4, 3, 2, 1, Solstice!

Happy Solstice everyone. It was an unusual day for late December. The temperature was in the upper 60s, the predicted rain held off until late in the day and we had a good amount of sunshine.

I started the celebration by walking four dogs: Maya, Serena, Trooper, and Diesel. The river is in flood stage and the trails were undoubtedly mired in mud and muck, so we just did our two mile route on the roads at Pleasant Grove. It's a boring walk but someone no one seems to mind. I don't even mind it. It's just nice to be out and moving, especially since we had all been cooped up indoors with yesterday's rain.

This is above the top of the boat ramp in Palmyra. The river
should be on the other side of the near trees and about 10' lower.

The second walk of the day was with three dogs: TJ, Maya, and Serena. TJ hadn't eaten much of his breakfast so something wasn't right with him and it became apparent on the walk. He was really lagging and wasn't enjoying himself, so we cut the walk short and made up the distance on the next one.

I should have left TJ home today because he wasn't feeling
good, but I didn't realize that until we were out walking.
We took a shortcut back to the van.

Maya and Serena both walk with a determined look.

I know now that if TJ doesn't eat well
he doesn't feel well enough to hike.

The third walk was just two dogs: Maya and Coco. We went a little more than two miles to make up the distance we had cut from the second walk. Coco was more than happy to cover the extra ground and would have happily gone even farther.

My fourth walk of the day was another solo walk with just Smokey. Maya had done six miles by that time so she was content to stay home, and I still haven't introduced Smokey to other dogs so I wanted to walk him by himself.

He was better, much better, on the drive up to the park. He barked once or twice when I first put him in the crate, but a small squirt of lemon juice put an end to that. After that he laid down nicely and was quiet on the drive and seemed happy to be going. I has able to put a leash on his regular collar and I also put a slip lead on him so we walked with two leashes, which I prefer with a new dog.

Smokey was pretty good on the walk and he certainly enjoyed himself. Towards the end of it I shortened his lead because I was tired of him circling around me. Then it started to rain a bit and that seemed to make him very anxious. When we got back to the van he was very desperate to get in and then was very difficult when I tried to disconnect and remove the leashes. An older couple happened to be walking past as I was struggling to get the leashes off Smokey without getting bit. They heard me yelling some choice terms at him and probably thought me an awful person, but appearances were not my primary concern at the time. Once again the lemon juice proved valuable in getting him to stop and disengage from his aggressive behavior.

I was encouraged by his improvement at the beginning, discouraged at the end, but mostly I was reminded that this isn't going to be quick fix. This dog has never learned to trust a human being.