It's important to give young puppies as many new and varied experiences as possible so that they're well-adjusted, curious and adventurous when they go to their new homes.  These were some of Jubilee's puppies (1991) out for a walk at the North Dakota Retriever Club grounds when they were about 5 weeks old.  Keeping the whole litter moving in the same general direction isn't easy.  Eight puppies tend to go in 8 directions.  They're geared for energetic bursts of activity interspersed with the really serious business of eating and sleeping.  Even 1/4 mile is a long way for them.  They follow better when they're tired.  When you stop walking, they lie down.  Given the chance they crawl into your lap for comfort and try to settle in for a nap.  Eventually I think we ended up each carrying an armload of puppies back to the car.   Meanwhile, Jubilee was so happy to be out running, swimming and retrieving and to be FREE of the little beasties for a while.

Back to those gorgeous goldens.