The good – Ron reports that Spider and Syn were out rolling and wrestling in the alfalfa this morning, ripping and tearing (in a good way). That’s thrilling because Syn is afraid of other dogs in a fun-police way, she has very few friends and wants to be sure anybody who comes within 5′ of her is capable of behaving properly. Life would be fine for Spider whether Syn likes it or not (she’s not a killer stalker), but life will be great for Syn if she thinks he’s a friend.
Also he’s doing an amazing job of sitting while I deliver meal dishes to other dogs. One thing I really want each of my dogs to know is that when another dog gets a treat, it’s a pretty good bet they’re going to get one too. Guarding isn’t necessary. ANY dog getting a treat is a GOOD THING.
The bad – first thing this morning he jumped in the recliner with me, grabbed my foot in his very gentle maw, and then fell off the recliner, which twisted his head (and his teeth) in unintended directions. No stitches required at least.
The ugly – am I going to have to start carrying a flashlight to be sure I can tell the difference between beard-wipes and puppy dribbles? Or I could always just stop and smell my wet feet…
Had his second shaping lesson this morning. Got a really good head turn to the left (towards his open crate door) with almost no head turns to the right, then once he ended up on the other side of the crate and gave me a very deliberate head turn toward the crate from there. That was exciting.
And for more excitement, we went outside to get in the truck to go into town. I opened the truck door and his crate door and we went off on adventures of his own. The honeymoon is over. He’s discovered that four legs can go faster than two and that there better things to do than going in the truck crate, thank you very much. So now when we go out the front door, he goes on a leash until he’s trained enough to come when he’s called out in the yard.
Clever lad – I got a salad from Wendy’s for supper and told him not to stick his nose in it, so instead he climbed up with me on the recliner, then managed to climb up beside me and ended up draped over my head ostentatiously not putting his nose in my salad.
And tonight (after he peed on the floor because puppies can’t pee outside when it rains) for the first time he went into his crate when I asked him to without a bribe.
And, I guess I can officially say he’s staying, because Ron and I went out this afternoon on the first leg of our search for a bigger car for the bigger crate we’re going to need for our bigger dog…
Toyota Highlander in the running
Subaru Outback stalled at the starting gate with no rear climate control.