Well my mum and dad enrolled me with the Puppy Party which is held at my local vet. 
Inglis Veterinary Centre Dunfermline. 
This is run by the veterinary nurses Nikki and Leeann in the evening and is held in the waiting room after the practice closes. 

This is free for puppies registered with the practice and is held one night a week for four weeks and lasts an hour each night. 
It is available for puppies aged from 8 to 26 weeks, who have had their first vaccination. 
On my first night I met Nikki who was assisted by young Jenny a trainee veterinary nurse.
There are other parties for older dogs as well.

Our owners are given a talk by Nikki the veterinary nurse about the course.
The first thing she stressed was not to be worried if we puppies made a mess on the floor, as it would be cleaned up straight away.
Next all puppies are introduced to one another, then we are passed round to different mums and dads, they are told to move their hands over our legs, body, ears and give us a good handling and petting to help us to socialise with people.

Here is Peter making friends with Roxy the Boxer puppy. Peter is a big lovable softie of mixed breed. 
We all had a tour round the practice we pups as well, we were shown the operating rooms and recovery rooms and saw some dogs resting overnight.
There was even a big swan that had a shotgun wound. Inglis Vets also care for some of the wildlife that have been rescued by our local Scottish SPCA Wildlife Centre at Middlebank situated between Dunfermline and Inverkeithing.

I made friends with Tess a lovely Jack Russell puppy, we played together during the four weeks as we are small dogs.
On this our first night Tess was a bit timid to start with and Spud was wary of people. Peter was a gentleman and friends with everyone. Roxy was very boisterous and wanted to make as many friends as he could, all at the same time. I wasn't shy at all as Anne my breeder had brought me up with a Collie a Yorkie, all the Lhasa grown ups and a cat. 

All of us were weighed on the tables in the consulting rooms and Nikki always passed her trained eye over us. We all had a play session.
Our owners were given talks about our feeding and exercise and given packets of food, graded to the size of the puppy, along with information sheets prepared by the nurses.
We were all given a task to perform the next week and Nikki showed our mums and dads how to get us to do this with a treat.

Peter, Roxy and Spud played together most of the time and I played with Tess. The bigger pups would bowl me over with their long legs as they played.
Afterwards we all had to perform our sit command and then we were given another task for the following week. Nikki showed us how to do the lie down on command, again using a treat.

On our third week we were greeted with a different nurse Leeann along with Jenny. This time our mums and dads were given advice on pet insurance. This is important as more and more hi-tech treatments are available for animals in these modern times.
I already had 6 weeks free insurance with the Kennel Club and my dad made a mistake. Inglis Vets also give new puppies 4 weeks free insurance with Pet Plan and dad wanted this to run after my KC one had expired, but he forgot to tell Inglis this and they insured me automatically after my first vaccination.
My dad intended to use Pet Plan anyway, he said that I needed life long cover. This means that if I am unfortunate to have an accident or illness and that condition requires veterinary treatment in following years, I am covered, as long as dad renews the premiums when they fall due and my vaccinations are kept up to date. 

Dad had done internet searches on all the dog insurance policies from the big supermarkets, high street stores and most of the ones advertised on the TV. 
He said they were all cheaper, but when he read the small print in their terms and conditions, I would only be covered once for an illness and excluded should this illness happen in future years. 
Most of the pet shops and veterinary practices recommend Pet Plan.

Spud joining in with me and Tess.

Next our owners were told about the benefits of having dogs microchipped.
It is a small chip the size of a grain of rice coated with the same material as used in human pacemakers, which prevents rejection by our animal bodies and contains an identification number.
This is inserted under our skin at the back of our neck and when scanned shows our owners details in the national dog database. 
This means that if we become lost or even stolen, we can easily become reunited with our mums and dads. 

Also as members of the puppy party, our owners receive a £5 discount from the normal microchip fee.

We once again performed the task we were given last week, the lie down and then had a long play session.
Finally we were shown the stay command and this was demonstrated by Leeann's own dog. 
Gee whiz you must be joking, I can't stay still for half a second.

This photo above was my last night at the party. It was nice to meet with children over the past four weeks, as there are none in my home. 
Peter, Roxy and Spud were playing together, I had just come back from having my microchip inserted and was looking for Tess, but she had already gone to one of the consulting rooms. 

Stay command each puppy had to do this command, away from the group further up in the reception.
I couldn't do it, but I foxed them all, my dad said to everyone that I would not be able to, so I did the sit and lie down commands with a treat and was then told to Stay. 
No one was more surprised than mum and dad, I actually stayed. Nikki said that was fine, we only have to stay 5 to 10 seconds at this early stage. 
I'm not stupid you know, the reason I stayed was that I was not walking back to join the rest of the puppies with a treat in my mouth. No way man!.

Yes I am looking at you dad and I am paying attention. Are you sure Nikki told you I have to learn all these things.

You can't be serious!.

I have to be taught more training from these two books. The RSPCA Dog Training Manual by Bruce Fogle the vet on BBC Radio 2.   And the The Perfect Puppy by Gwen Bailey and both books are available in local libraries.  Click on the books to find out more.

Three of My Favourite Links Below

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