More socialization fun

Zen is 15 weeks old and we have been diligently going to puppy class and socializing her as much as we can. The restrictions have been tough. It’s a huge balancing act to get her out and public with the risks so high in this area for Parvo. But we’ve been doing much more than our vet would like.. and at the same time trying to avoid obvious places where unvaccinated dogs may defecate. If we listened to our Vet, she wouldn’t have even gone to Puppy school until 17 weeks.. which is waaay out of the realm recommended for Swissy puppies.

In Puppy School, Zen has been a lurker. Not cowering by any stretch of the imagination.. but not exactly getting involved either. She seemed much more interested in the people than the other dogs. So i bumped up her dog time by taking her to a puppy social once a week. Its far for me on a Sunday, (all the way in Sunnyvale) but it’s been good for her. I met another Swissy owner there, and she’s been exposed to all kinds of dogs of all shapes and sizes.

Still, she’s hung back and just watched all the fun. So last week, we found out one of the women who attends our class lives “relatively” near us. She owns a 14 week old Viszla pup named Zola. If Zen is the wallflower.. Zola is the popular kid in class. We’ve met up twice this week, and these one on ones have been awesome. Both times, she and Zen just played and rough housed like no tomorrow.