First thing in the morning, we go for a very long walk. Some lawns, some forest. He’s very good on leash. When I tap it, he comes right back for a treat. Now that I’m awake enough to look at him, Ron was right. He’s grown a lot. Surely he wasn’t this big the last time I saw him!
And I see that he and Stitch have come to a meeting of the minds on whether or not he can bite her tail:
That’s a big ol’ scab. I guess he’s lost his official Puppy License!
We had a good time on our walk. We practised all sorts of things – loose leash, coming when called, name recognition, whether he can walk on the other side of a light post from me (he can’t), whether he can climb over fallen logs (he can). Only one thing gave him pause – the bright white jagged stump of a fallen tree looked pretty suspicious. He was approaching it slowly, so I went ahead and touched it and he followed me right up and gave it a good sniff. I put some treats on it to cement his victory in his mind. He ate rocks and pine cones and pine needles and grass and wood and what was probably a very young poplar and a dry rotten old log. Then we found a picnic table and did some work on sits and downs and relaxing on his side on a table for handling.
He was (thankfully) tired when we got back to the trailer and ready for a nap. I bought a very large bone yesterday when I was getting groceries. I let Syn work on it while he was asleep. By the time he woke up she had the cap off the femoral head so I gave that to him, which kept him quiet until he needed a short walk and another nap.
Having a puppy in a trailer is a good idea, since he can’t get too far from me and I don’t have to keep him on a leash. Also he’s right in front of me all the time so I can’t forget to take him outside. Plus every time he goes out he’s on leash so I get to use my cue (Go Outside, Go On, Hurry Up).
The stream now reaches his front legs, but he’s usually pretty good about aiming between them…