Sunday, October 28, 2012

Zenzi's 4th Puppy Class

I'm sorry this is late.  It's been really busy!

Zenzi had her 4th puppy class yesterday.  She was still pretty cautious going into the facility.  While we waited in the parking lot, she decided a steel trash bucket for the nearby poop station was scary.  So we did lots of "Go see!" and she got over it.

In class, we did a lot more socializing, this time with strange objects, Halloween decorations in particular.

  • motorized hand wrapped in gauze
  • mechanical walking/yapping small puppy dog
  • Frankenstein head
  • black witch's hat with a feathery brim
  • bubble wrap strip
  • umbrella
  • two dome-shaped exercise ball things that are very small, hand-sized
She was a champ about ALL of these objects!  She nose touched, pawed, and knocked over the hand right away.  I was shocked, you could hear the gears, see the fingers twitching.  She thought the puppy dog was a great toy and had no problems knocking it down, putting a paw on it, and trying to wrestle with it.  The Frankenstein head was no threat, either.  She even tried to tug the string it would hang from.  I got her to put her entire snout IN the witch's hat with no hesitation right from the get-go.  She walked on the bubble wrap, and barely flinched when I popped some of the bubbles.  She had so much fun walking on it, she actually AIMED for it!  The umbrella was awesome, too.  She actually ended up POUNCING on it while it was open!  Open, close, back and forth quickly -- no problem.  The true genius of my puppy showed when she learned to put both front paws up, one on each of the dome-shaped nubby ball things.  And Amanda said it might take some time... Yeah, try 3 minutes tops. :)

Then we had puppy play time.  Zenzi just DOES NOT want to have anything to do with hyper, overactive puppies.  She even growled a meaningful, low, brief growl at them when they tried to gang up on her.  I got her out of there and we went off and played on our own.

Dismayed by her dislike of the hyper puppies, I called up Irvine Pam for a play date.  Technically she'd been to Auntie Pam's before; we took her there the day we brought her home to have Pam help introduce her to Dolce.  But it was night time, and we were only there for 10 minutes.  Anyway... We went out to Pam's place that afternoon, and Zenzi met Bella and Lily, a havanese and a maltese, plus Pam's friend, Marileen's dog, Bailey, a peek-a-pom.  The greetings with Bella and Lily went swimmingly (both young adult dogs, 4 and 3 years old), and Zenzi loved on them both instantly.  I was relieved.  The greeting with Bailey was not quite so smooth.  I had tried using a treat to break the ice (as I like to do), but unbenounced to me, Bailey is a food-guarder, and ended up snapping at Zenzi.  Zenzi, to my chagrin, was slightly affronted, but let it roll off as no big deal.  From there on out, Zenzi and Bailey were completely fine with each other.

Pam got her skateboard, and I demonstrated Zenzi's brilliance wheeling it around, and tolerating being hoisted up while I press down on the end with my foot, then crashing it back down (teeter practice, anyone?) and her scampering off only to get back on and look at me as if to say, "That was fun!  Let's do it again, ready Mom?"  We practiced tricks, did a nosework course with some cardboard boxes, and even a little agility jump box work.  Zenzi, of course, did not jump anything at her young age, but enjoyed going over a pole in the grass all the same.  Her nosework was amazing, too.  She found the treat fastest, and had never played the game before.  Pam even put the tray with the treat in a box, then another box over 2/3 of that box.  No problem, Zenzi stuck her snout right in there, bumped the top box off, and ate the treat.

I was amazed by Zenzi's boldness in this interaction at Auntie Pam's.  I had Dolce along, and thought perhaps that gave her some extra confidence.  Though, I really think the environment at Wags & Wiggles, with the daycare right beyond the training room, intimidates her.  Oh, Auntie Pam got out her Ikea tunnel when we were practicing agility, and Zenzi was SUCKED IN right away!  I could believe it!  She waltzed right up to it, then ran through at top speed, turned around to look at me with a big smile on her face before going through it the other way.

Pam keeps saying she's met a lot of smart dogs -- she's raised GSDs all her life, met several of her trainer friends' border collies... Zenzi is the smartest dog she's ever met.

Did I mention Zenzi pooped in class?  She also peed and pooped while playing outside at Auntie Pam's?  She pooped on the pack walk, and peed during IDOGS today, too. What a good girl!  Peeing and pooping in new places, outside, on-leash.  YES.

I got a new camera, and Zenzi LOVES JoJo.
JoJo has actually instigated play a few times with Zenzi. O.o

1 comment:

  1. Dio pooped in our first flyball class. SO EMBARRASSING! Good for Zenzi for going in new places.

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