Today was the last day for Zen’s first puppy kindergarden class. I can’t believe it over so quickly! It was kind of sad for me because I really have been enjoying it. We’ve seen such a difference in her since the first day of class when she sulked around the room, too afraid to jump in and play. Now she jumps right in. She’s a submissive player; she spends most of her time on her back.. but she seems to love it.

She also learned how to run thru tunnels today. Some of the dogs were a little spooked by the things… but Zen had no problem with them.

Here’s a video of the very first one she went through:

Overall, it was a great class today. And at the end we had a little graduation ceremony. Zen LOVES our trainer so she was really excited to be getting attention from Janelle. So much so, that she kept giving her paw and then trying to give both paws.

Next class is not until October. But her quarantine lift is over next wednesday so in the meantime we’ll be working with her on our own.
Congratulations Zen! Well done!

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.