Gwen Goes To Urban Tails

Our younger dog Gwen is just around two years old. As any Labrador that age she has a lot of energy. We had thought that it might be good idea to help her burn off some of that energy by occasionally playing with a group of dogs at a nearby doggy day care. Shadow and Dickson had both been regulars at another doggy day care facility up until they closed up shop.

The first visit to a new facility involves a “temperment test” where the staff try to ascertain how a new pup will behave in a group. This brief video is one that I shot with my cell phone as Gwen was playing with a test group of five other dogs. Gwen is the Black Labrador in the clip.

Like most Labradors, Gwen proved to be very social, and a good fit into their clientele. Time will tell just how often she gets to go. We were a little surprised to see how much Shadow, our older male Labrador, missed her when she was gone for the afternoon.

One of the nicer things about Urban Tails is that the have webcams in their play spaces. You can watch your pets as they go about their day, even as you have to work. They also have iPhone and Android apps that offer an event better way of looking in on the pack as they play.

CBC Radio’s Ideas Podcast: Dogs Themselves, in Three Parts

It’s been almost nine months since we brought Gwen into our household. Our early estimates of her age turned out to be higher than reality. We had initially been told that she was 12-16 months old when in fact she was less than a year. It may not seem like a big difference, but it explained some of her puppy-like behavior.

peace-love-dogs-logoIn July we sought out a trainer to work with Gwen and ourselves. Stella eventually settled upon Stephanie Bennett at Peace Love Dogs, a new facility that was in process of opening in the Spring Branch area of West Houston. Stephanie came to the house for an initial session, then had two further two-hour sessions working with us and Gwen.

In the month or more that it took to find and coordinate the training we had actually worked through many of the issues that we had with Gwen. As she was maturing she was better able to focus and stay on task.

When we went through the formal training we found, much as we expected, that Gwen’s a smart and able little Labrador. Her only issue is that she’s young and full of energy. Stephanie had her handling all the basic obedience work in just one session.

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When Shadow Met Gwen

After a month or more of having filled out an application with the Southeast Texas Labrador Rescue we finally met a candidate puppy yesterday. Julie (her foster parent) stopped by with Gwen so that she could meet Shadow & the cats.

Gwen is a sweet and playful little pup. She’s only 18 months old. Even Gracie (younger cat) seemed to like her. Noel (older cat) simple made herself scarce for a while….as is her way.

If we are decided that she is “The One” then we’ll probably have her moved in next weekend.