Road Trip

Pups paid a visit to Jess's office yesterday and rode well after just a few minutes of yelling.  I packed them up in a crate and took along the big exercise pen which we set up under a tree in the parking lot at Your Esthete Partner.  Jess's co-workers all came out to say Hi, and office dog Stella Cavalier, Jess's boss's dog, was put in the pen with them.  Poor Stella!  The pups thought she was a furry toy and they especially liked her tail.  Mickey was the pushiest with her, and all the pups were unafraid. Stella is very good with pups and extremely used to Dal pups.  She's socialized a lot of them over the years!

We took the pups out one at a time to explore the office, so we could observe their individual reactions to an entirely new situation.  Most of them trotted around quite happily, interrupted by frequent bouts of scratching at their new collars - it will take them another day or two to get used to something around their necks.  When the pups first started noticing things after their eyes & ears opened, Mickey was usually first to try everything and appeared to be bold & cocky.   Lately we've been observing that he is actually somewhat more timid than the others.

I had expected that the uni pups might be more sound sensitive about the noises in the warehouse, but they were all fine and bilateral Mickey had the most trouble with the large fan and the totally unfamiliar surroundings.  That tells me that we need to put extra time into him before he leaves for his new home.  Fern was a bit cautious, reminding me of Rob as a pup - she had to think things over first.  When we brought her in a second time she was totally self assured.  She'll need plenty of socializing, and confidence building, but should be fine.   The other pups were very good, especially Dixie & Degidio who were prepared to explore the whole warehouse.  Luci & Murray were also absolutely fine about the new experiences, and all the pups were very friendly with Dan the warehouse manager who took the time to handle each of them.

This weekend the pups will take two more road trips.  They'll go to visit Carol, Stephanie & Foster, and spend a few hours there without me.  On Sunday we'll go visit Wendy & Kathleen, and their mother Pauli.  Each pup will get individual handling too, and all will go out for short leash walks in the neighborhood.  Then it's time to think about their departures!  Dixie's family is in Disneyland right now, so she'll have to wait another week.  Another family will be picking up Mickey or Murray as soon as I tell them OK, and we need to make plans to send Luci to California.  I like to wait until 9 weeks for shipping, but it won't be long now!