socialization | Dangerous Common Sense

Day 61 — Maintaining Traditions and Meeting MORE People

After the big Thanksgiving dinner for the humans, we all weighed ourselves this morning. In Aurora’s case — and only in her case! — heavier is better. Today she was 4 pounds 6 ounces. That’s five ounces more than the last time we weighed her five days ago. Good girl!

The pack stayed together and decompressed most of the day. By “decompress” I mean run, chase, chew, and snarl for an hour or so followed by complete collapse for several hours; repeat!

Aurora’s newest discovery is how to walk up the side of the decomposing planter box and join generations of dachshunds in staring at the world from its heights.

Day 61 -- Aurora reviews the world from the planter box

Day 61 – The Tradition Continues: Dachs in a Box

Cute girl!

Geoffrey did some work on his computer in the TV room. The pack happily joined him.

Day 61 — Find the Hidden Dachshund How many dogs are on the bed? Look carefully at Zenith.

Click on the picture (and any picture in the blog!) to see a larger version. In this case, even clicking may not help you count all pack members. Aurora is snuggled up to her mother’s underside!

The long weekend let Aurora show off to more visitors.

We were very happy to have our neighbors come over to see the puppy that the must have been hearing throw temper tantrums!

Day 61 — Charming the Neighbors

Aurora showed off her ability to run and hold on to the ball at the same time. She also enjoyed being held and petted — adoration is always a good thing.

Later Aurora met more friends for dinner. Ron and Richard were generous attention-givers, too.

Day 62 -- Richard and Ron Pose with Aurora

Day 61 — Richard and Ron Pose with Aurora

By Galen|2018-12-01T14:37:07-08:00November 23, 2018|dachshunds|0 Comments

Day 56 — The Visitations

What could be more traditional for a Sunday than being At Home to receive visitors. MUNI socialized in a big way today meeting five new friends.

Day 56 — MUNI and Diane
Click on any photo in the blog for a larger version. Then click again!

Diane and Kathleen drove me home from church and were today’s first visitors. Diane clearly is a dachshund maven, although MUNI enjoy attention from them both.

We talked about showing dogs, and wondered if MUNI is destined to be a show girl. It’s too early to tell, but Geoffrey brought out the grooming table to demonstrate his ring technique. Here’s MUNI’s first attempt at (not) stacking!

Day 56 – First (Non)-Stacking

MUNI was exhausted from the hard work and being a gracious host. As soon as Diane and Kathleen left, a nap was required.

Later in the afternoon, I returned from meeting a friend to see another social moment, already in progress.

Day 56 — Two Hanging Out

Our minister and her daughter had come by to see MUNI. I snapped this picture of Vanessa and MUNI, and her daughter caught me with MUNI.

Day 56 — Held Captive by a Dad

Vanessa and her daughter were generous with their socializing time and MUNI got cuddled by a fifth church person when Rohit came to pick up his family.

Day 56 — Bonding with Rohit

Whew! What a fun day for the girl!

She was sated with stimulus and enjoyed another afternoon nap.

At dinnertime she weighed in at 4 pounds, 1 ounce. Nice!

An unexpected event occurred at dinner. MUNI and Apex were eating side-by-side and MUNI reached into Apex’s food bowl and started chowing down on Apex’s kibble, leaving her wet puppy food on its plate as second choice. So, she prefers kibble? We have puppy kibble that I’d planned on using for later, but I guess now we’ll bring it up and see.

It’s also clear that MUNI knows no boundaries. Eating food out of the bowl of a big adult dog? Gutsy! (Foolhardy?) We are lucky to have a amiable pack.

By Galen|2018-11-24T14:55:41-08:00November 18, 2018|dachshunds|3 Comments

Day 33 — Widening Our Social Circle

Now that MUNI is centrally located, she can be visited more easily. We’re happy that people want to see her because she — and all puppies — need socialization.

Today our first outside-the-pack visitors accepted an invitation to visit.

Day 33 – Carrier Sterre-Salazar meets MUNI and Mother Zenith
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A friend from church, Carrie, was MUNI’s first visitor.

I’d locked SeQueL, Paris, and Apex out of the kitchen to keep the commotion down. They were behind a dog gate in the back hall. Zenith stayed with MUNI.

When Carrie came into the house, the protective barks from all were fierce. But, I insisted that Carrie was okay, and even Zenith managed to stifle the barks and low growls that initially accompanied Carrie into the kitchen. Carrie, a dog person, was wonderful and calming, and eventually even mother Zenith allowed Carrie to hold MUNI… briefly… without exhibiting too much anxiety.

After the puppy viewing and petting, Carrie and I went into the dining room to catch up and have some coffee. Carrie came back into the kitchen for a second visit before leaving. She was a model socialization instrument!

After work, Charles gave Geoff a ride home so that Charles could also meet MUNI. They seemed to hit it off.

Day 33 – Charles and MUNI
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So, today’s highlights were two “stranger” socialization visits. Excellent.

Of course, I have always marveled that we treat puppies exactly the opposite as we treat children. We encourage puppies to be friendly to strangers and to take candy (treats) from them. If we did that to our human children, we’d be shunned for being careless and unfit parents!

The other change for the day is that Geoffrey started recording MUNI’s weight in pounds instead of just ounces. Yesterday, MUNI weighted 43.2 ounces. Today she’s 2 pounds, 12 ounces!

By Galen|2018-10-31T09:57:53-07:00October 26, 2018|dachshunds|0 Comments

Day 32 — Expanding Horizons

Wow! Now that the whelping box is in the kitchen, MUNI is really the center of attention.

Day 32 — A Confusion of Dachshunds

All of the adult girls feel the need to wander into the whelping box and either clean, lick, and guard or else simply greet and sniff.

The configurations change, but the quarters are close and there is lots of intrapack contact. Good canine socialization for MUNI!

Day 32 — A Narrower Confusion of Dachshunds

The day was a lovely sunny October San Francisco day. Without getting agreement from Geoffrey, I decided that when the girls went out to sun themselves in the afternoon, all of the girls would go out!

MUNI on the bricks!

MUNI was not a fan of the coolish bricks, and Zenith was not a fan of exposing her girl to the world. I understood both their points.

I hovered over MUNI, making sure no wandering predator would even see her, and I blew on her head to add some warmth. MUNI appreciated the attention and was able to feign composure for a few seconds.

Day 32 — Feigning Composure on the Bricks

After the successful exposure to new stimuli I had hoped that MUNI would dive into solid food.

Naw! You can lead a puppy to gruel, but you cannot make her eat!

Day 32 — It Only Looks Like I’m Eating

By Galen|2018-10-28T09:39:59-07:00October 25, 2018|dachshunds|2 Comments