Ole day 13 at daycare.

Ole had a big day planned today, his first day at daycare. We were up and at'um by 6:00 AM as there were lots of pees and poos, and breakfast, and grooming with the brush, and the morning power walk to get done before I took him to school. When we got to K9 to 5, the front gate was open but we were not the first to arrive. One of my former puppy class students was there dropping off her adorable West Highland White terrier " Bella". It's a small world isn't it? We didn't have much time to talk as everybody had somewhere to be but it was good to see them. I didn't make a deal about leaving Ole, just quickly slipped out the door before he really noticed anything was up. As I was leaving however another client was coming in who had 2 very over excited Bichon-type dogs that she dropped the leashes on and allowed to rush the door. The dogs were very hyper...I wonder why...Hmmmmmm. I hoped Ole wouldn't be spending much time with them.
From there , Shelly and Elmo and I drove to Dusty Rhodes Park for some R&R. There were only about 6 dogs there and I didn't see any over the top behavior going on, just pretty relaxed dogs. I took both of them into the park entry area and when both had completely calmed , I took off their leashes and opened the gate. Calm dogs get most anything and excited dogs have to wait or get nothing is the rule and we stick to it! Elmo had a ball playing with a really nice fuzzy grey and white mop of a dog. They played so nicely together that we stayed about 20 minutes. Shelly just likes to walk around and sniff and occasionally police any percieved bad manners. She was out of luck today as everyone was well behaved. Then I noticed a guy with a very highly excited and large dog coming in , so I put both their leashes on and we left. Dog parks can be very dangerous places. Dog on dog attacks are not uncommon so I'm hyper-vigilant when I take my dogs to them. I mostly prefer play dates or very large parks where the dogs don't congregate together so much and get over aroused. From there I did some grocery shopping and we headed home to do all the house work that has not gotten done for the past almost 2 weeks. Shelly and Elmo throughly enjoyed time off from Ole's puppy hood. I'm teaching an intermediate obedience class tomorrow so i also

needed to get organized for that.



At 12:45, I drove over to K9 to 5 to pick up Ole. I peaked over the front gate and saw him passed out in the shade on the front deck. Romi and her husband took all the dogs inside and then let me in. She said that Ole and Bella had had a great time together and were now boy friend and girl friend! He's growing up too fast! She is very cute though so I understand how it could happen. Ole tried to jump on me in excitement when he came out so I ignored him completely until he calmed, asked him to sit and then praised him and loved him up. Romi had introduced them to people walking with crutches today and Ole had no problem with it. Bella apparently was a little shy of them at first but got over it quickly. Romi was surprized that Ole sprinted through the tunnels when she brought them out and realized that I must have worked with him with tunnels already. Anyway, he had a great time and will get to come back on Monday for 4 hours so he can play some more with Bella and the gang and do a little more training.
When we got home , Shelly smelled him all over and Elmo kissed his face. They seemed pleased to have him back. Then it was lunch and potty time and crate practice. I put a soft cushy bed in his crate and he went in and curled up and slept for an hour and a half. Goes to show , good dogs are tired, & I just love tired puppies.
Around 3:30 we took a group walk to the mail box next door to Noah's Pet Market and stopped at Noah's to get some beef tendon chews and the favorite...Buffalo scapulas. Shelly LOVES buffalo scapulas. Elmo and Ole like them also but not like Shelly does. It was a long walk but Ole hung in there though he needed a big drink and another nap before dinner. I gave them all raw beef marrow bones after their dinners and they were thrilled. Another good day for dogs.