A very doggie day

Max and Theo have been getting the short end of the exercise stick lately so I tried to make it up to them this morning with a round of ball playing and romping in the pasture. Duggan tagged along because I wanted him tired out before the Green Dogs adoption event that we went to later in the morning.

Max on the left, Theo in the center with two balls in his
mouth, and that's Duggan on the right.

Duggan has a small injury near his left eye, which I am pretty sure was courtesy of Max. It garnered him extra sympathy and attention at the adoption event, and probably made me look like a bad foster. A couple young women volunteered to give Duggan a bath, which he certainly needed. It was his first bath experience and in the end it took four of them to get it done. He survived the trauma, however, and he now looks and smells much better. The best thing for Duggan was meeting his adopters, a nice young couple who had submitted an application and hopped in the car to come meet him today upon hearing that he would be at the event. We are working out the details of when and where, but I hope to make the adoption happen some day this next week.

Duggan reached his limit after two hours and I had too. We left as I had some errands to run in Charlottesville before heading home. He zonked out in his crate and was so quiet that at one stop I opened the rear door to check on him. Apparently a good run in the pasture, followed by two hours of solid social activity in public, and a bath, is enough to wear him out.

When we got back home I put him in a kennel by himself in the hope of keeping him relatively clean, then I loaded up Maya and TJ to head out for a hike. We got in a good five miles and TJ held up well thanks to the cooler weather. It was a good, full day of dog stuff.

Theo may not be thrilled about playing the role of puppy
sitter, but he's everything a shepherd pup could want in a big
 dog brother. He's much better at it than Max.

Duggan ran after the ball, but he had no real chance of getting
it with Theo around, if he could even see it. Mostly he ran
after Theo, but I handed him a ball a couple of times too.

Duggan meeting his new adopters.

The cooler weather meant that TJ could handle 5 miles today.