OWIEEE! My 1st semi-major injury from him. May it be the worst of many to come. He was chasing a wildly bouncing ball around my legs and jammed a canine into my knee. Didn’t break the skin, but made a darn good dent through a pair of jeans and long johns. I’ll be feeling that tomorrow.
-6 today with no wind. Under that influence I did something incredibly stupid. I set up the kicksled, hitched Spider and Syn to it, and went off down the road. Or tried to go off down the road.
Syn felt the harness, saw the contraption behind her, and knew immediately what she was supposed to do. She looked down the road, dug her toes in, and went off pulling for all she was worth.
Spider on the other hand realized he was having an adventure. He went under the tugline. He went over the tugline. He went through the tugline. He bit the tugline. He bit the kicksled. He bit his harness. He bit Syn’s harness. He bit Syn’s head, neck, muzzle, tail, and feet. Understand that none of this was stressed, it was all in the name of having an adventure.
Finally I got them all straightened out and Syn started down the road again. Spider followed along lollygagging, watching the scenery, looking for cats, and occasionally smelling some bunny poop. Syn was working hard and I was walking behind the sled or riding and kicking (it being a kicksled after all). Occasionally, quite by accident, Spider would catch up and pass Syn. Without even noticing us he’d walk off with me, the sled, and Syn. We did just get used to sliding merrily down the road when he’d suddenly bite Syn again and go back to merrily braiding the tugline.
Syn was not amused. I was not amused. Okay maybe a little amused. Spider had a heck of a good time.
There is good news in here. He’s certainly going to be big enough and strong enough to enjoy kicksledding on a regular basis as an adult. I know that in multiple previous generations of Giant Schnauzers have not only done this but been very good at it and competitive. And I got a lot of exercise today.
The bad news is that even though I did a really ugly things to my shoulder today, I failed to break it, so I will remain on the three-month waitlist rather than jumping to the Urgent list.
In a less exciting moment this morning I did a video of him being shaped to do the 1st part of the obedience Drop on Recall exercise. If I could tell him to lie down at a distance, he’d have the whole thing.