In his regular pet store yet again yesterday with his halter on, he was brilliant. Next time we’ll try it without.
So we went to a new shop, and at the cash register there was a Screamer. OH MY GOD I NEVER KNEW THERE WERE BIG ONES! OOOH HE’S SO CUTE! HELLO SWEEEETIEEEE! Oh. My. Gawd. Greeting Dogs 101, lady – NO SCREAMING. No dancing around waving your hands as if your fingers are on fire, no bouncing up and down.
In retrospect, he was actually remarkable sane, although nowhere near sane. With the help of the halter I managed to keep his feet on the floor and, when he seemed incapable of cooperating, to turn him back toward me, get eye contact, and remind him to breathe, after which he turned back and did a pretty good job of saying hello.
Then we walked calmly around the store for half an hour, sniffing dog food and keep “our” noses away from the unwrapped treats. And then… and then… and then I called his name because he was getting too far ahead of me just as we walked by an entire shelf of stacked little cans of cat food, and dear little Ferdinand turned immediately back to see what I wanted, this wiping out the entire shelf with his butt. There were cans everywhere. I tried to help pick up, but I wasn’t much help seeing as how I was trying to keep him from eating the cans and flossing the screamer’s teeth at the same time. After we got them picked up I figured I’d better buy something and then we left.
Today we went to the physiotherapist again. Remarkably, since his last visit two weeks ago, his front feet have straightened out
and on the way home, he spotted some Gigglers (obviously he thought they were kin to the Screamer) in the parking lot:
Sorry about the leash, he caught me by surprise.
We’ve got some stretching and massaging homework to do to keep his front end loose. Apparently galloping through the snow tightens it up.