Meeting a dog

Yesterday afternoon we decided to take Inko over to our friend's house so she could meet their sprocker spaniel (cocker spaniel crossed with springer spaniel), Sammy. He was very excited to have a visitor and Inko was a little bit wary so we decided to keep Sammy on a lead for a bit while Inko explored the garden and settled in. She wandered over near him quite a few times and was very soon wandering around with her tail up and seeming fairly happy but she wouldn't go right up to him. Whenever she got too close and he tried to get nearer to her she took a bit of a step back. Sammy is only quite young himself (about 9 months old) so gets very excited by visitors, and we didn't want to risk him getting rough with her when playing - he's a lovely friendly dog but as he's so much bigger than Inko we didn't want things to get too boistrous for her.


As we didn't want to risk her getting frightened during her first experience with another dog we decided not to push it today and kept Sammy on the lead the whole time. Inko's confidence was definitely improving as the visit went on so hopefully next time we go and visit she'll be much happier with things and we can let Sammy off the lead so that they can have a proper play.

Inko and Sammy in the garden - she got a bit closer to him than this, but only for a few seconds before wandering off again!

When we got back from visiting Sammy she fell asleep for ages! Think all the excitement must have tired her out! Unfortunately this meant that she was completely hyper last night!! We had a couple of friends over to visit her and to have some drinks and a take-away and Inko was running round like a hooligan! We just couldn't believe quite how much energy she had!! In a bid to try and calm her down I ended up holding her to my chest, so that her back was to me and her tummy was up, and kept rubbing her tummy and stroking her head until she stopped wriggling. She kicked up a bit of a fuss for a while but once she stopped wriggling and I put her down she had completely calmed down out of her hyper phase...so much so that she finally curled up at our feet and went to sleep! We could finally eat out dinner! While she was asleep I gave her a good brush and comb through (to neaten up her fur after days of running through plants!) - so much easier when she's sleepy and isn't thinking it's a great game!! Luckily her hyper energy didn't extend into the night and she went straight to bed when we popped her into her crate and she slept through till 6.30.

We are taking Inko over to see Adam's dad this afternoon and she will get to meet his border collie, Blue. Blue is about 10 years old and is a lovely well behaved dog who is likely to be very gentle with her so she'll get to properly interact with him. He is used to having very small children round playing (Adam's step nephews) so should be an ideal adult dog for Inko to meet. Will let you know how we get on.

We have also booked Inko in for a puppy party on 12th October where she will get to meet lots more dogs. Think she'll enjoy having lots of other little puppies to run around with.

We've had a chat with the puppy training class we've found and our vet and they've both agreed that Inko can start her puppy training the day before her second jab when the next puppy class starts. We are really keen to get her started as soon as possible as it will help with her socialisation, and she really seems to enjoy the clicker training we've been doing at home so should really like going to the class. We go on Wednesday evening next week! Hopefully she will do all the things she's been learning during her training here at home!