The Little "Read" Dog

Sophie hard at work studying 

 "C" is for come and "D" is for down...

 

"Do you think Bubba will notice that I borrowed

his reading glasses?"

 

      Today my family took a trip to our local library and took me along for a training lesson. I was so excited to be tagging along!
      Before we headed out my owner called the library to make sure it was ok for me to visit. They said, they would love to have me visit, yeah! 
      We got to experience an elevator for the first time which was fun and not as scarey as I had heard! I followed my little people around and took a few naps while they read to me or search for books. 
      I can't wait to come back for another visit!

Fun in the Snow!

 Sophie's LOVES the Snow!

     This week we took Sophie with us on a family sledding outing. We had over 8 inches of snow locally so it was perfect sledding weather!
     Sophie loves running, jumping and rolling in the snow and often eating it :)
She is 5 months (22 weeks) old, measures 19 inches tall and weights 33 pounds. She is growing up!

Snow Kisses

Winter

First Visit to the Park

This week Sophie turned 18 weeks old. It is hard to believe that she is is already 4 1/2 months old and growing fast! 

She is doing great on her sit and come/sit off leash at home so we decided to try it at the park. Yesterday while we were flying kites we let her and our Beagle Oliver off leash. She came every time we called her and sat immediately. She had a lot of fun running and chasing the kids. 

This was her first visit to the park because we wanted to wait until after she was fully protected by her vaccines. This week we will be beginning our work on heeling and looking forward to it!

Trip to the gym

     Our son participates each week in an hour of sport activities at the local Recreational Center. We thought this would be a good training experience for Sophie. It is a large gym with high ceilings. I spoke with the gym personal and asked permission to bring her along and they said yes.

     Today they were playing basketball with over 25 kids in the gym. There were basketballs being bounced everywhere, little kids shouting, kids on wheeled scooters and bouncing on bouncy balls. It was a great noise and distraction training experience!

     When we arrived I asked Sophie to lay down by my feet while I sat on the bleachers watching the kids. She did amazing! She was very happy to just lay there and sleep despite even being hit by a ball :) When children approached her she did a little to excited and roll over and lick. So we are going to work on being less wiggly and licking. But most of her happiness to have people pet her is due to her age. This week she turned 4 months old (17 weeks).

Sophie's 1st Trip to Costco

 

      This weekend we took a family trip to Costco. I called ahead to make sure that it would be OK for Sophie to come along. We thought it would be a great opportunity to expose her to a lot of new sights and sounds. Sophie did great as usual! She met each new sound or person with curiosity and confidence.Several employees stopped to meet her and fell in love. They decided she needed to stay and be their "Employee Therapy Dog"! She experienced fork lifts, large loud Televisions, shopping carts, parking lot traffic, check-out lanes and lots of people with a smile and wagging tail! Each time we would stop to look at an item, I taught her to lay at my feet. She was so patient! 

      We worked on making eye contact when I called her name, and sit and downs commands. 

She is doing great about not jumping on people as they great her! But she still loves to lick and is quite a wiggle worm who often ends up on her back getting her tummy rubbed :)

16 weeks old

New Year's Goals

     
       In preparation for the New Year coming next week I have been working on a check list of things to do, people to meet, places to visit, sounds, things and surfaces to experience with Sophie. She will be 16 weeks on December 30th. I hope to expose Sophie to most of the items on this list by the end of January (20 weeks of age).