Jackson eventually settled down, and Greg and I decided that we should walk them downtown more often to get them used to it., but for the first time, it was a real struggle. Generally we each take one pup and one of us is on front of the other. The pups have a hard time with this, because they both want to be up front. Greg suggested that he take both and I walk behind, but that didn't work so well either. We really love to hike together, so I'm hoping that we can find a way to make it work. We might have to each take one and go opposite ways on the trail for awhile, and hope that when the boys mature a little more, things will be better.

Greg went mountain biking for a good portion of the day on Sunday, so we decided against a hike that day. Instead, we took the boys for another walk downtown. We parked at Baker Park and walked down to Carroll Creek and all around, kind of making a big loop. We stopped by Accents at Shab Row, which is Jim and Marie Hamilton's (James and Michelle's parents) adorable store. They just got a 3 year old lab, and I wanted to introduce her to the boys. After that, we continued making the rounds, stopping at Firestones to introduce the pups to our friend Ian on the way. They boys were great the whole time, and of course they always get a lot of attention by passers-by. We'll definitely continue to bring them out to more and more places, hoping that it will help with training.