Working on my play skills

Hi all, Abbie the Vizsla here with your favorite puppy update. The last week was a little crazy – we had visitors for nearly 6 days – and I even got to go and crew a race one of the days. There were so many smells, people, and other dogs I wanted to play with but my parents are working with me on my leash and I still can’t be in many public places. Wahhh.

In the middle of all the chaos of having company, my mom and dad also took me to my first puppy playgroup at Wonder Puppy. It definitely made for an interesting Friday night – there were soooo many puppies – soooo many treats – and also sooo many rules.

When we first got to playgroup, my mom was holding my leash and I was going buckwild because I wanted to dart to the nearest puppy and tackle them. To ease my frustrations, she started giving me treats so I was pretty happy about that. After a few mouthfuls of treats (she kept calling me a vacuum – whatever that means), she said “all done” and I was released to play.

I was running around the room like crazy and could barely contain my excitement…. and then the handlers were on me blocking me from my  next pounce. It was frustrating to get blocked from pouncing but I can’t complain because each block was accompanied by more treats. Some of the other puppies were a bit unsure of me which I just don’t understand – who wouldn’t want to play with me?

My mom was following me all around the room to make sure I was playing the right way – she said that I wasn’t playing the right way the majority of the time, whoops. She seemed tired and emotionally drained by the time the hour time was up. She didn’t even want to go out to dinner afterwards – just wanted to sit on the couch and “decompress” (or at least that’s what she said).

Since I’m still learning to play, she invited a new friend, Moxie the Ridge over for some playtime on our deck. Moxie is a 70 lb Rhodesian Ridgeback – she’s much bigger than me – but we have a similar look and personality. We had a great time bopping around on the deck – so  much fun – that I practically slept the entire afternoon after she left.

To keep the play time going, my mom took me to  yet another puppy play group at Wonder Puppy – lots of treats but fewer puppies this time. The only puppy that really wanted to play with me was a poodle named Daisy. She was a lot of fun but we were both so hyped up that they had to put leashes on both of us for off leash playtime (blerghhhh). But hey, we still got lots of treats – so many that I came home with a tummy ache and farted a whole bunch.

Today, I heard the chihuahuas are coming over – Hank and Brandi – they’re quite a bit older than me (and also much smaller) and mom thinks they may not like me very much. I promised her I would be on my best behavior but may have had my paws crossed underneath me.

#puppylife

XOXO,

#AbbietheVizsla