COVID Safe Puppy Play Group
A few saturdays ago we took the plunge and ran a contactless puppy class.
We decided its creation was close to essential, our goal was to give puppies gentle exposure to environmental factors, including other puppies.
Puppy parents dropped their charges off and left them with us for an hour. There were two trainers for 6 puppies. The area was set up with obstacles, novel objects and rest areas for puppies to gain personal space. During the class they were handled by strangers (us trainers), exposed to recorded environmental sounds, encouraged to investigate enrichment toys and their reactions observed and recorded.
During our hour together we were able to make clear observations and recommendations for each puppy:
- One wary of human hands reaching out and of getting too close to other puppies.
- One who struggled with separation from his human.
- One who showed a little bit of resource guarding.
- One who was a humper. You won’t win friends that way.
- One who was “full on” and sometimes needed redirections.
Feedback to the humans was invaluable and all booked for another session next Saturday.
