Puppy Kindergarten

[Kyoko]

Charlie went to Puppy Kindergarten class on Saturday!
It was a lot of socializing, and a little bit of instruction which was fine. I think that instructions were more for us human than for the puppies, for us to gain understanding of how they are, and how we need to be understanding of them and work with them more effectively.

During the play time, 2 Rotties, Shaperd, and Choc. Lab puppies played together, but Charlie were intimidated by their size, and ran away from them....Golden Retriver puppy stayed on her mommy's lap.
Charile went to play with Shih tzu puppy, but her mom did not want her to play with Charlie, because Charlies was too big for her....So, she had no one to play with......:(

I hope she will get to play with someone next week....
They have Puppy Social tomorrow evening, and I plan to take her. There may be someone who she can play with.

[Kyoko]

Charlie had a good time today!!
We went to the Puppy Social and she played with 3 letter mates of Boader Collie puppies and a bulldog puppy!!
She had a tendency to stick around my legs and check in with me every so often, but she ran around with them and had a great time!!

Because she is always jumping around on my old Chow Chow, it puzzled me to see her being intimidated by the larger puppies. I guess more often she is around the other puppies, more comfortable and confident she will get around them...I will definately check with Petco to see if ours offer anything like that.

I feel so silly worrying about this like a mom with a human kindergartener!!

[Chris & Boys]

Hey Kyoko,
Fozzy Bear started classes two weeks ago. There were two toy varieties and two goldens, one was 4 months and the other was 6 months. Fozzy acted like a mad man jumping all over all of them...he was super high energy. He was definately trying to position himself as the Alpha dog in the group. Then, last week at our 2nd class last week, he was totally submissive. But the trainer told everyone to let their dogs fend for themselves, regardless of size and she would step in if needed. She definately said not to push the dogs to interact with eachother, but they all had to be on the floor. If your trainer doesn't encourage puppy play, I would find a new trainer for your next set of classes if you intend to take any.

Also, if you want to get Charlie to be more socialized, I know the Petco stores in MN have Puppy Socialization hours every weekend. That would definately help.

[Yvonne, Riley, Murphy and Luca]

Some puppy mom's are over protective. All puppies should learn to play with each other no matter what size they are. I find it interesting to take Riley and watch people do all the wrong things.

I am sure next time Charlie will play with the other larger puppies. Maybe even when you take her to the Social Hour she will really get into playing.

Hope the two of you have fun.

[Zoe, Benny and Tyler]

Poor Charlie, no one to play with. Can't understand the Shih tzu mom though, the puppies should learn to deal with dogs of all sizes, otherwise the little shih tzu will be afraid of bigger dogs when it grows up.
In our neighbourhood lives a miniature pinscher which loves to play even with huge dogs. My Benny is now 66 lbs and they still play together. I hope that Charlie finds friends in puppy kindergarden soon.