Not so much other than hellos and good-byes and brief chats which I could only half understand. Still, I started to appreciate Swiss-German as a language in its own right (and 'Swissnesses') even though I couldn't speak more than two words of it.

Having a puppy with you, on the other hand, suddenly brought out ALL the neighbours you'd never met before, and children would pop out of nowhere wanting to be your friend (read: pup's friend).