Teagan's first trip to Minooka

On Monday we took Keeley and Teagan out to Minooka in Waukesha. It was Teagan's first visit to a dog park. We went into the small dog area for Teagan. Keeley came with even though he's not a small dog. The sign says small is 15 inches or shorter. Teagan just has more confidence when Keeley is with her. She really needs to get socialized because she's fearful of other dogs.
When Keeley was a puppy, I read that the way to socialize a puppy is to make sure they meet 100 different kinds of people by the age of 3 months and 100 different dogs by 5 months old. It worked great for Keeley. He loves all dogs. He even loves dogs that don't like him. And with people, well... Keeley loves people as long as they're not walking on crutches or wearing masks or holding umbrellas. It's hard to think of everything, but still I think we did a pretty darn good job with him.
So now we're doing the same for Teagan. She loves people so much that I'm not worried about that goal, but she's super scared around dogs, so that's the goal I'm focusing on. At Minooka, Teagan got to meet about 14 small dogs and she did pretty good with them. She did hide under a bench a few times and sometimes went to her grandma for protection, but she was pretty brave and didn't bark or get her hackle up.
It was a good trip. Both Keeley and Teagan were smiling and had fun.
Continuing with the socialization, today I took Keeley and Teagan to Lake Park. There Teagan got to meet 9 other dogs. They were all bigger and older than her which made her very scared. She positioned herself between my legs most of the time. At first her hackle was up and she growled at any dog that came close to her. I told her that wasn't acceptable and soon she gave it up. After about 20 minutes she started to get more comfortable and would run off after Keeley every now and then. She let out a scream 3 times when she felt like a dog had gotten too close to her and then she'd run back to me for protection. I don't know why she's so fearful of other dogs but I'm going to stick with the socialization goal and hopefully she'll get over her fear. I think she's met about 41 dogs so far, not including Keeley. There is still another 3 weeks or so before she's five months old so we'll keep working on it.