Catching Up: Old guys walk; Young ones romp; Xmas; Four dog hike; Rainy day; Barkbox; Serena's first sit

Stick with me here, this is a wide ranging post covering several days and several subjects -- none of it earth-shattering, but all worthy of a few pics.

Back before Christmas we actually had a string of about four or five days without rain. Although the ground was still saturated, the standing water was almost gone and the mud was finally beginning to dry up. One such day I took Maya out on a hike with the old guys, Trooper and TJ. We did three miles, which is pretty good for the old men, and most of it was on the trails in the woods, avoiding muddy areas as much as possible.

After the walk, I took some of the other dogs out to the pasture for a run. I threw the ball for Theo several times, but mostly I rode around on the mower to get the dogs to run with me for exercise. It's really good exercise for Diesel because the follows the mower everywhere, biting at any of the tires or the rubber discharge cover.

Diesel has a thing for the mower.

Nice picture of Max

Theo, Serena, and Max

Christmas came and went. Clay's mother lives in Charlottesville and that's where we go. His brother, Hugh, came in from New York for several days. Maya went into town with us both Christmas eve and again the next day.

Hugh came out to the house with me on
Christmas day to meet Sweet Serena.

I went back to work the day after Christmas, which I found difficult since I had been off most of the time since Thanksgiving. On Thursday I was needing a break and headed out on the trails with four dogs: Maya, Serena, Coco, and Diesel. They all walk pretty well, none of them really pull very much, but four dogs is a lot. It makes for a lot of leash handling and dog wrangling, trying to keep everyone moving with a minimum of leash entanglement.

I held two leashes in each hand for the most part, so I had few photo opportunities and never got a picture of them facing me. We all got a good amount of exercise in the three miles that we walked, and that's really what it's all about.

The mud holes in the yard were almost dry and the ground was no longer sloshing when I walked on it, so of course it rained again on Friday. I had nine dogs in the house all day while I was working.

Coco and Theo

Sparky stays upstairs most of the time.
If he comes down it means he needs
to go outside and/or wants to eat.

Coco and Diesel in front, Theo in the back.

We moved the giant Dane crate up to my office, so there's
three beds in the kitchen now. Coco, Theo, Serena.

Trooper spent most of the day on our bed in
the bedroom upstairs.

Maya, under my desk at my work computer.

TJ is not a cuddly dog, but he always positions himself next
to me when I'm at the computer working.

Great Danes are mostly legs.

Wherever Coco is, that's where the action is. She's so small
we call her "the wee one" but she will take on three or more
of the big dogs at once when they play.

One day in the week before Christmas, I received a BarkBox. I don't know who sent it, but thank you. For those of you not familiar with Bark Box, they ship a box with a variety of dog toys, treats, and games. Lots of people have monthly subscriptions to the service and get something new for their dogs each month. This box was perfect for the rainy day. The toys went to Smokey, one of them so far, I'm saving the other right now. There were also a couple packages of treats.

Theo and Maya. Maya learned to hustle treats
at bars without sitting, just using her facial
expressions, usually while standing with her
front paws up on the bar, so she's a pro.

 I don't use treats in our house normally. With 8-10 dogs around most of the time, passing out treats can turn into a feeding frenzy. But I had a need and a use for one package of treats from the Bark Box yesterday - teaching Serena to sit.

Theo and TJ, Serena and Maya on far left and right, respectively.

I don't ask a lot of our personal dogs except to get along and to walk without pulling too hard on a leash. I'm embarrassed to say that although I've had Serena for a few months now, the girl still didn't know a basic "sit" command. Clyde picked it up from another dog at feeding time and he developed a very quick and good sit when he realized it was a condition precedent to getting fed. I feed Serena separately from other dogs so she never really learned it but I was determined to use one of those packages of treats to teach her.

There was a pack of dogs gathered around, Serena, Theo, TJ, Maya, Max, and Diesel. Although I rarely ask them to do it, all but Serena knew how to sit and would do so for the rare treat I was offering. Some were better than others, some were jumpier and mouthier than others, and I eventually had to banish TJ for starting shit with another dog. Serena saw them all sitting and getting treats but didn't seem to get the idea.

What finally worked was holding the treat over her head and backing her into a corner or onto a dog bed where she would naturally sit. We did it a few times and I think she was finally getting the idea. That bag of treats was empty so I declared victory and gave it a rest.

I was very pleased then to discover that she retained the lesson when I went to feed Serena Saturday morning. We were in the shed, I was holding her food dish over her head and had to back her up a bit, but I think the sit came to her easily.

Serena getting her treat after being backed into a corner.

I think this was the moment the light bulb came on in her
head and she finally understood what I wanted in exchange.