new skills

Fozzie, Tashi, and Lamar went camping with us this past weekend, and Fozzie went swimming for the first time! It was so precious to see him wanting to join us out in the water of the Chesapeake Bay, off a gorgeous beach in Westmoreland, VA, but scared to venture out, then launching forward with paws a'flappin, swimming out, then quickly back. He didn't venture out near as often as Tashi and Lamar, but we were proud of him!

We left Lars here in the care of Karin, the one-woman rescuing machine who has been sponsoring the Lars endeavor since he showed up. The young man did well. I missed him, but could not have imagined having 4 dogs in the hippie van with us!

Last night, I put Lars in his crate for a time out from the constant romping with Fozzie. Lars settled in nicely for sleep, and Fozzie was pretty tired out too--but Fozzie lay down next to the crate and stuck his nose between the bars to kiss Lars. He then lay down next to the crate and fell asleep with his paw inside so he could be touching his friend.

Other new skills:

1. Fozzie has made some breakthroughs in loose leash walking. The other night we went walking with Tashi and Lamar, and just like I tell my students, every time Fozzie's leash went tight we just stopped in our tracks. Tashi and Lamar are natural loose leash walkers, so I think Fozzie knew that he was the cause of the holdup. Pretty quickly, Fozzie was looking back at me and relaxing his pull every time we stopped, at which he got a treat, a happy "Good boy!," and we proceeded on our merry way.
   
2. Lars had his first junk food! We shared an entire bag of Chex Mix with Tashi and Fozzie on the porch one evening. Well on his way to becoming a well adjusted all-American dog. Better he doesn't inherit all of his foster mom's countercultural tendencies....
   

Lamar swimming off Port Townsend, WA

These two...a lot of work but a lot of rewards too.