Yesterday was a lot of fun for little guy (Duco) he got to go to the
zoo.

I know some of you live out in the country and it is trivial for your
dogs to meet every animal they are likely to meet in their lives, but for
those of us that live in big cities and have relatives in country it
very handy to get to expose a puppy to a bunch of animals so he doesn't
freak out later.

There are two Zoo's in town, one in former West Berlin (that does not
allow dogs and had a bear escape two weeks ago) and one in the former
East that does allow dogs on leash.

Duco loved the park, there was so much to sniff.  His favorite animal
were the Prussian Sheep (pretty small standard looking sheep), though I
wouldn't let him put his nose up against the fence.  He really wanted to
play with these sheep.  He did the whole jumping around with his front
paws extended in play position.  The sheep were interested in him as
well.  His second favorite exhibit was the Gibbons.  They were the only
animal behind glass that he showed interest in.  The Gibbons also would
look at him, but he didn't know what to make of them.

The animal that was most interested in him on the other hand were the
Singing Dogs or the New Guinea wild dogs.  They look a lot like Dingos,
they both came from the other side of their area to stare at Duco, he
ignored them and wanted to eat the ground.  This was his first
experience with bark mulch and he thought it was like walking on one
giant food bowl and he just couldn't figure out where to start eating.

He was most frighted by birds.  First a bunch of very small brightly
colored birds that were singing like crazy and flying around madly.  He
was nervous until we picked him up and let him look inside better then
he was interested and his head kept following the birds.  The other
scary birds were giant pink back pelicans (this is a 9kg bird (20lbs)
that is 1.7m (5.5 feet) long) when they would flap their wings.

He also of course was excited to meet other dogs.  The funniest one was
a miniature wire-hair dachshund that was pulling his older owner around
and looked like he was on a very important mission to run to Duco, but
when he got close he slowed down gently sniffed Duco's nose and before
Duco could figure out how to ask him to play, the Dachshund bolted off
towards the Kangaroos, and when he would pull on his leash he would look
back at his owner as if too say "why are you taking so long?" and bolt
off again.

Many people were amazed at how well Duco walked on his leash for being
12 weeks old.  I just think people are too tolerant of pulling and impatient
to teach their dogs how walk well on a line.

We were there for a good 4 hours.  We took breaks, brought some water so
he could drink regularly, and food as he is still on a 3 times per day
feeding schedule.  He got home and slept well.  

I highly recommend taking your dog to the zoo (as long as the dogs don't
outnumber the people!) if you have the opportunity it is pretty fun.  At
first the smells and sounds are overwellming but that faded pretty fast.

We have a picture we me and him and some bears in the background.

http://parts-unknown.com/gallery/duco/DSCN4265

-- 
-R*S
                                   Berlin, Deutschland
Robin * Slomkowski                 schipperke@s.rslomkow.org
Duco, 11.06.2004                   http://duco.parts-unknown.com