Adventures with Zippy

I spent most the day with Zippy, but it started out with me taking both Zippy and Axel to Green Dogs at noon. We met a man who was interested in fostering Axel. Apparently he has a dog at home with a similar energy level. Smart money is on the situation becoming permanent, assuming that the two dogs get along.

From there, I was planning to head to Charlottesville with Zippy, walk the river trail and then take in the downtown mall. Instead we ended up at Patch and I had a beer and Zippy met some new people. I didn't want to drive all the way back to town, so we went to Preddy Creek Trail Park instead. I had never been there but it's a beautiful place with a nice set of trails, all pretty easy walking. Zippy and I did a little over four miles and there's plenty more to come back to another day. She met some people at the park and was very friendly to everyone. In addition to meeting people, she experienced mountain bikes on the trails and even horses.

We got back to Patch in time to meet friends for a beer before closing. Zippy met more people and loved them all. 

Zippy is still reactive when she sees something new, people she's not expecting, dogs, bikes, or whatever, and her German Shepherd DNA tells her to bark at it. With the gentle leader on her I could easily control that, however, as it can be very off-putting and is likely to become more problematic as she gets older. She needs to learn to look to her person (me) and trust me to handle all the scary new stuff. 

Maybe it's because she's still a pup and we've just started doing things together, but Zippy doesn't seem to have got the memo about German Shepherds being one-person dogs. She likes me fine, but she's not single-mindedly devoted to me and only me the way I often expect shepherds to be. Actually that's probably a good thing. Although I like that trait in a dog because I'm emotionally needy myself, it doesn't always work in their favor. Being open to all people as Zippy was today is probably a better personality trait than only having room for one person in her life. She is a sweet, affectionate dog who seems to trust and love everyone. That may be unusual for a shepherd, particularly a female, but it makes Zippy better than most of her shepherd peers. 

This suspension bridge across the creek was an interesting feature. 

It did bounce and sway a bit although it's very solidly constructed.

We used the bridge to cross, but I did walk down to the creek so Zippy could have a drink.

Back at the brewery, she was very friendly to strangers.

I didn't have to worry that she would take someone's face off if they looked at her.

If given a longer lead, she would have approached more people on her own.