Social Puppies

Today we took the puppies to their first social event. Their trainer, Ms. A, was hosting a puppy treat give away event, and they were invited. So, after feeding them breakfast and taking them out for a necessary potty break, we got them ready. They weren't expecting it at all and got super excited when the harness bag came out. They are pro's at going to puppy school, so as soon as we pulled into the parking lot, they knew right where to go. 
We've actually never taken them to a Petsmart on a Saturday before. Usually we try to take them places when we know it won't be very busy to minimize the distractions. Today, there were tons of distractions. In addition to the treat party, it was adoption day, and there were tons of people in the store with their dogs. I don't think our puppies have ever seen that many other dogs before. They were really excited to see Miss A and were happy when she pulled out the treats.

Most of the other dogs there were small dogs. What we've noticed is that a lot of the small dogs are not super friendly. Our puppies really don't understand why the other puppies don't want to play. It's actually kind of funny to watch. They love puppies, and every time they see one, they want to go over and lick it and play with it. Mr. C totally wants to have every puppy he sees as his own. He's already had lots of practice with puppies (Mr. M, Miss S and Miss M). So he is sure that he needs to lick them and clean them and play with them and cuddle them... The rest of our puppies love other puppies too, and they get very confused when the puppies they see don't feel the same way. Of course, they also get confused when the cats get tired of being slobbered on, but that's a different story.
We decided not to stay right by the treat table the whole time and took them on walks around the store. They got barked at by the adoption puppies. Mostly, they just glanced at them and kept walking- with a little encouragement. They got barked at by a few other little dogs. Mr. M is the only one who barked back. We all had a good time and the puppies were very happy that they got to go do something fun. As usual, they slept most of the way home. We were very proud of how well they did walking around the store with so much distraction. It was super noisy, and there were people and dogs everywhere, but they stayed calm and just walked. They also had their picture taken a few times and got to meet several new people.

Miss S: "Mom, I distinctly remember hearing something about treats. Where are said treats?"

Miss S looking up at Dad trying to find out what's taking so long with the treats.

We decided it was best not to tell the cats where we went. We know they like dog food, and they are already jealous that the dogs get more treats than they do. But can you blame us? The puppies do things to earn treats. The cats just make noise and knock things off of the table. Plus, they already have a reputation for being bad travelers (picture a long car ride with two cats in a carrier full of poop and throw-up- not pleasant). Needless to say, we weren't even thinking about taking them anywhere.