A Good Night's Sleep

What a difference a good night of sleep can make! When I came down on Monday morning Obi was dancing around with Chima and Sal and ready to go outside. I opened the gate and out he ran, jumping up on me and trying to get some pets from me. Who was this dog? He was like a completely different guy - confident, relaxed, and acting like a normal dog.

On the hunt for a good place to pee - maybe on Frodo's favorite spot?

Sniffing a mint plant

I let them outside and off he went to explore, regularly checking back in with me to make sure I was still there. When I sat down on the deck with my coffee. He edged up next to me to get some pets and seemed to prefer to hang out with me than to be out sniffing for critters like the rest of the dogs.

Checking in with me after Tilly yelled at him

He met tiny old Tilly and when she snapped at him to get out of her way, he jumped back and decided to keep his distance from the cranky old lady.

Watching Chima snarfing bird seed off the ground

Standing tall, back straight and his nub and ears are up.

When we were inside and I was checking email on the couch he curled up next to me and when I pet him he rolled over for a belly rub.

He's still a skittish guy. New things scare him and he startles easily, but he's decided he is safe here and I'm trustworthy. Now we'll work on building up our "trust account" so that when I have to take him to the vet for a check up and a Rabies vaccine in a week and a half he will have some security. There will be a  history of my behavior being gentle and kind that he can start to rely on as my baseline behavior. Be sure to watch the trust account video because it really is the basis for all that I do with my dogs. To learn and to try new things there must first be a trust between the learner and the teacher. So the first lessons that a new dog is learning is that he can trust me.

We will also start with some vet prep training games too so that hopefully he will come away from his visit a happy boy.