Introducing France to our world

As a writer, I spend a lot of my time in libraries. France is too young to go to Cal, so I've introduced him to the public library in Albany.

His favorite thing was the carpeting. (It is at home, too.)
Jim and I took advantage of an early opening time at Office Depot to do a quick in-and-out with France.

Take a step - grab a sniff - another step - a couple of sniffs and maybe a lick (Yuck) - step - sniff . . . . and so it goes.
We were nearly the only people in the store so Jim and France found me in one of the aisles.

See the tongue? Think he's bored?
We are impressed with what a mellow puppy France is -- quite different from our early experience with Silky. When I play tug with France, he pulls gently and is careful to miss my fingers. Can this be? We'll see how things develop as he gets a little older and quite a bit bigger.

Jim and France at CVS - another quick in-and-out trip. See the rug? See the puppy on the rug? He's consistent.

So why would any puppy expose his tender puppy belly to the cold tile when a nice piece of carpet is at hand?

Little puppy, back in the sunshine. France did very well on both our in-and-out trips to stores. After leaving CVS, Jim and France walked past a Subway shop, a salon, a couple of other stores and a little coffee house with several people coming and going.
We are discovering that France prefers slow introductions to new places and things. And he wants a little down time between outings.

Puppy's work (read "play") is never done

 For his first week with us, we kept France close to home. He explored the house and got to know a couple of our neighbors. He learned the road to the relieve area and met the puppy toys. So far, France's favorite toy is the little red kong.

 He carries it around, bounces it then pounces on it, and takes it into his crate for some serious chew time. 

 We're getting in lots of puppy snuggle time, too. France likes to settle in on laps . . . 

 . . .  and it's OK with us, too. (Look at that yawn!)

 Puppy mellows out after a few minutes of playing. The warm lap helps him relax.

 

This guy's got relaxation down -- pretty typical for puppies.  Play, sleep, play, sleep, play, eat, drink, relieve, play, sleep.

The next week, we started walking around our building - inside and out. We explored the rest of the first floor and walked around the outside to the front. France met Mr. Elevator and the stairs -- just looking for now. As another week passed, he took his first ride on the elevator, went up stairs and came down the bottom one, rode in the car and started visiting some quiet store fronts. He also grew an inch and a half and gained 4 pounds. Big boy - ready for a big puppy toy. France, meet Mr. laundry bottle.

We've introduced sit, come, wait, OK, that's enough and let's go. He rides beautifully in the car, is quiet in his crate and has just started to spend time on tie-downs. France is a mellow guy and learns things pretty quickly. What a guy!

France meets Missy

France's first official play date was with Missy, another puppy in our group. Missy is 6 weeks older than France and was 17 weeks old in these pictures.

 Very sweet introduction for the two puppies.

 France thought the Dogloo was pretty cool.

 Missy tried to get France to chase her, but he wasn't really interested. He preferred chewing on her cheeks.

 Pretty girl.

Very handsome boy. He's 2 1/2 weeks older now than he was in this picture and I can't believe how much he's changed already. More pictures to come!