The Canine Quartet

It's been a while since I walked four dogs together. We went out in the dead of day, just around noon. It was too late for morning walkers and too early for the after school runners, walkers, and the soccer crowd. There was no one around and that was perfect for walking Maya, Serena, Coco, and TJ. Coco pulls more than anyone else in this group. It would be different if Maya saw a deer, but that's not likely at this time of day. I don't know where Serena got her leash manners, but they are very good, aside from occasionally walking in front of me so that I step on her feet and almost stumble over her.

Coco goes to the vet on Thursday to start her heartworm
treatment. I hate to put her through it, but we've got to get it
done so she can be spayed so she can be adopted.

TJ is the Sam Elliott of the dog world. He gets
older and still looks so very fine.

Not a particularly good picture of either Maya
or Serena, but it shows them right up against
each other and both are fine with it.

It was hard to get all four dogs in one picture, much less get
them all lined up and looking the same way. This is about
our best effort at the group photo.

Improving adoption prospects

I had been leaving Clyde and Cooper out in the dog yard shed at night. They were fine together, the weather is fine for it, and it was two fewer dogs I had to move at night and in the morning. But I need to get Cooper accustomed to being crated and accustomed to being separated from Clyde, and Clyde needs house and crate manners. So we brought them in last night. Clyde went into the giant Dane crate in the kitchen and he's good in there all night. Cooper spent the night in a crate in the office next to Coco and he complained for about 30 minutes last night before finally quieting down and going to sleep. Once he did, he was fine all night.

I took them on the walk today to reinforce the leash manners as well. Both got a Gentle Leader and they were fine with them after the first few minutes anyway. I think I'm becoming a convert to the Gentle Leader. I walked both dogs and had no significant pulling. I like a dog who pulls when we are on an uphill trail, but we were walking flat ground and the object of the walk was to get them used to the Gentle Leader and to learn to walk nicely.

I actually got in two walks today, first with the three girls (Maya, Serena, and Coco) and then with the trainees, Clyde and Cooper. It was a gorgeous day, clear blue sky, no humidity, perfect temperature for walking.

Getting a handle on Clyde

Clyde has been on the back burner for a while now. He was in rather rough shape when he arrived so I knew he'd take some time to get ready for adoption. There's been a lot of dogs coming through here lately and most of them have jumped over Clyde in the line because they were ready, or almost ready, for adoption whereas Clyde was not. But Clyde's day is coming.

He has pretty much shed out all of his old, dead, sunburned coat and he's got a new, sleek black coat, although he needs a bath to really make it show and shine. He also still needs to gain some weight, at least 15 pounds I would say. All the running really burns off calories and although I've started re-worming him today,  I should have done that at least a couple weeks ago. The biggest hold up with Clyde, however is his manners. He's wild, unruly, and jumpy, particularly now that he's feeling good and is full of energy. I can deal with that around here, but it's not exactly a quality that adopters look for in a dog. He didn't even know "sit" until Cooper came along and taught it to him. After starting Cooper on the Gentle Leader yesterday I decided it was time to do the same for Clyde today.

I got it on him and walked around the yard a little to make sure it was secure. Then I loaded him into the van, along with Maya, and we went for our daily two miler. I was surprised that Clyde didn't fight the Gentle Leader more than he did. I was expecting flailing paws and the alligator death roll in an effort to get that thing off his face, but he seemed to settle down and accept it pretty well.

We had a nice walk with Clyde on a short leash right next to me. The only problem was that Maya usually walks in that spot and she kept trying to push Clyde out of the way. I finally convinced Maya, more or less, to let Clyde have that spot at least for today.

I wasn't taking any chances with the Gentle Leader so I also
put a leash on his martingale collar although I never needed it.

His coat looks pretty good, but he needs more meat under it.

I don't really care for the look of the Gentle Leader on
the dog's face, but it sure does make him easy to walk.

Clyde now does a pretty fast "sit" when you are
holding a food dish above his head.
Cooper taught him that, I can't claim any credit for it.

Sunny Sunday

Coco

Beautiful day. I did an early morning walk with the three girls. Then Cooper met his prospective adopter. I think that will work out well, but I'll have him for a few more days. I got in a second walk with Maya and TJ, and Cooper wearing his new Gentle Leader. Then a run in the pasture.

Serena

Serena and Maya

Serena, Maya, and Coco

Back in the van to go home.

Cooper with his new Gentle Leader. He really
didn't fight it much at all.

Cooper and TJ

Max

Cooper and Clyde

Theo, Clyde, and Cooper

Max in front, Clyde and Cooper in the rear.

The Daily Dogs

Theo and Max

If you look at the blog archive, you'll see that I probably average about 20 posts per month this year. About a week agt I noticed that I've been posting every day in the month of October. I think the only other month I've had one post for each day of the month was back in April, 2012. I don't feel the need to do it every day necessarily, but with 10 or more dogs around here, there's generally no lack of material for a daily post. So I'm going to try to keep up the daily rate through the end of October.

Theo and Serena, heading in opposite directions.

Today the rain stopped so I took six dogs out to the pasture to run and play: Trooper, Theo, Cooper, Max, Serena, and Clyde. I walked instead of riding the mower today, which resulted in better pictures because I wasn't moving even if the dogs were, and most of them tended to follow me around, more or so, in a pack walk. The exception is Trooper, of course, who spent most of his time out at the front fence along the road.

The utility pole is an important meeting place.

Cooper (front left) and Serena (right corner).

Serena was quite playful out there today, but she
still didn't want to engage in Clyde's style of play.

I discovered some round worms in her the other
day and she's just finished the three day cure.
I hope she will begin to put on some weight now.

This is probably my best picture of Serena to date. You can see that
her tail is tipped in black with just a tiny bit of white at the very end.

L to R: Theo, Serena, Max, Clyde, and Cooper

Serena chasing Cooper.

I managed to lure Trooper away from the front fence to join us on part of the walk around the
pasture. He's been here for years but I bet there's parts of the pasture he's never seen.