What are you and your dogs up to today? Part 2

[JudyN]

Well done Honey Jasper's great at recalling to other people's whistles - he's usually there a long time before their dogs return to them, convinced that as he won, he should get the treat. Of course, it doesn't help that they usually give it to them

[MPbandmom]

Yay Honey! Such a cute picture!

We had a rather unique, somewhat annoying, somewhat hysterically amusing walk at the park behind the house this evening.

It is one of those lovely fall evenings where everybody wants to get out with their dogs. We were fine until heading up the hill into the park where a group walking a dog was coming straight towards us. Dodge to the middle of the parking lot. Sky did reasonably well, but Sirius who was further back and not doing as well, kept freaking Sky out. Every time Sirius would vocalize at the other dog, Sky would whip around as if to see what was the matter and back Sirius up. Then I would have to refocus Sky's attention to walking on.

I assumed the group was heading out of the park, but no, they were simply making a loop around the parking lot and then came up behind us. We encountered them a couple more times during our walk. They may have been trying to socialize the dog but my two certainly weren't good candidates to give their dog a good experience and one would think that as many times as we dodged them, they would stop planting themselves directly in our pathway.

The hysterical moment came when we were passed by a jogger on the trail. I went Gee and OH went Haw. OH's haw, took him to the edge of one of the rainwater collection spots in the park. Totally dry as we haven't had much rain lately, but containing a cat. Sirius erupted, charging and barking to get at the cat, who just sat there for a while looking at her as if she were crazy. OH and I just looked at each other laughing. Finally OH got enough composure and the cat went out of sight, so we attempted to continue walking. Sky did fine. Sirius was still trying to go back and visit the cat.

Then someone set off fireworks, and that was the end of any happy and excited mood on Sirius' part. Which was really sad to see her go from a perky happy excited dog, to a terrified, panting, tongue hanging out, tail drooping, body tense and semi crouched dog as she tried to drag OH home the shortest route she could think of.

What a range of emotions for a single walk.

[Nettle]

Great news:

Just back from the vet and Avatar Lady's Ominous Lump is benign.

It's been a tense week.

Rejoice with me.

[JudyN]

Yay!!!

[delladooo]

I'm so glad Avatar Lady's okay Nettle. I'm sure you're extremely relieved.

As the nights are getting darker, we're rejoicing that we have fewer awful dog encounters for MiMi to deal with and she's doing well but Laufey hasn't been getting as much real running (mostly as our game is usually fetch which is hard in the dark). A few weeks ago I got a couple lights to make sure they were seen and today I got a light up ball so we're back to playing fetch in the dark. It is quite an amusing game when you're essentially playing with lights!

[mansbestfriend]

Very good news Nettle and Avatar Lady. :happydance:

[MPbandmom]

Great news Nettle! I know you re very relieved.

After days of sunshine and dry, we now have days of rain. Cold, often heavy, rain. Sky seems to love the cold. So much so that she has gone out several times today and just laid down to chill out watching for the squirrels as if there wasn't a drop of water falling from the sky. Silly dog, she also thought we should go for a nice evening walk, which I wimped out on. It is supposed to rain like this another day or two. We did get out yesterday evening while it was misting, but OH later claimed being out in the cold and damp made him feel light headed, so any more walks in the rain will likely be solo on my part.

[MPbandmom]

Weather turned out not as bad as predicted and OH joined me for a walk with the dogs yesterday afternoon. It was still rather misty and the dog park vacant, so after a couple of loops around the park, we stopped by and let the dogs run in the dog park for a little while. (Until somebody else showed up.) We then started to take another loop around the park, but Sirius was done, so we turned around and headed for home. I'm not sure what OH is doing, but whatever it is is seems to be helping him with the walking. We ended up going 2 and a half miles and had we made it around the park again would have had over three.

Sirius was the weak link though and I still need 3 five milers out of her for the DSA traildog titles we are working on. I think she will be able to do it if we have a nice sunny but cool day and stop and rest a couple of times during the walk. Not sure if OH is up for 5 miles yet, but he is definitely getting closer to that distance.

[JudyN]

Hmm, I may have to rethink this treats & impulse control business... I was trimming Jasper's nails yesterday - treats lined up in his view, one clip = one treat - and as he seemed relaxed after doing his front paws, I started on his back paws which he can be more iffy about. I did a few, decided to do just one more, but when I took hold of his toe he leapt up, snarked, and closed his jaws on my hand hard enough to leave very slight marks (which have disappeared overnight).

I was a bit annoyed, but not sure whether to be annoyed at him for not telling me earlier he wasn't happy, (obv. I've never told him off for that) or with me for not reading the signs. But thinking it through, I reckon the combination of knowing he'd get treats, and wanting to be a good boy, meant he was thinking 'ImustbegoodImustbegoodImustbegood' until he couldn't be good any more.

One back toe at a time from now on

[Nettle]

Good call, Judy. We all run out of 'good' at times.

[delladooo]

Laufey and I are off on holiday on Tuesday. We're going down south to visit my cousins, spending four days in Southampton and then going onto Cambridge for three nights too. I'm really excited and it should be a brilliant experience but as it gets closer I'm wondering how he's going to do. He's not about to be left anywhere but I think it's going to be a lot of new in a short space of time. I have a more extensive packing list for him than I do for me and a long line is high on the list! I just hope he's not too excitable.

He's been really good recently so I'm hoping that he will at least be tolerable whilst we're away but I do worry he's going to be too excitable I'd say it should be something I work on with him but I'm not sure where the excitement ends and boundless enthusiasm starts

[JudyN]

Have a lovely holiday, delladoo - you won't be that far from us

We're making great inroads into Jasper's SA. We were out last night till 1am, as OH had a pub gig that didn't start until after the rugby match had finished so went on till midnight. DS2 had been in all evening but in his room. He'd tried to get Jasper to go outside at bedtime but Jasper refused - then just before we got home he must have been desperate to go out and woke DS2, whining, barking and howling at the back door. It's great that he was OK for so long, but means we won't be able to be such dirty stopouts once the DSs finally fledge

We met the most lovely long-haired chi x dachsund this afternoon. He leant into me while I fussed his gloriously soft ears, tried to climb into my lap, and when I gave him a bum scratch his eyes were half closed in ecstasy. I could have happily have popped him in my pocket and taken him home

[delladooo]

Thanks Judy! I'm absolutely awful at geography so I'm just going to rely on the sat nav and hope I get there in one piece

Sounds like you had a lovely evening and Jasper did really well, at least he said he wanted to go out instead of any of the alternatives

[Shalista]

Had a fantastic day with Bax today and its a bit of a long story. He's terrified of enclosed or moving spaces. Hates cars, never was crate trained because he was to scared. Still, he's super high energy and loves to jump (almost 2 yr old rat terrier that's high energy and loves to jump, whoda thunk?) so i took him to agility training. he loves it!.... except the tunnel. he's terrified of it and wont even put a paw in. So the trainer gave us a tunnel to practice with at home and today (half a pound of lunch meat later) Bax FLEW through it! I was so proud of him. Even though its enclosed and rocks and slides he still went through like a champ.

[MPbandmom]

Great news Shalista!

We had a kind of interesting/embarrassing day today.

We took the dogs to the battlefield for a walk, and as the weather is getting a little cooler, chose a more popular portion of the battlefield where we walk through wide open fields and can soak up the warmth of the sun, rather than walking through the shade of the woods at our favorite location.

As we arrived a Boy Scout Troop was preparing for a hike. We got out of the van and OH did a wonderful job of keeping Sirius occupied and not stressed about the presence of so many people. I got Sky out and the Boy Scouts headed out for their hike. One adult stayed behind to collect any stragglers that might appear a bit late. OH was commenting on how our dogs were also scouts. The man asked about petting them and I moved over with Sky as we advised him that Sirius was not one to pet. Man was petting Sky and Sky was loving it. I was explaining about how the dogs can earn badges when someone else walked by with two large dogs. One I would identify as a large black lab the other one was just as large and a lighter color. Have I mentioned that my dogs are dog racist?

Normally Sirius is the one to kick off over other dogs while Sky does a bit of anxious whining. This is not the case where large black dogs are concerned. Both of my dogs started spewing great streams of verbal profanity towards the other dogs. The man jumped backwards with a shocked look on his face. OH was admonishing Sirius that those dogs weren't even paying attention to her, while I was telling Sky over and over again that she was okay, they are going by by. The man kept his distance as we headed out for our walk in the opposite direction where the other dogs had gone.

Our walk went well otherwise. There was one other dog encounter, a highly reactive little white fluffy thing that got out of a vehicle as we were passing by a parking lot at another battlefield tourist attraction. My two totally ignored this little guy who was spewing about as much profanity their way as they had spewed towards the lab. In these instances, I keep the dogs moving while telling them that they are too close, Today, I said that multiple times as that little dog seemed to need them totally out of sight to be okay.