Growl

I have no idea what the problem was, but he sat at the window for a long time this morning uttering a low growl. Once in a while he would bark too. I couldn’t see anything unusual out there. Not even a squirrel. But he saw/sensed something that intrigued him!

http://www.vsocial.com/video/?d=11817

The Face of Innocence

My funny Valentine.

The Flower Dog Strikes Again

With that title, you already know what happened. Daddy came home from a business breakfast with a long white box tied with a beautiful red ribbon. Guinness LOVED the ribbon! Then he LOVED the box top! I arranged the gorgeous red roses in a vase and set them in the den near my desk. While my back was turned, I heard a SPLASH! At least, the vase didn’t break!

Not only did he dump my roses, he chewed on Grant’s Valentine from me, and was into constant trouble all day long! He grabbed scotch tape out of my hand, he snatched socks out of the dryer, tried to eat a book I bought as a gift yesterday, ripped apart a Kleenex box (no Kleenex inside), and pulled a shrub out of the ground – roots and all!

Guin loves Daddy

He climbed up on Daddy! Before I got the camera out, he was sitting on Grant's feet!

Dog Park

This morning, we went for a quick walk on the bike path. We met a friendly dog there, and the two played off leash for a bit! I had to call “Come” about four times before he came bounding, but he did come!

This afternoon was a beautiful sunny day, so I decided to try the nearby doggie park. I rarely took Hershey there, because it usually is a muddy mess. Today I expected it would be frozen. We never experienced more than a dozen dogs there at one time. Apparently, I had never been there on a Sunday. There were at least thirty dogs there – 95% of them large breeds including a Great Dane. Rottweilers, German Shepherds, and the Dane came to greet Guinness as soon as we arrived. They all were friendly. Guinness was excited, submissive, and somewhat overwhelmed exposing his tummy to them in a muddy area. Guinness ran and ran with a Rottweiler and a Bernese Mountain Dog. After about thirty minutes, a new dog arrived – smaller than Guinness with fluffy hair something like a husky. They sniffed each other upon entry, then about a minute later, he attacked Guinness. That was the end of our playtime. Guinness wasn’t hurt, and the other owner expressed concern about Guinness’s well being. Daddy said we should never go to doggie park again.

A Polar Dip

Guinness really needs the opportunity of running free to use up some of his boundless energy. I took him to the little-used, small park in the ravine behind our condo development. He had a wonderful time running, but kept going to the edge of the creek. Each time, I screamed “Come” repeatedly until he finally decided to obey. Eventually the lure of water won out over Mom. He was shocked to discover the water was deep! He had a crazed look in his eyes, so I had to get down on my hands and knees and pull him out of the water and up the one foot creek edge. The dripping water instantly froze into icicles on his fur. He rolled on the ground probably to “clean” himself, but snagged leaves and muck which caked into his pinch collar. I called Grant on our walk home to ask him to have towels, shampoo, and the back door unlocked ready for us.

Gaining control

We couldn’t capture Hershey’s attention when he was a puppy and had to resort to a pinch collar. Last weekend we needed to go to the pet store. Guinness is so excited in such a situation that he is uncontrollable, so we tried using Hershey’s pinch collar. As we got out of the car, we snapped on the collar, then he lunged forward in his normal insuppressible exuberance to race into the store. He immediately stopped, sat, wined, had a very confused look on his little face, and refused to move. If running was going to be painful, he was not eager to run. The trial around the store worked very well! Here's hoping that learned that he is in control of the collar hurting or not.

Yesterday and today, I tried taking him for a walk on the bike path near us using the pinch collar with pretty good success! I put him on a Sit/Stay while a woman and small dog walked past us. He broke his Stay. I did the same thing again when a jogger came along. Same result. Today he was delirious with exuberance when a dog-friendly man came along who wanted to pet him. Sit? You've got to be kidding! Thank heavens, everyone was understanding that he is an energetic, friendly pup.

The only other time Guinness has been on that bike path was with Hershey several months ago. Hershey was not well enough since we have had Guinness to go for many walks, so it only happened once that I took them together. I allowed Guinness be off leash with Hersh on the path. He followed Hersh wherever he went and came running to me when I called him. If only we still had Hersh, Guinness would grow up to be perfect with much less aggravation than the process is going to take without Hersh.

He has a new relationship with me. He LOVES me for talking him on walks! He has been much better in the house this week too. We can see the day coming when he will not have to be confined in the same room with us, but can have some freedom. After writing that, he wandered downstairs by himself. I heard a strange noise. He had taken the top off the box of thirty year old slides and was playing with it! What if he had played with the slides??? :-0 He also grabbed the cardboard tube encasing Grant's Director's College Diploma. The diploma is OK, but he won't win his freedom as soon as I had hoped.

Grade 2 completed

Tonight Guinness was the final class for Grade 2. He performed like a pro!

Here is his Serpentine Walk
http://www.vsocial.com/video/?d=10595

His “Down” on command
http://www.vsocial.com/video/?d=10596

And jumping
http://www.vsocial.com/video/?d=10599