Bathtime & Playtime

Emmy had her first bath this week! She got quite dirty and I decided to take the opportunity to give her a good wash. She was super and seemed to enjoy having warm water splashed on her fur. I dried her with my dog blaster (basically hair dryer designed specifically for dogs) and she was overall accepting of it. I had it on the lowest power, didn't go near her face and fed her treats throughout, so she decided it wasn't a bad deal!! I used a towel to finish off drying her and she was a nice, clean, fluffy puppy until she found her way back outside and proceeded to dig in the dirt. The joy of puppies! (well dogs of any age, to be honest :D)

Emmy is improving on her housebreaking every day, we are making lots of progress which is fantastic. Today we got 4 new Ex-Battery hens (we took Emmy with us to collect them so she had another car journey) and she was meeting them. It was the first time they had seen the grass, the sun..let alone dogs! Emmy is used to our other chickens though and was more interested in trying to get to their chicken food (as was Cody!)

She loves playtime with toys, whether it's playing with me, the other dogs, or with herself. So I will share a couple of playtime pictures :D

Frosty Fun!

This morning there was a sprinkling of frost over the garden, so the dogs had great fun playing in it. Emmy of course joined in and had a great time :D

Later on the naughty goats escaped and were eating all the plants, so Emmy got to meet them (although this wasn't the first time she'd seen them). She thought they were dogs and was trying to get them to play with her. They weren't impressed :D

She's tired now and is asleep under my feet.

Cody teaching her to play tug 

Lots of fun!

Something caught her attention...

'What are you then?!' thinks Emmy!

Meet Emmy

Welcome to my new blog, all about Educating Emmy. My family and I are fostering Emmy for the next two months and this is a record of everything she does whilst she is with us.

Emmy is 10 week old Golden Retriever and she's been with us a week today. She's settled in really well and already gets on brilliantly with our other four dogs.

She's been a busy girl and we've taken her out to town several times, including visiting the two local pet shops where she got to meet lots of small fluffy animals! She's walked on the pavement beside traffic without being bothered, and we weighed her, 12 kg - she's a big pup! We also visited my grandparents house at the weekend and she came along too. She loved exploring their garden (lots of plants that she wanted to chew all the time!) and she also had a walk on the beach. She loved digging holes in the sand and was brave enough to paddle a little in the sea - the weather was sunny but quite cold so I imagine the water must have been pretty chilly too!

Yesterday we minded Mossie, a Bernese Mountain Dog for the day and Emmy got to meet him. Like with all dogs she's met, she just wants to make friends with them and have fun playing. She's been introduced to our chickens, goats and cats. She was very inquisitive and enjoyed watching them.

Mostly it's all been about her having as many fun, enjoyable, positive experiences whilst she is in the 'critical socialisation period' but I have also begun to do some training sessions with her. She's been learning 'touch', 'sit' and 'down' and she's picking them up quickly.