Life is fun, intro to Ryan

I want to talk tonight a little about Ryan, Remus' uncle and my adult Vizsla.  He is high energy and  obedient with strong hunting instincts.  After work I realized he needed to go for a run tonight since he hasn't had any real exercise since last week.  Long story short, we went for a run at a local spot owned by the Dept. of Wildlife- an old cranberry bog with lots of water and wildlife.  Ry ran the entire time we were there, I walked of course- I need to make a serious effort to start running again, another story.  As we walked along, a dog started barking and running towards Ry, I told him to "leave it," continued walking and called him to catch up- he responded within seconds and was off to find something else.  He used to have a thing for fishing poles which was a little scary (I didn't want him to ruin someone's pole) since I guess they look like really long sticks- happy to say that no longer seems to be the case.  The best thing was when he left a rabbit that was laying in the middle of the path (it had been half eaten by a coyote or something).  On the way out Ry found some ducks and had a good time chasing them in the marsh.  

Remus is doing well.  We slept late this morning so he had a harder time being quiet during work, I was extremely busy and didn't get to play with him as much during lunch as I would have liked to.  I am continuing to practice "down" with Remus, I really need to make an effort to add in distractions.  I am continuing to socialize him and am happy with the number of different people he has been able to meet.

Remus at 3 weeks

Now, a note about socialization.  I had said to a coworker today that I am making an effort to introduce Remus to a lot of different men (there seems to be a multitude of women in my life but, not enough men, alas).  She asked if it was because he was nervous or afraid of them.  I explained to her that there are not enough men in my life for him to have good associations with and because socialization is the introduction of new people, places, things, and other dogs/ animals.  The prime socialization period for dogs is up to 16 weeks, we can certainly continue introducing new things well beyond that but it truly makes a difference if we can set a foundation of positive experiences prior to that.  (I am also a positive dog trainer, meaning that I use rewards- anything the dog finds rewarding, functional rewards (those that provide a meaningful response to the dog- being able to walk away from something that causes fear or anxiety), behavior modification and operant conditioning.)  I also think that it's fun to teach a dog by getting them to think and "figure it out," rather than punishing (or correcting) them for making a mistake.