Learning to Dog

While I was in Kansas, Clay was feeding Smokey twice a day. He was still in Sparky's old kennel and shed by himself and Clay told me that Smokey was beginning to come up to him, jump up on him, wanting attention.

That told me he was ready to move on to the next step. Also, he started getting destructive in the shed, just out of boredom, pulling stuff down that he could reach, that sort of thing, but not really chewing anything up.

So I started moving him to the dog yard during the day with Max and Theo, and sometimes Trooper. For the past week or so I've been bringing him into the house at night, to a crate in the kitchen. He loves the crate, but he was still barking ferociously at any dog that walked by. He was fine in the dog yard during the day, but Max and Theo play that barking game between them, and that was just feeding the behavior I don't want in Smokey.

Today I decided to keep Smokey indoors during the day. He followed the other dogs upstairs without too much urging and just hung out with us in the office during the day. He didn't take up residence in any of the open crates, but instead just laid under my desk or on the floor nearby. He came up to me for petting and attention. He needed more encouragement to go back down the stairs, but I think he will learn it quickly enough.

I took Maya and Smokey out for a walk around noon. He did less barking in the crate in the van than in the past, particularly on the way home. We had a good walk. Later in the afternoon I took out Smokey again, this time with Serena. He should be a tired dog tonight. It wasn't a perfect day, behavior-wise, but I saw enough improvement and progress to feel encouraged.

Maya has spotted or heard something in
the bushes here. Check out her tail. It's
curved in at least three directions but it
ends up pointing straight up.

Smokey stopping for a drink in
a shallow stream.

I do like the looks he was giving me today.

Serena spotted her first deer today. Smokey didn't seem them but got excited anyway.