Pushed

Today we pushed ourselves to do things we would not normally do. First I did two walks again today, one with Thomas my Seeing eye puppy and one with a dear friend.


Then we took the two puppies to the City on the train. In days gone past we would not take pups to the City until they were more than six months old, now that we are raising pups for SEDA they have a whole different protocol.


We are given the pup at eight weeks and asked to expose him to every possible experience before the age of sixteen weeks. The reason behind this procedure is that the pup grows up without fear. He thinks it's normal to ride on a huge noisy train and on a bumpy bus and get close to huge animals like horses, goats, sheep, pigs, geese and roosters and hens.


Other pups we have had in the past have been sheltered and molly coddled and then when exposed to the above situations they freak out. It all makes perfect sense now.


Today the train was crowded. There were prams and babies and toddlers everywhere. The City was crowded to. The first thing we did was head to a park to toilet the dogs after the long train ride. Then we headed to the Coffee Club. We needed some refreshment to face the next step. We walked through the throngs of people in  Queen Street Mall and into the Meyer Centre. All three pups showed no reaction to the glass lift. Some dogs are frightened.


We then walked through all the people in the Food Court. By this time we needed an ice cream
 It was time to face the walk through the Mall again to the train station and the long ride home.


We were all exhausted when we arrived home but so much was achieved. It feels so good to push ourselves sometimes. I think we molly coddle ourselves all too often. There is however a time to push and a time to refrain from pushing.