Emma and Izzy Make a New Friend

Part of our homework for puppy school this week was walking nicely on a leash, and socializing with other dogs and people. Because there are no dog parks in Auburn (Wegmans, I know you got my email about sponsoring one here, like Liverpool's Good Dog Park), I have to make do with taking the girls on long walks and hoping that people and dogs will interact with them. Today we decided to go to Hoopes Park, which went really well. We met several people on the way, who all wanted to pet Emma and Izzy, and I think Emma is getting a little better about not running away from strangers...it's funny, if Emma was my child, I would want to reward that kind of behavior, and instead I'm trying to break my poor puppy of it! Anyhow, once we got to the park we met some geese and ducks that didn't really want to socialize with us. It didn't seem to hurt either Emma's or Izzy's feelings to be so brutally rebuffed, and I was secretly relieved that there was no goose pate on the menu! Then we came across Riley, an 80-pound Golden Retriever, who was also wearing a Gentle Leader and was remarkably well behaved, except when his mother looked the other way and he went flying into the pond to "retrieve" a duck. I think the girls were mildly terrified at first, but they quickly "shook hands" (or in human terms, sniffed each other's butts) and then proceeded to frolic. Very cute. And now I feel no guilt, as we have completed all of our puppy kindergarten assignments for the week!