A weekend filled with celebrating and playtime!
Last weekend two of our FAVORITE pups came over to play and it just so happened to be on one of their birthdays! (Even if that was the originally reason for our hang out session), it turned out to be a GREAT Sunday!
Some of you may remember Pam, our AMAZING vet tech and one of our best friends! Well when we started having some behavior/reactivity/possibly anxiety issues, she was the first person we asked for help and advice. She suggested we get together over the weekend, which of course also meant a play date for the pups (and the humans, because we LOVE hanging out with Pam and Tony)!
We were able to build a game plan and her outside perspective made us learn that Dan and I need to be on the same training page…and that Brodie is officially a teenager with allllllll the teenage angst.
AND it just so happened that the day we planned to hang out was Diego’s 2nd birthday! So our playdate became just that much more special. He sported the CUTEST bandana showing the whole world how excited he was to be two years old!
He was so happy to be playing with Brodie and of course his brother Rey. He even got the zoomies more than once! (Which is insanely adorable for a big dog like Diego!)
Our favorite part of playdates with Diego and Rey are how much Brodie learns about being around other dogs, proper play etiquette, AND learning to stand up for himself if a dog is too much. For anyone who’s met Brodie, he may have buckets of energy, but is super submissive around other dogs. This is the 3rd or 4th play date with the boys and Brodie finally got the hang of it!
Because Brodie finally learned to stand up for himself, the wrestling matches were epic and adorable! Rey spent most of the day with a ball (more on that in a little), so most of the wrestling was Brodie and Diego!
While us humans made our game plan, the pups had an awesome time tiring each other out! One less thing for us!
Now, back to Rey! He found one of Brodie’s ChuckIt balls…and nothing else mattered the whole rest of the day. He legit spent 90% of the play date chewing on and running around with that ball.
Funny enough, it wasn’t like it was a new thing! He has one of his own at home! He just LOVED that ball!
We were able to do some training with it, which is always fun! Brodie learned to not take things from dogs who are possessive and Rey got to practice not being possessive! A win-win for both pups!
They boys all got to have so much fun with each other! They were constantly chasing each other around the yard with mini training breaks in between!
At one point, Brodie just stood there watching Rey wait for his ball…and up comes Diego behind him! Soon enough, they were all (anxiously) waiting for the ball, but that wasn’t going to happen until they were all sitting like the good boys they are!
Training mid-play can be so important for these guys!
Play dates, especially with the right dogs, can be so great for socialization! We LOVE playing with Diego and Rey and always look forward to our play dates!
What a fabulous blog site. I came here to leave my thanks for your recent decision to follow Learning from Dogs. Thank you!
Thank you! I like your site! Can’t wait to keep reading!