Adventures with the relatives

Over the weekend we met up with some of Stella's relatives.  There was a litter on the island that was born 19 days before Stella from a dog that is a full littermate sister to Stella's mom.  That would make those puppies cousins to Stella. 

On saturday we met one of the pups with her yellow lab brother to swim at a dog therapy pool.  I did not take Riley because he is still on restricted activity and he would have been crazy at the pool jumping and racing the other dogs for the toys.  Stella did very well and seems quite comfortable in the water.  I was in the water with her most of the time as was the owner of the pool and she wore a life jacket to make sure the experience was a positive one for her.  She would chase the ball and then swim back to me and I would pick her up and float her and then throw the ball again .... repeat as needed :o).

                            She had grabbed the lab's toy in this pic and was making a break for it!

                                I was surprised at how much growth difference 19 days made.

On sunday we met up with 11 other vizslas and another labrador for a walk in the rain.  There were four of the pups from the above mentioned litter plus their mom and their sister from a different litter.  Many of the vizslas were related in some way.  The two labs (including Riley) did very well with all those crazy vizslas running around.   Stella hit it off with one of the other pups and had a great time running around with them all.  It was a wonderful socializing opportunity for her.  It is important to not overwhelm young puppies but she seemed to be quite comfortable and checked in frequently with me and also with Riley.

                                            Stella (far left) with the other four puppies.

                                                                   Lots of dogs!