At the cabin

May 23, 2008

We’ve had Kruiser for 4 days. It seems like a lot longer. He’s definitely house trained. We’re up at the cabin and even up here he’s great at going outside. Don’t know if he knows to ask to go out yet—we tend to take him out every couple of hours. He’s so sweet and loves people and cuddles. He’s also very responsive to his name and to following what’s expected of him. The only time he’s been devilish at all since we got him was back in town when I had him and Pat on long leads outside, tied to the stair railing while I gardened. Kruiser started to deconstruct the broom, but it was definitely out of boredom.

We went to training on Wed. night and learned how to get him to sit, down, stand, and how to ask for a come (just as he gets near, so it’s the last thing he remembers). Ed was even convinced that the prong collar, actually called a self-correcting collar, isn’t as inhumane as it looks—the prongs only exert pressure, not pain. I tried it on him today and he seemed very okay with it and he did stop tugging, not that he tugs a lot.

He’s now been to Safeway in Fraser twice. The first time was right after a long nap on our way up to the mountains and he was perfect (and sleepy!). Both Ed and I went in. The second time was today and I had him by myself. He was good about sitting when we stopped, but wouldn’t hold it if I took a long time finding what it was I was looking for. But he was great with people and not getting distracted by the food itself. I also took him into Alpine Physical Therapy, knowing how much everyone there like dogs, and he was made a big fuss over. My old physical therapist was working with a grade school age girl. Kruiser was initially a little afraid of her, but pretty quickly he let her pat him and tug on his ears.

A fun thing Deborah had us do with him (and Pat) was for them to go through a kid’s play tunnel and up into a playground structure and down slides. Kruiser was definitely the leader on this, first time through needing a little coaxing, but then going back and forth just for the fun of it. Today we even went down a spiral slide. I had to go with him because at first he wanted to get out and would possibly have jumped over the side from up high. Don’t know if he really liked it as much as he clearly liked the tunnel, but he was very willing. Oh, and at home yesterday after working with him and Pat, I put chairs together to make a sort of tunnel and he immediately went back and forth. Definitely a fun thing for him. Unfortunately, Pat didn’t fit.

Now have Kruiser working on a nylon bone—he’s definitely teething and without this he goes after sticks. It looks like he spits out the bits, but we aren’t sure so figure the nylon bone is better. And unlike the meat bones, Pat isn’t interested in this. The Mountain Dawg dog store is closed for the long weekend so couldn’t buy a Kong.

Are we getting attached to him? Yes. He’s too cute and sweet not to, but every day I think about the child he will one day help. I think if we can also keep that in sight we won’t get to the point where we can’t give him up. Besides, we have signed a contract saying that we will, though Deborah says we will have first right of refusal if he’s a “career change” dog.