New friends, old friends

Trinity and I are making progress. Today she would come up to me on her own and allow me to reach out and pet her, at least when she wanted it. These pics are from a 6.5 mile hike I did with her on Thursday, late afternoon. She was a bit wild and spooky in the beginning, but she settled down and enjoyed it. She didn't really pull at all, in fact she was often walking beside me and even looking up at me. That was nice. I had two leashes on her, however, a short attached to a choke chain, and a 4' lead attached to a snug martingale collar. I wasn't taking any chances.

I had thought that I would take her to the Pet Expo up in northern Virginia on Saturday, but Clay is working and we've got people coming out to rebuild part of the foundation for the house (part of the dining room floor repair project) so I need to stick around. While I was hiking with her yesterday my cell phone rang and it was her former owner calling to check up on her. He was a decent guy and moving in with one's in-laws is not something you do unless there's no better options.

Friday afternoon I drove out near Crozet to meet Zeus, another potential owner surrender. Nice enough people but they are in over their head with this dog. He's less than two years old, so he's really still a puppy because shepherds don't hardly start to mature mentally until they are at least two. He's aggressive towards strangers but it's really just fear and ignorance on his part, I think. He's too young and inexperienced to be in charge but he seems to think he's in charge of security. That's one of the dangers of raising a protective dog like a shepherd in the country where they are the only dog and the only people they really know are their own family.

I threw a ball for a him a few times and that's all it took to be his friend. I walked him on a leash and he was a bit skeptical of me at first but he followed and we had no problem. He's well trained, lives with children, and really has a lot going for him, but he needs an experienced shepherd person to guide him, and probably an alpha female pack member to keep him in line.

He's not in an urgent or desperate situation by any means so I left him there for now and will try to work on a plan to get him to a shepherd person.

Daphne and her mom live in Crozet so I stopped by there for a visit after meeting the shepherd. It was a beautiful day but I had no time for a hike. I hope to get one in tomorrow morning before the foundation repair work begins.