I wanted to post this before but it slipped my mind. As I think I mentioned, both our puppies are from a program called Save-a-Sato, which brings animals to the States from Puerto Rico for adoption. There are huge problems with strays in Puerto Rico and many times animals there are abused or killed very inhumanely (click here). We are very thankful that our two puppies have survived their time in Puerto Rico and are doing so well. There is an online petition that you can see by clicking here. It is an effort to get the Governor of Puerto Rico to step up and take responsibility for the horrible crimes being committed against animals there. For more information about the program you can visit saveasato.org.
Now onto the puppy news. On Friday the puppies met Juma, the mastiff that lives in the house whose yard backs up to my mom's yard. Juma is huge, I'd say he's pushing 120 pounds but he's a big gentle giant. There is a chain link fence that separates the yards. I was out with the puppies and they were running around when Juma came out into his yard. Skippy saw him right away and started barking at him. Skippy still has a very high-pitched puppy-ish bark. Juma came galloping over to the fence to check them out and let out a nice big bellow of a bark. I'm pretty sure he was just saying hi to them but Skippy went flying the other way. I don't think he's ever seen or heard anything quite like that before. It was quite funny. Tessie just sat down and took everything in but I think she did give a few barks at him towards the end. As soon as Juma turned around Skippy ran right back towards the fence, barking his "brave" little head off.
This morning was our first session of Puppy Kindergarten with the puppies. They did awesome! They were definitely two of the most well-behaved puppies there. Skippy was an excellent example of the command "watch," used when you want the did to look at you and pay attention and Tessie was just the huge sweet-pie that she is. I had talked to the trainer last week about Tessie and her shyness and she had told me about her own poodle who had been similar as a puppy. The trainer was awesome at modifying a few things to make Tessie more comfortable and towards the end she was doing great, going to sniff the other dogs and make new friends. We worked on "sit," "watch," and calling the dogs by their name and having them come. After that there was a little playtime. There were a few puppies who got very into playing, much like our two do at home. Skippy was content to go around the room and sniff the other owners and check out what kind of treats they had brought. This little Golden Retriever followed him around the whole time. It was very cute. Tessie sat back and checked everyone out, giving the dogs that came over to her a good sniff. She wasn't hesitant or nervous at all though which made us very happy. By the end of the class they were both asleep! We got some new toys to play with while we were there. We got some "bully sticks" - suggested by the trainer, which they are doing a job on chewing right now. We also got a ropey tug-of-war toy that Tessie loves. She's been really into strings lately (shoelaces, sweatshirt ties, etc.) so we wanted to get her something similar that she could play with - big hit with her. It was definitely a good Saturday for these two puppies!
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