This was how I made lots of friends back in Brisbane…it didn’t work so well in Newcastle (‘coz I think Newcastle is so small that not many people were reading my blog) – although I did meet Miyuki the Maremma through my blog and she introduced me to the best walk there: the Stockton sand dunes…but I knew even before we moved to Sydney that I had several readers here and I was really excited about meeting them in person and making new friends!

Well, we’d barely been here a couple of weeks when I got a message from a handsome black boy Dane named Boo!

Boo & his human actually happen to live quite near us…isn’t that a great coincidence? And they were so nice and offered to be our personal guides in the neighbourhood and show us all the best doggie spots – from the best parks for doggies to run free to the best dogfriendly cafes and pet stores!

So last week, Boo invited me to a playdate for us to get to know each other better – and also to show me one of the best dog parks in the area…

It’s a big piece of land next to Callan Park, which used to be part of an old mental hospital and some other government buildings…but now they are all empty and the grounds are all free for doggies to roam around as they like!

It is HUGE. It takes at least 1hr to walk around it properly and it is wonderful because it is not just a boring, flat field – there are woods & trees and little streams and hills and bushes and cliffs and rocks and old buildings to explore…

Hsin-Yi told me there was an easier way up the bank & around the bridge...but I decided I wanted to go THIS way!

…and guess what? This park has free Kitty TV as well! What more could a doggie ask for??

Yup – there is a part of the park where a ‘feral cat colony’ lives in one of the old, empty buildings…and you can see all the kitties sunning themselves on the roof!

I got so excited when I saw the kitties – I could just stand and STARE at them for hours!

…and if you walk through the grounds, right down to the waterfront, you get to Iron Cove, which is part of Sydney Harbour…

There’s a path right alongside the waterfront which is called the Bay Run and lots of humans like to go jogging or cycling along it (or walking their doggies) – the Bay Run is really long and only part of it runs through Callan Park – it follows the waterfront all along Sydney Harbour and has lovely views.

Although the area around Callan Park is dog off-leash, my humans made me come and walk nicely next to them when we were actually walking on the path.

Me doing my leash-free Heeling on the Bay Run path...

See – my humans believe that it’s really important for dog owners to make sure that their doggies don’t “disturb” or bother people – like chasing joggers or blocking cyclists or even just going up to people who are scared of dogs – because otherwise, this will give doggies a bad name and make people very “anti-dog”…and then this means they start to ban us from all the nice places. Lots of people already complain about doggies…you don’t want to give them any more excuses!

My humans believe that if all dog owners could be more responsible about their doggies’ behaviours so that they are always good ambassadors and always pick up their doggies’ poo and show people how well-behaved & under control doggies can be, then people will feel more friendly towards doggies (and also help those scared of doggies to overcome their fears) and this will mean that there will be more places that will welcome doggies.

Hsin-Yi often doesn’t bother to put me back on leash for these “sections” - I can do a very good leash-free Heel so she just calls me to her side and makes me Heel with her – this means I must walk on her left side, with my shoulder in line with her knee, and match her pace, and ignore all distractions around me. My humans only make me do this when we have to pass through crowded places or past big distractions but because we have practised this lots, I’m really good at it. Once we have passed through, I get told to Sit – and then my release word (“OK!”) – and then lots of praise & treats!

* It’s very important to “mark” the end of Heeling with a release word – rather than just letting us drift away, even though we have already passed through to a ‘safe’ area. Otherwise, it’s not clear to us doggies when we should be Heeling and when we can be free…and this means we end up with a very “sloppy” Heel where we’re not doing it properly because we keep thinking we can drift out of it anytime.

It’s the same for other commands – a lot of doggies have a poor Stay because their humans don’t use a release word to show them when the’Stay’ ends – and so they just think they can get up whenever they feel like it (when they’ve had enough!) – that’s why they keep breaking their Stays - whereas I have learnt that I must Stay in position (or keep Heeling or whatever) UNTIL I hear my release word. If I get up before my release word, my humans just put me back into Down Stay or Sit Stay again (and again…and again…as many times as they have to, until I get the message). But if I stay until AFTER I hear my release word, I get lots of praise & treats! (if you’re using a clicker, make sure your humans only click AFTER they say the release word – because otherwise as soon as we hear the click, it signals the end of the exercise)

The key to successful training is helping us doggies not get confused – and so by having a very clear Start & Stop to each command, it keeps things consistent and helps us understand what we must do and when.

And I’m off!

Boo is a really bouncy, energetic doggie – he was running circles around me the whole time! Well, he’s only 3 & 1/2yrs old so he’s still a young ‘un. Even at the end of our long walk, he was still full of beans!

Still, I think I kept up with him pretty well – considering that I’m nearly 5yrs older than him!

Dane slalom!

I think Boo was a bit hurt in the beginning because I was acting a bit snooty and even though he kept trying to invite me to play – licking my jowls, jumping all around me and even on me! – I just wasn’t responding much. Well, you see, when I was younger, I used to play with anything that moved…anytime, anywhere! But now that I’m an older, mature lady, I’m a bit more – ahem – ‘selective’ about who I will play with and when I will play. I have to be in the right mood to play…and I usually take a while to warm up to a new doggie, before I decide that I will play with him/her. So it usually takes me till the 2nd or 3rd playdate before I’ll really play properly…

…still, I did show Boo a few of my signature moves!

"The Big Honey Dog Left Hook - match that, young whippersnapper!"

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And before we said goodbye, I gave him a big slobbery kiss to remember me by! Hee! Hee!

I’m so happy to have made a new friend – and Boo’s told me that he’s got LOTS of other great places to show me (well, since that day, we’ve been on 2 other playdates! I’ll tell you about them soon…) – I can’t wait!!

Hsin-Yi is really happy too because Boo’s human, Sarah, has the same beliefs & attitudes towards doggies - she has done lots of training with Boo and really cares about his manners and is also very careful about supervising interactions with other strange doggies and stuff like that – plus she takes Boo out socialising to lots of different places. Sometimes we meet nice doggies but their owners aren’t very sensible or responsible and then Hsin-Yi finds it a bit frustrating spending time with them because they are always doing things in a very different way to us…so she says it’s really nice to find a friend who is a “like-minded dog owner”!

I think we’re going to have great adventures together!

* You can contact Boo through the FB Sydney Great Dane Owners page as his human, Sarah, is the Administrator!

Sigh. Here we go again…

My human, Hsin-Yi, is awfully stressy now because she has started packing up everything for our big move to Sydney and the whole house is a crazy mess, with boxes and boxes everywhere!

Oh dear – I’m worried that I might get buried under a mountain of boxes when I fall asleep…or even get packed up into a box myself!!

Well, this is like the 137th time I’ve moved home now, so I’m not really that excited by what’s going on…but this is Muesli’s first move ever and she thinks all the boxes and stuff are just all a huge personal playground – hee! hee! She keeps scampering about, trying to “help” Hsin-Yi pack…

…I’m not sure she’s a very good helper, though, ‘coz Hsin-Yi is doing a lot of yelling like -

“MUESLI! I just folded that! Aaarrrggh! Get OUT of there!”

Hsin-Yi has decided to do all the packing herself this time – because it will save money paper – and also because she let the Movers pack twice before and both times, they didn’t do a very good job – they just throw things into boxes as fast as they can and don’t care much about how/what they are packing or label things properly.

Hsin-Yi takes a bit longer but she sorts everything and puts similar things in the same boxes and labels everything really carefully so that it’s easy to find stuff later (and saves her having to open 12 boxes looking for one thing!).

Plus, this time, because we’re moving to such a small place, she is planning carefully and packing some boxes with things that probably won’t be needed next year – and other boxes with the stuff we need every day. This way, she says, hopefully we won’t have to open all the boxes – we can just leave some packed, ready for when we move again!

Speaking of which, lots of you have been asking what’s happening after next year…well, we’ll be moving again at the end of next year but hopefully that will be the last time!

We’ll only be in Sydney for 1 year and then after that, we’re not sure yet. You see, Paul is a Human Vet – a special kind of Human Vet called a “surgeon” and over here (and in NZ & the UK too) when surgeons finish all their training, they have to find a Forever Job…so at the end of next year, Paul will be looking for a Hospital to adopt him and give him a Forever Job.

It’s not like in America where surgeons/doctors can just go anywhere and start up a clinic themselves (Hsin-Yi says this is ‘coz in America, there is only private health and so all doctors just work for themselves but in places like the UK, Australia & NZ, there is a “public/national health service” too and so most doctors split their time, working half for the government in the public hospitals, and then maybe also have a clinic themselves. But you have to be adopted by a hospital first before you can open your own clicnic).

So surgeons here can only go to work & live in places where the Hospitals have an empty position and can adopt them. But once they are adopted, they can stay there forever – until they retire. So I guess we’ll just have to see who is retiring at the end of next year and where there are hospitals with places that will want to adopt Paul!

I haven’t been able to come round and visit any of my blog friends recently ‘coz Hsin-Yi is just too busy to help me – sorry! And I probably won’t be able to visit for a while (or answer any emails quickly) ‘coz we’re moving next week and things are going to be crazy for a while, until we’re settled in Sydney. Hope you’re all OK and I’ll try to catch up with all your news as soon as I can!

Oh – and before I go, I must tell you about this exciting thing – I got a ZhuZhu Pet! Well, see, a while a go, my blog friend, Barbie the Greyhound who lives in Perth, Western Australia, showed this funny movie of herself meeting a Zhu Zhu Pet for the first time. Ooh! I wanted one too! And then – guess what? My blog friend, Bronnie @ Maid in Australia, just happened to be doing a giveaway for a Zhu Zhu Pet…and I put my name down…and I won!!

So last week, the Postman came with a parcel for me…check out what happened!

(I really surprised Hsin-Yi when I smacked it out of her hand – ha! ha!)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAkdbG2-QA

If the movie doesn’t play, try here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VAkdbG2-QA

Thank you so much, Bronnie – as you can see, I love it!!

 ps. my ear ouchie is all better now! My humans have been putting that ‘antifungal’ medicine in my ears every day and the yeast infection sickie is all gone now. My left ear is all nice and white and cool now, instead of sore & red. I’m going back to the vet tomorrow for a last check-up but it’s definitely all better!

* Note from Hsin-Yi: A bit of blog housekeeping – So many of our readers have been asking questions in their Comments lately and we always try to reply but we’re not sure people always see them! So I’ve been trying to find a good way to let people know that there’s a reply to their comment.

First I tried using a “subscription” system where people had to check a box if they wanted to be notified of replies – but sometimes, people would ask a question and then forget to check that box! Also, it gave options between ‘just replies’ or ‘subscribe to all comments’…it all got a bit too complicated and we weren’t sure people knew how to use it…

…so now I have found a new system where all comments are automatically subscribed to replies. This means you will be notified by email any time somebody replies to YOUR comment (don’t worry – only to your comment, so you won’t be innundated with emails every time somebody comments on the post – unless they are replying specifically to yours). Hopefully this new system will work better and it means that you won’t ever miss a reply to your comment! Please do let me know if it works and if you think it’s a good idea!

It’s a bit hard because it is awfully far away and a loooong drive in the car machine but we’ve managed to meet up with Miyuki & her family for a couple of playdates…

…and also went out there ourselves back in June, which was the middle of winter and quite a chilly, windy visit!

My human, Hsin-Yi, took some videos each time but she has been too busy to make a movie for me…but I finally convinced her to do it this week!

So here is a movie of my ‘desert adventures’ – check out some of those huge sand dunes! It was hard work running up them, I can tell you! Although Miyuki didn’t seem to have much problems (well, she lives nearby so she goes walking there every day – so she’s had lots of practice running on soft sand!) I tried so hard but she was so fast, I could never catch her – she was running circles around me…literally! Oh, and I found a treasure in the desert too – well, my humans say it was just an old shoe – but I’m convinced it was a wonderful treasure! Plus when we went back in June, there were all these weird fruits lying around…where did they come from?? Anyway, they made great ‘ball substitutes’ – hee! hee!

And as you can see, I had a slight – ahem – ear style malfunction…although, I don’t know why my humans were laughing at me so much – it wasn’t that funny, you know!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC2wRjZ0syc

If you’re having trouble with the video, you can try it here:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QC2wRjZ0syc  

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(* Sorry – I know this is a really looooong post – but I didn’t want to split things into Part 1 & Part 2 again! And don’t worry – Hsin-Yi helped me write this over many days so she only did a little bit every day!

Last weekend, a very exciting thing happened: I had visitors come from overseas…just to see ME!!

Well, almost 2 years ago, I got a nice message on my blog from a boy called Zach, who lives in Auckland (where I used to live!) – and we became good friends. Zach has been following my adventures on my blog for a long time now – and he even got his own doggie last year: a really cute black Retrodoodle called Cairo!

Anyway, it turns out that Zach’s daddy is a Human Vet too – and he actually worked with Paul back in Auckland! Isn’t it a small world? Except the sad thing was by the time Zach found my blog, it was just the day before we were leaving NZ to move to Australia – so I never got to see Zach…

But Zach really, really wanted to meet me…and so this year, his daddy said that he would bring Zach over to Australia especially just to meet me! Doesn’t Zach have a wonderful daddy? Of course, it was a great chance for them to check out Sydney too and go visit some fun places, like Taronga Zoo and the Sydney Aquarium…and then they got on a bus machine and rode for 3hrs to come to Newcastle for the weekend, so Zach & me could spend some time together!

Here I am waiting at the station for Zach to arrive…

See I’m wearing one of my favourite bandanas especially in honour of the visit? Hsin-Yi has been really lazy this year and never bothers to put my bandanas on me when we go out, which I am most grumpy about. I have the most wonderful bandana collection, you know – cultivated carefully over the years. How is a girl doggie supposed to stay stylish when her human won’t help her dress up nicely? Hsin-Yi is always muttering something about all my bandanas being left in boxes “in storage” – blah-blah-blah – but I made her go and get some out for me to wear for this visit!

It was so cool to finally meet Zach in person at last!

It was such a nice day, I decided to take him for a short walk along the waterfront first…

…and then I took them home for some afternoon tea! Well, except that my humans said I couldn’t have any of the yummies on the coffee table…HUMPH! SO UNFAIR!!! There was even baklava – which is one of the yummiest things in the world! It’s one of Hsin-Yi’s favourite desserts ‘coz she used to eat a lot of it growing up as a human pup in Dubai…

Can I have just one? Please?

I figured that Zach would be kinder (especially kinder than my horrible human, Hsin-Yi, who has a ‘heart-of-stone’! ) – so I put on my most Hopeful Face and looked at Zach…

…PLEASE?

Ooh! Zach said I could have the last mouthful of his cheesecake! But Hsin-Yi said I had to do something to earn it – so I showed Zach my best Wave!

Now that it was cooler, my humans said we could go do a proper big walk…so I took Zach and his daddy to The Foreshore Park (which is the only proper big park in central Newcastle, really) – for a nice walk around that and the ocean front!

Hsin-Yi said Zach could walk me and she was very proud of me because I was being very good and showing Zach my best manners…

…oh! Except once when we came to a street crossing and I forgot to “Wait”! Uh-oh. I got into Big Trouble for that.

“HONEY! What do you think you’re doing?!”

My humans say that I must always “Wait” when I come to the curb and I can’t cross over until I hear my release word “OK!” - because if I go by myself, I might get run over.

“Wait…”

Humph! Well, really! I could see that there were no car machines coming so I don’t know why I couldn’t just cross. Hsin-Yi says I don’t really understand human roads and sometimes car machines suddenly pop up out of nowhere…so I need to wait for her to tell me when it is safe…but I think it’s just because she likes to be Bossy-Boots on everybody and tell everyone what to do all the time!

“OK!”

Oh! Then guess what I saw across the road??!!

a LEOPARD KITTY!!!!!!!!!

Hsin-Yi had to take my leash then because when I see a kitty, my brain goes a bit funny and…ahem…well, let’s just say I sort of forget all my manners!

Everyone thinks that I wouldn’t be so excited because I have one of my own but…the ones outside are different, aren’t they? And when they’re Scaredy-Cats and run from you, they’re so much more exciting! (of course, when they are Grumpy-Cats that give me the Evil Eye and stalk up to me, I quickly duck my head, drop my eyes and move out of their way!!) Hsin-Yi was getting a bit grumpy because she was trying to hold my leash with one hand and take a picture with the other and I wouldn’t stand still…but hey – how could I stand still when the kitty is just teasing me there, under the car machine?!

Of course, I know that I must NEVER chase kitties but kitties do this Evil Hypnosis on me – they put a power over my brain so that I can’t do anything except stand there and STARE at them. I just can’t help it! They’re making me do it! Finally Hsin-Yi had to say “Leave It!” in her Scary Voice to break the power on my brain. Whew! Otherwise, I would still be stuck, standing there, staring! I’m sure my doggie friends all know what I mean!

By the time we did the loop back to the park again, I was pretty thirsty. It’s Spring now in Australia so the weather is starting to get hot again!

There! Now that I’ve had a nice drink, it’s time for some games!

Of course, the Foreshore Park isn’t officially a dog park and you’re not really allowed to run around off-leash there – but we see so many local Newcastle doggies being naughty and breaking the rules! We don’t normally because Hsin-Yi says I’m the biggest doggie there and it’s always our bad luck to be seen & get caught…but this time, because we had special visitors (and there isn’t anywhere nice, close to town, that’s off-leash to take them for a walk – not like back in Auckland which had loads of places!) – my humans said we could make an exception and be a bit naughty just this once. So we found a quiet corner of the park and I asked Zach to play Tug with me!

…and then Zach played football with me! It was great because Zach is a great kicker – not like Hsin-Yi who is the most pathetic kicker in the world (I don’t think her toe can make contact with the ball if her life depended on it ) – and  Paul isn’t really supposed to kick a ball anymore since his Big Operation for his Back Sickie – so I’ve had no one to play football with me

But now there’s Zach! YAY!

Hsin-Yi was looking at these pictures of me and she started saying rude things about my chest looking “saggy”. Well really! If I was human, I would be about 61 yrs old, you know – wait ’till she is 61 years old! See if her chest isn’t saggy too! Humph!

Anyway, I think I’m doing pretty good for a senior doggie. I’m going to be 8yrs old next month – which is the “average life expectancy” for a Dane, you know! – but Zach said if I hadn’t told him, he would never have guessed that I’m an old doggie – ‘coz I can still run & play like a pup!

Check out me & Hsin-Yi playing our favourite game:

She tells me to “Wait” – while she walks a bit ahead to get a head start…

…and then she yells “Honey – COME!” – and starts running as fast as she can!

…until I catch up with her!

Well! I heard Hsin-Yi tell Zach afterwards that I take longer to catch-up with her now because I’m probably “slowing down” as a senior doggie…Grrr! She is always saying rude things about me! I thought I was pretty fast still. I had just been running around chasing a football, you know – and this was running uphill! Let’s see if she can run uphill so fast when she is 61yrs old!

Well, the sun was starting to go down now so there was just time to finish our nice walk in the park…

Oh but wait! Where’s Hsin-Yi?

Whenever we’re out, I’m always checking to see where Hsin-Yi is – if she gets left behind, I will stop and wait for her – I refuse to start walking again until she catches up with us. Well, OK, she might say rude things about me but she is my Pack Leader and she makes me feel safe and happy and she is the person I always want to be with, more than anyone else in the world…

(…although it’s OK, if she’s  really not around, then I’m happy to be with Paul! )

After that, the humans had a big takeaway dinner together but I was not invited to the table – humph! So I’m not showing you any pictures. I heard they even had Thai yummies! So unfair! I love spicy yummies!

But at least the next morning, they took me along to breakfast! I decided to wear one of my pink bandanas today. It was one of the new ones we got from Canteen last year, to help teenage human pups with the cancer sickie. Hsin-Yi says blues look better on my fawn coat but I wanted to wear pink because then maybe people would stop calling me “big fellow”!!

There – what do you think? Almost as stylish as a Parisian doggie, huh?

Hsin-Yi had specially phoned around to find a nice cafe with outside tables and enough space for Great Danes (those pavement cafes on the street just don’t work coz you can’t tuck me under the table like most doggies – hee! Hee!) – and she found a great place near The Foreshore Park, called Paymasters. They were really nice on the phone and said doggies are very welcome – even really big ones – and look, when we arrived, they’d even put out a bowl of water for me! How nice!

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And they even kept a space for me at the table!

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Oh look..here’s the nice Waitress Human coming to take our order…

“I’d like the Deep Pan Buttermilk Pancake, topped with caramelized fresh banana…

Cinnamon scented French toasted  brioche with a summer berry compote & vanilla mascarpone…

Cranberry & hazelnut toasted muesli with coconut clusters, vanilla bean yoghurt  & milk…

Roasted field mushroom with wilted spinach, feta cheese and grilled  tomatoes…

…oh, and some bacon & eggs too, please. Oops! Excuse my slobber!”

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WHAT??!! What do you mean doggies can’t order? That’s Animal Discrimination!

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You mean this space at the table here is just to watch you all eat those yummies??

Still, I knew Paul has a marshmallow heart and he could never bear to see me suffering so much so I put on my Most Abused Doggie Face and looked at him mournfully…

Hah! Paul said he didn’t really like his apricot Danish after all and that Zach could give it to me – hee! hee!!

SCORE!

(Hee! Hee! I don’t think Zach had ever seen a doggie swallow a Danish whole before!)

I don’t think many people in the restaurant had seen many doggies like me either – there were people pointing at me the whole time and all the Staff humans kept coming out from the kitchen to take a look at me! And of course, everybody who walked past our table wanted to stop & stare & ask questions & come pat me!

This is one reason my humans don’t take me out with them to cafes often – ‘coz they just never get left in peace (sometimes there’s a queue of people next to our table!) and Hsin-Yi gets a bit stressy because she always has to supervise everything, especially if there are human pups around (‘coz you know, people are so much quicker to misunderstand and blame big doggies)  and then her food always gets cold. Even though I’m very well-socialised, there are so many strange people coming up to me & staring at me and touching me that she’s worried I might just get a bit tired & grumpy. Plus I don’t like it when people I don’t know suddenly LOOM over me when I’m lying down and reach down to pat me.

And of course, because I’m a BIG doggie – people are very judgemental about my behaviour – I can never put a paw wrong! Like once back in Auckland, I was dozing next to the cafe table when a woman walking past suddenly loomed over me and reached down to pat my head. Well, I got an awful fright! The sun was behind her so I couldn’t see anything except this big black shape swooping down on me and she was wearing a big coat which flapped out around her…so I jumped up and BARKED at her! Well, the woman got a fright too and snatched her hand back and walked off, giving my humans a dirty look and muttering about “aggressive, unfriendly dogs” – but Hsin-Yi was so mad because it wasn’t really my fault and the stupid woman should have known better than to just swoop down on a strange doggie without introducing herself first. She was actually lucky that I’m so well-socialised because another doggie might have bitten her!

So now, my humans will only take me to cafes where there is space to tuck me behind their table, so they can protect me from stupid people walking past – and if anyone tries to approach me, Hsin-Yi always asks them to wait and she gets me up and lets me approach them – rather than let them approach me. This way, I don’t get scared by rude strangers barging up to me when I’m dozing and I don’t get called nasty names that I don’t deserve. * When us doggies might be nervous or unsure, it is generally better to let us do the approaching, let us make the first move.

Of course, all this means that Hsin-Yi has to keep getting up all through the meal as people keep approaching. She knows she should be flattered that people think I’m beautiful and she tries to answer all their (same!) questions and it’s good for me to be a good ambassador for doggies and she tries to be gracious about it all and each person is very nice & polite & only takes a few minutes but then there’s another…and another…and another…and sometimes, she just gets a bit fed-up and would really like to be able to just eat her meal in peace! (She says this is one of the reasons she might not have a Dane again after me – she’d like to be able to take her doggie out and do more things with it, without attracting all that attention!)

Anyway, it wasn’t actually too bad that day coz we only had 2 sets of people come up…the rest just stared and pointed from afar!

After they all left, I went and got some cuddles from Zach & his daddy…

…Oh! Then as we were leaving, Hsin-Yi said she’d actually saved me half her pancake! ( maybe her heart isn’t completely made of stone after all…)

DELICIOUS!!

Whew! After that breakfast, we needed some exercise! There was just enough time for a short walk before Zach & his daddy had to catch the bus machine back to Sydney and the airport…so I thought I’d show them the other side of the waterfront, along Honeysuckle Drive…

You see, there is a long road following the waterfront in Newcastle: at the right end is the The Foreshore Park & Fort Scratchly, where we walked yesterday – and at the left end is Honeysuckle Drive & Precinct which has lots of new buildings and fancy restaurants and cafes and bars along the waterfront.

My humans often like to take me to walk along there…it’s just a shame that the view out across the water isn’t nicer: the harbour is full of ugly big machines and factories and other industrial things!

It was really busy because it was a Sunday morning and the waterfront was full of people! There were a lot of human pups zooming around on scooters & bicyles, like giant buzzing flies – and teenage human pups on skateboards too, not to mention people with babies in strollers and other doggies…

But I was very calm and good walking through everything, even with Zach holding my leash, ’coz my humans had done LOADS of socialisation with me in busy, crowded places when I was a baby puppy (and continuing through my life!) - so that I could learn to be confident & brave in these kinds of places, with all kinds of loud noises and strange machines around me, and learn to be calm around fast things shooting past me too.

You know, a lot of things that humans take for granted can be quite strange & scary for us doggies, if we’re not used to them.

Hsin-Yi believes that this kind of socialisation is more important for a young puppy than even training, because there is only a small window of time (‘imprinting period’) when our doggie brains can absorb all this in the right way. You can always catch up with the training later but it’s really hard to catch up with the socialisation if you’ve missed the right time. And if we end up feeling stressy & scary – or overexcited, then it stops us learning – so training gets harder too!

Of course, don’t despair if you have missed it for any reason – you can still learn to be brave & calm but it takes a lot more work – so if any of you puppies are reading this, make sure your humans take you out to LOTS of different kinds of places & situations!   And make sure your humans only reward you with pats & praise & attention when you’re acting calm & brave – don’t let them molly-coddle you! I just get ignored when I’m acting like a scaredy-cat! Oh – and don’t forget, socialisation doesn’t stop all through life! It’s important for us doggies to keep being regularly exposed to new things and to keep reinforcing our good, calm behaviour in noisy, crowded environments.

There was some kind of ‘outdoor art exhibition’ going on so there were lots of cool statues & sculptures on the waterfront!

Although I think all the human pups were more interested in ME than in the sculptures – hee! hee!

Oh! And I made some doggie friends too!  There were loads of doggies out with their families. Usually, my humans don’t let me socialise with strange doggies when we’re all on-leash and can’t greet each other in the ‘natural way’, with enough personal space…but sometimes they make exceptions if we meet a very calm, well-behaved doggie who is obviously confident & well-socialised…

…I met this really nice Scottie doggie and his Westie friend…

…ooh…but his hairy face sure tickled me!!

It was really hot so Zach helped me get a drink…

…and then sadly, it was time for Zach & his daddy to head to the station…

Of course, I went along to wish them a safe journey! I had never been inside the station before – it has both bus machines and train machines stopping there – and is a really busy place. But I wasn’t bothered because…you guessed it: socialisation!!

Yup, when I was 10 weeks old, my humans took me all around the local bus stations and train stations and petrol stations and supermarket carparks and any other noisy place they could think of! (well, they carried me coz I hadn’t finished all my vaccinations yet – and let me tell you, I weighed about 10kg already! ) It was hard work at the time but it’s all worth it now!

Zach gave me a very big hug goodbye before he got on the bus – I’m going to really miss him!

I had a wonderful weekend with my special friend and I hope I get the chance to see him again someday!