How is it Monday already? Really, what happens to our weekends? This one, like most, flew by, though probably because we had so much fun.
A quick recap:
On Friday, Cooper got to play with Cady and Scout. Then on Saturday, Cady came over to play with all three of the boys. And then on Sunday, Cooper went on a big adventure (more below), and all three boys got to go over to Cady’s house for even more playtime. Needless to say, they were all pretty tired Sunday night.
Cooper’s Big Adventure
A group of people I work with organize a play day a couple times a month. It’s all off leash, and the park isn’t fenced in. The first time I took Cooper, he was so tiny. He sort of played with the other dogs, but he mostly hung by me. The second time I totally failed. I panicked, which I know can rub off on our dogs so easily. Instead of staying calm and confident, I worried about him the entire time. Cooper, though, did great – despite me!
This time went a little differently because, due to absolutely perfect weather, the park was overrun with children. I didn’t want to let Cooper off to go terrorize the tiny tots. So instead, with dogs swirling all around us, we trained. We practiced sits and downs – with gobs of distractions. John walked him around a little path and worked on his loose leash (still needs TONS of work with that), and we tried to get him to swim in a little stream with the other dogs.
At first, he said NO WAY. He wouldn’t take any food from John and would barely step in any direction:
Then, with the help of some really great dogs, he started moving around:
He never really swam, but for his first time out, I was proud he walked around the stream. (We still can’t get Lucas to even touch his toes in a puddle at the park, let alone step foot into a stream!)
Even though he wasn’t ripping around with the dogs, Cooper still managed to enjoy himself:
We hope you had a great weekend, too! What did you and your dogs do this weekend?
Wow – Cooper really is getting big!
My dog Ernie was never really a fan of water until his lab cousins started using his fear against him! To escape his puppy play invitations, they’d run out into the intracoastal water and swim around. Finally Ernie had enough and followed them out into the water.
He’s still not a fan, but if I throw a stick out into the river, he’ll go out to chase it all day long.
That is funny! Bella will go in the water, splash around but won’t get deep enough to swim. Daisy doesn’t even like to walk on wet grass.
The girls didn’t do much but watch me work around the house this weekend.
I’m so happy Cooper came to another play date and he did great! I was focused on Eugene b/c he’s so tiny I was worried I would lose him…..good thing our dogs are more relaxed than us and enjoyed the day, huh?