When Christine Dame and her dog, Vie, visited a busy Derryfield Park in Manchester on Sunday morning, the mixed-breed dog nervously sat at the edge of the parking lot for a while, reluctant to join the other dogs and their owners on the grass.

Dame adopted Vie as a rescue dog through an animal shelter when Vie was around 3 years old. Despite growing more comfortable with her new owner, Vie sometimes grows tense around strangers, and there were many new people and dogs in the park.

Vie started to visibly relax when they were joined by some of the friends who they met through the K9 Adventure Club’s walking group. They happily joined a group of about 30 people on a trip toward the nearby Weston Observatory.

According to the Animal Humane Society, socializing dogs — especially from an ear

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