Little Indy Brown: Day One -- Introductions

Indy's first day here! What a nice guy...

Before introducing him to the other dogs we spent some time getting use to the new environment by himself. It can be a lot to take in all at once with a new environment, new person, and new dogs. Even though he is pretty comfortable in new places (nice job socializing him!), I still want him to get off to a good start. This also gives me an opportunity to make sure he's nice and checked in with me before we add in a lot of distractions. It is much easier to get a dogs attention before you've lost it rather than trying to regain after you've lost it.

It's a great time to start working on recalls. There are some distractions but it's not so overwhelming that we won't have success.

Cheering him on the entire way as he is coming to me will encourage him to come more quickly and come with a smile on his face and a wag in his tail.

I reward with one small piece of a tasty treat right after the other so it really pays off for him to come to me.

Now that he's all warmed up we can start introducing him to friends.

We also do this one at a time. He's a friendly sort and likes other dogs but it can be a bit much if a bunch of them are all rushing up to see the new dog all at once.

It does not take long before he is comfortably greeting the whole pack.

And now I can start working on attention and making sure he's still responsive even with all these distractions.

No worries there. Indy is nice and checked in with humans. He has such a nice balance of enjoying other dogs but leaning towards a preference of being with people. That is an extremely nice quality to have in a dog. Can you tell I'm smitten?

I'll reward him for those random check ins with me when there is a lot going on around him. You want a dog who always keeps an eye out for you. It becomes his responsibility to keep tabs on you.