Vinny took Hank to the dog run for the first time on Sunday while I was working. Apparently, Hank was so afraid in there that he was literally climbing the walls to get out. Needless to say they did not stay very long.

Seeing as how he’d been a street dog, had a companion during that time and was housed with 3 other dogs with the rescue group I assumed that he’d have no problem socializing in the dog run. I was wrong.

I took him back to the same dog run on Tuesday late in the morning. There were only 3 dogs in there then and we sat just outside the run for a while. I let Hank watch what was going on and fed him salami and mozzarella cheese. After a while 2 of the dogs left and we went in. The remaining dog was calm, gentle and old. She let Hank sniff when he wanted to sniff and retreat when he was afraid. This is a great example of making sure the dogs in the run are appropriate for your dog. If there had been 100 rowdy dogs in there we would not have gone in.

When our “model dog” also left, Hank was able to wander the whole park and investigate. We even got a little outdoor training in!

I took him back to the dog run yesterday evening. This time he was ready to go inside much quicker. There were about 5 or 6 dogs there this time, and they were all playing nicely. At first, he was very afraid… his tail was between his legs and he tried to hide behind everything. Most of the dogs were bored by him, but one 7 month old Chocolate Lab, William, was very interested and sweet to Hank. William warmed up Hank to the rest of the dog run population and soon he was running with the pack.

Is that a happy puppy, or what? He had such a great time in the park that when Vinny picked us up in the car to go have dinner with his folks, this is what Hank did: