Because It's Good for Him

I find myself saying this a lot.  "We should go ______ because it's good socialization  for Dante."  My sister says it drives her crazy, but I think she secretly likes traipsing around with a puppy.  ;-)  (Now she's probably reading this and rolling her eyes, haha!)

I have been wanting to take Dante to the park for a few weeks, specifically the playground, and today we finally got to it.  Dante had puppy class this morning, and was exhausted from that, so after a two-hour nap this afternoon, we all headed to the park. 

First, we walked around some.  There was a nice bridge:

Dante walking loose-leashed, AND checking in! :-)

And also a sidewalk that ran right through the pond:

 Dante loved checking out the pond.  There were little tadpoles and a lot of algae.  He was so cute trying to paw at it, but he also kept trying to lick the water. 

Dante also has come a long way with his walking on the grass, and walked for a good 6-7 minutes on it without once going crazy!

 Then it was on to the playground.  Being Saturday, it was swarming with kids.  Dante did so well greeting them and held a "sit" or "down" the whole time he was being pet and only licked a few fingers! ;-)

Dante got to check out different surfaces and levels.  He wasn't the least but afraid of being off the ground.

 We had fun going down the slide.  I have a video, but it is sideways and I'm not sure how to flip it.  Dante was nervous at first, but with some kibble lures, he went right down. 

I loved that we could go side-by-side down this one

At the top of the twisted slide.  Dante went down on my lap

We had to check out the tunnel:

Yes, I'm a bad puppy raiser, not paying attention to what he's licking...

 
Dante was so tired by the time we left!  And has been sleeping for the last hour, but we had so much fun!  One of my favorite things about raising is watching them explore their world.  You see so much through the eyes of a puppy.  So much that I would miss in my busy life.  It's so neat to watch Dante learn about what's out there and overcome his fears and hesitations!