Doggie Easter Egg Hunt

 Happy late Easter! I hope everyone had an amazing weekend and had the chance to spend lots of time with their families! I spent time with my family, my grandparents, my boyfriend and my brother who was home from college. My brother is a freshman at the Ohio State University and I rarely see him. Easter weekend was busy but relaxing. I attended church with my family and we had an Easter lunch afterward. However, the best part of the weekend was taking my puppy to a couple Easter egg hunts for dogs. 

    The first one was at our dog park and there were an insane number of dogs. Golden Retrievers, Great Danes, Australian Shepherds, Saint Bernards and Labrador Retrievers were only a few of the dozens of breeds at the park. The dogs sniffed out the eggs and got their pictures taken with the Easter bunny. My puppy, Jupiter, did not understand the concept of sniffing for the eggs because she was much more occupied with the dogs. We hung out after the Easter egg hunt and played with about six other dogs. Jupiter is a playful, energetic dog and has the tendency to tackle other dogs and jump all over people. Luckily she had some time to play with a full-bred Aussie and their energy together was insane. Jupiter is primarily Aussie and Great Dane mix but she has other breeds as well. 

    Later that night we took her to another Easter egg hunt. Our friend group has six dogs and they are pretty young and played together for multiple hours. Jupiter understood the concept of finding the eggs much better this time. She sniffed out the eggs with treats and left the eggs with nothing in them. After finding all the eggs the dogs played some more. One of my friend's dogs is a rescue and is not great with other dogs. We kept the dogs on leashes and let them smell each other. Then that dog lunged at one of the other dogs and bit a chunk out of the poor pup's nose. It was an eventful day for Jupiter but the socialization and exercise were amazing. 

    Dogs need to be socialized as much as possible when they are young to avoid fearful and aggressive tendencies. The younger the dog, the easier it is to train them. However, dogs need socialization and exercise as they age too. 60-90 minutes of exercise is a general rule of thumb for how much stimulation a dog needs per day. This stimulation can be physical or mental. Mental stimulation can be lick bowls, sniffing, training, puzzles or other games. I know this was not the most exciting blog but I hope it was interesting and informative. If you ever want a dog, please educate yourself on your dog's breed, it's tendencies and it's needs. Dogs are awesome companions and I hope you all have a dog or plan to own one! Go bears and have a great week!