Doggie playgroup

Took Pip to the dog beach this morning to meet up with fellow Kintala dog owners. Kintala is the name of Pip’s puppy school and one of the attractions when we enrolled was the weekly socialisation/walk on the beach.

Pip braves the water at the dog beach

So I obeyed all the rules, keeping him on the lead until we were on the beach as per Ruth’s instructions. There were about half a dozen or so owners and their dogs - a pack of four kelpies and a lab that ran full pelt chasing balls through the waves.

        And then the more staid older dogs, Pip and a cute terrier called Max who kept mostly out of the water. It really was like a playgroup for dogs.

Pip took a while to warm up, spending a lot of time sniffing an old lab’s bum to start. But as he gained confidence, he began wrestling with Max and shyly galloping up to the kelpie gang and then stopping, not knowing what to do. It reminded me so much of high school – the kelpies constituted the cool gang and Pip wasn’t quite sure how to gain membership of the clique.   

We’ll go again next week, hopefully with Frankie and Mrs Sinatra, and I’m sure he’ll find a way to infiltrate the cool gang...