Sunday hikes with dogs

Clay has been sitting with Zachary in the front room all day.  That's Zach's favorite thing to do.  His condition is unchanged as far as I can tell.  I'll make an appointment with the vet for Tuesday for an assessment.

I didn't want to go far from home today because of the need to care for Zachary so I skipped the adoption event up in Gainesville but I didn't really have anything else I particularly had to do.  So today was the day to hit the trails again with my personal trainer, Sparky.  I don't go into the woods during tick season but we've had a few freezes now so I decided it must be safe.  Sparky was ready and willing and we had a good hike, not too long, maybe a little less than an hour.  Sparky hadn't been out there in a while so he had a lot of sniffing and marking to do.  Oddly, he had no interest, zero, in any of the piles of horse manure we passed on the trails.

I came back home, puttered around for a while, and then went back out with Max.  It was the best experience I've had with Max.  It was just him and me, and I think that is important for him.  He gets overstimulated in a crowd of dogs and just goes crazy.  Also, he's been taking Prozac for a month now and I think it has made a difference.  He doesn't do nearly as much tail chasing and even when he does he isn't doing the hysterical screaming.  I've actually observed him interacting normally with other dogs in the dog yard.

On the trails with me today there was no trace of the high strung, neurotic Max.  He barked at some horses we encountered on the trails, but it was a bark, not a scream, and he never went into tail-chasing mode.  The right placement for him would be a relatively quiet home, one man/one dog, no small dogs or cats, and no screaming children.  Max also did quite a bit of sniffing and marking, but unlike Sparky, Max was quite interested in the horse manure.

Between the two walks I probably covered six miles.  I will sleep well tonight.